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.