Yay x 3

1. I'm going to Jersey! My mom and I decided to go the last week of September to visit relatives. We'll see the ocean (YAY!--although by that time, it will be much too cold to swim or don bathing suit even, though I will most likely venture a toe in until I can't feel it any longer) and eat. I'm already planning our menu. Hoagies, cheesesteaks, Italian water ice (pronounce wooter ice), panzarottis, more hoagies, Kohr Brother's frozen custard. Oh, my, the things we'll eat. Oh, and the family we'll see. Of course.
2. The braised short ribs on my second try were the delectable comestibles I imagined them to be. Moral: try and try again. Scrape the pot and try one more time. Bang kitchen accessories around and pre-heat the oven one more time. Oh, and a word to the wise (although if they're so wise, why do they need my word?) - don't steam artichokes. Much better to boil them.
3. Um. In my excitement, I forgot. But in the absense of yay number 3, I'll let you know what's coming up tomorrow (or maybe later today): my speaking information. I do speaking for retreats (women's, college, singles) and special events. Tomorrow I'll have more information for those of you who are interested while I'm waiting for my website to get done (which is harder than it looks - that HTML!).

What's for Dinner?

I should have taken a picture so that I could've pointed to it and said, "This is why I shouldn't cook," and you would've understood. You would have seen the inside of a dutch oven--my husband's potjie (pronounced poi-kee) pot--with six charcoal briquet looking things in a 1/4 inch cooled, pockmarked lava substance. That was dinner Friday night. I spent all Friday afternoon preparing this new recipe for braised short ribs (what became the charcoal briquets) in a sauce of chipotles, onions, garlic, ancho chiles, adobo sauce, all in coffee-based liquid. Sounds yummy, huh? Well, since I was cooking mine in a potjie pot rather than a roasting pan, I turned down the heat, added extra water, and cooked it for less time. I steamed artichoke and baked french fries (frozen).
The french fries were delicious. (Although I didn't realize that we were out of ketchup--french fries without ketchup? May it never be.)
Not enough damage control in the ribs.
Undercooked (although edible) artichoke.
We were able to excavate some meat from the charbroiled coating.
On the positive side, I used the leftover chipotle chiles and adobo sauce to make some spaghetti sauce with a kick last night. That turned out well.