Braised Beef Short Ribs

yes, that is a giant bone

After a week of the vegan diet (well, we may or may not have succumbed to a little cheese, shhhh), the hubs and I were ready for a meaty meal. I've been wanting to do beef short ribs for some time now, so it seemed like the perfect time to give it a try. Smitten Kitchen has a great recipe, but it seemed a little too involved for a weeknight, and I didn't want to buy port for the sauce. America's Test Kitchen had a similar recipe, albeit quite a bit simpler, so I chose that one. This is a perfect dinner party meal - it only takes about 30 minutes to get it to the point where it braises in the oven for 2.5 to 3 hours. So you could easily prepare it a few hours before your party, and the house will be full of delicious smells when your guests arrive. Then you just pull it out of the oven and plate it!

I was really happy with how this turned out - the sauce had a great depth of flavor and the meat was oh-so-tender. I served it with Ina's Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and a green salad. The only thing I would do differently next time is trim a bit more fat from the ribs before cooking. The leftovers tasted great the next day, too!

Braised Beef Short Ribs
from America's Test Kitchen

Note: ATK recommends English style short ribs, but I could only find Flanken style. Either style works with the recipe. English are a bit cheaper if you can find them.
Ingredients

6 pounds bone-in English style short ribs, trimmed
Note: this was a monstrous amount for 2 people - I bought about 4 pounds but kept all the other recipe amounts the same - ended up with a little extra sauce but that was fine with me! If you're making it for a party, gauge about 1 pound per person.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped coarse
2 carrots, peeled and chopped coarse
1 rib celery, chopped coarse
9 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp tomato paste
3 cups dry red wine (I used a pinot noir I had lying around)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth (I use Swanson organic)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp dried thyme
3 bay leaves

Directions:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Pat the ribs dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown half the ribs, about 10 minutes, then transfer to a large plate (Note: it took me 3 batches of browning). Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat and repeat with the remaining ribs.

2. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pot and return it to medium heat. Add the onions, carrot, celery, 1/4 tsp salt and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir in the flour and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

3. Stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, tomatoes, thyme, bay leaves, and browned ribs. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook in the oven until the meat is tender, 2.5 to 3.5 hours.

4. Transfer the ribs to a large plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Strain the broth into a large container, let settle for 5 minutes, then skim any fat from the surface using a spoon. (Note: I strained half the sauce and left the other half alone because I wanted the chunky veggies! Not exactly sure why they'd want you to discard all those good veggies.)

yes, we eat in front of our TV. don't judge! :)

Raw Vegan Cheesecake

I'm posting this a little late, but this recipe was the pièce de résistance of Vegan Week! Every year on Good Friday, my church choir has a party to celebrate the hard work we put into the Easter season. This year, I searched online for days to find a dessert recipe that would be both delicious, vegan, and as all natural as possible. I wasn't interested in using silken tofu or any of that crap, so I was thrilled to find a recipe for a raw vegan cheesecake that actually sounded delicious! Here's the recipe for Lemony Cheesecake with berry sauce.

The "cheese" section of this cheesecake is made up of cashews! Soaking them for a couple hours makes them soft enough to process in a food processor. You have to process them for a while, but it's amazing how they come together into a cheesecake-esque consistency!

Instead of making this into one cheesecake, I figured cheesecake bites would be better for a cocktail party. Buy the little baking papers and fill with your batter.

Instead of the berry sauce the recipe calls out, I just finely diced some strawberries and tossed them with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice and some agave nectar. A delicious addition!

These cheesecake bites were a HUGE hit at the party! You really have to try making these... they're easier than "real" cheesecake and much healthier!

A Very Fallible Easter

Somehow, these are the only three photos I managed to take on Easter...likely because I was too busy stuffing my face with that amazing ham and washing it down with several mimosas.

Easter happens to be one of the Fallible Foodies' favorite holiday. Mark was in his element; the perfect host with the perfect spread. I can only take credit for the hash brown casserole, a recipe passed down through generations of my family. It is a very "semi-homemade" recipe: last year I debated trying to substitute the can of cream of chicken soup with homemade chicken stock and heavy cream. My husband stopped me. Some things are just better left alone, I suppose, and this casserole is one of them. I mean, you can't go wrong with that much sour cream, butter, and cheese really.

Other dishes on the spread included Ina's Carrot Salad, Orzo Vegetable Salad with Feta, and a delightful fresh green bean salad. Our friend Alix made a to-die-for Martha Stewart almond cake covered in meringue (pictured above). And of course, the booze flowed heavily. We singers with church jobs certainly deserved it after all that singing.

We're planning to keep up the blog, so keep coming back! We are going to try to post a couple of recipes a week. We welcome your comments and do let us know if you've tried one of our recipes!!! Happy Spring from the Fallible Foodies!!!

Hash Brown Casserole

Ingredients
2 sticks butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups sour cream
2 lbs frozen hash browns (I used Ore-Ida)
1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed corn flakes

Melt butter and mix with soup and sour cream. In another large bowl, mix together the potatoes, salt, pepper, onion, and cheese (use your hands to toss). Stir first mixture into second. Pack into 9x13 inch baking pan. Before baking sprinkle crushed cornflakes over the top. Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

You can prepare this a day ahead (I did) up to the baking step - just don't put the cornflakes on until you're ready to bake! It makes a perfect compliment to ham or an egg brunch dish.

Vegan Recipe FAIL - Why it's good to be fallible.

What revithia should look like - stolen photo from Mama's Taverna blog.

Another Greek staple during Lent is Revithia soup, or chickpea soup. I had a delicious homemade version while we were in Greece, and the ingredient list is unbelievably simple, so we decided to try making it. My husband often knows how these things are supposed to taste, but has no idea how to make them. Our usual course of action is to consult the interwebs - where we have oft encountered terrible recipes. We have several Greek cookbooks (written in Greek), so after exhausting the internet, we usually sit down and the hubs translates while I type.

Note: During my internet searching for Revithia recipes, I found a fantastic Greek food blog. I'm now obsessed. Check it out. Mamas Taverna.

So anyways, this recipe failed on a couple of levels. Firstly, the Greek recipe that we translated suggested removing the skins from the chickpeas after soaking them (if you've ever worked with dried chickpeas, or even some canned ones, you will know what I'm talking about). This resulted in me sitting in front of the television for 2 hours, rubbing skins off chickpeas, one by one. (I tried several other more time-effective methods, none of which worked). Upon further internet research, I think this was an unnecessary step. I still can't believe I spent so much time on that...

The second fail was in the seasoning department (and wasn't my fault - thank God, otherwise I'd still be pouting about it - the hubs takes these things much less seriously than I). He had somehow translated the salt and pepper amounts completely wrong, resulting in a soup that tasted like the ocean and burned the back of your throat. Oh, that sad wasted two hours of chickpea hulling! We ended up having to dump the whole thing out. Luckily we still had leftover Fasolakia and ate that instead.

I think we will for sure try this again - next time we won't spend the time taking off the skins (when boiling for the soup, you skim the top, so any errant skins will come out that way), and we will certainly get the seasoning right the second time around.

Recipe here.

Vegan Chili: What a Crock!

This recipe is from the Crockpot 365 website. If you haven't been there, you need to check it out. If you've never cooked in your crockpot, you are truly missing out because there is no cheaper or easier way to feed the hungry mouths in your home. Nothing beats coming home from work and having the house already smell like dinner. Anyway, the woman who runs the site decided to make every meal for a year in her crockpot, which turned into a Julie and Julia-esque book deal (if only that fate were possible for the fallible foodies...). I've made other crock meals from from this website before, but this one came recommended to me by a very awesome vegetarian.


Click here to find the recipe.


I made a few alterations, kind of one and a halving the recipe. I added some green pepper, another sweet potato, some black beans, and a little more orange juice. That's the beauty of the crock. You throw almost anything into it and what comes out will usually be edible! (Some recipes on the cRock blog are fails and it's really funny to read what she says about them).

Before, circa 7:30 am. Look at that beautiful morning sunshine gleaming off those veggies! Note: I would cut the sweet potatoes and peppers a little smaller next time.

After! It smells like magic. Just don't forget the Chipotle Chili powder!

And the end result! I served it over some brown rice made in my rice cooker (another magical machine, just like the crock pot). This meal is warm, hearty, and delicious. You won't miss the meat at all, I promise! You might miss the cheese and sour cream, though... I made this for an impromptu dinner party of 5 and it was a smash hit!


Enjoy!

Roasted Veggies

Roasted carrots, parsnips, and Brussels sprouts

Roasted veggies are a staple in our kitchen. When I'm unsure of what to make for dinner, roasted veggies are usually my default dish. Or when I've perhaps over-indulged a bit on desserts or fried foods one weekend, a couple of dinners of roasted veggies can turn it all around. Roasting in the oven at a high temperature is bound to make any veggie taste good - even ones you thought you hated. Just go to the store, pick out what looks fresh, chop it up, toss in some olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper et voila! You've got a delicious meal. Adding potatoes always helps make it more hearty and feel like a main dish rather than a side.

A few tips to keep in mind when roasting veggies:

1) Roast at 400 to 425 degrees to achieve that yummy caramelization.

2) Be sure to use plenty of olive oil and toss to make sure each veggie is coated - don't want them sticking to the pan!

3) Don't chop them too small - they will shrink when roasting, so err on the larger side.

4) Root veggies will take a bit longer than, say green beans and asparagus. Start the root veggies first (including potatoes, if you desire), then after about 15 minutes or so, add the green veggies and roast for 10 minutes more (or until all is tender). For the veggies pictured below, I roasted them all together for about 20 minutes, shaking the pan a few times during roasting to make sure they didn't stick.

Before

After

I tried a new method for roasting beets last night, too. I read about this in America's Test Kitchen (where else?) and decided to try it. First you remove the stem parts, scrub the beet, and wrap it in foil. (You can do this with multiple beets as well, I just happened to be roasting one). Place the foil package on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a knife slides easily into the beet.

Unwrap (carefully, it's hot!) and let cool for 10 minutes. Using paper towels (to shield your fingers from beet stains), rub off the skin of the beet - it will come off very easily.

Once you've got all the skin off, slice the beet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper! I find beets delicious all by themselves, but they are also wonderful in salads, such as with arugula and goat cheese.



If you're not a big fan of vegetables, have a go at roasting them. I honestly believe it's a good way to get even the pickiest of eaters to enjoy veggies.

Italian Couscous: An Experiment

I love couscous. LOVE it. When I was thinking of things to make for "Vegan Week," it was one of the first things to pop into my mind, because I didn't want to deal with any of the weird, hard to find, meat imitation junk that a lot of vegans and vegetarians eat. I wanted to keep it simple and easy. Couscous can be made in a ton of different ways, but I didn't find one that was necessarily "Italian" inspired. So what the heck, I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Italian Couscous (my own invention)

1 red onion, diced

1 zucchini, sliced, then quartered into small pieces

1 red pepper, diced

1 cups sun dried tomatoes, diced

2 1/4 cups couscous

3 cups vegetable stock (homemade! hopefully you already have this in your freezer)

Salt, Pepper

Olive Oil

Handful of fresh Basil, julienned

This will easily serve 6 people.

Warm 2 Tbs olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion and zucchini and saute for a few minutes before adding the red pepper. Sautee until the veggies are cooked through, but make sure to not over cook them.

Delicious and Beautiful!

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add couscous and a teaspoon of salt, remove from heat, Cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Stir in the sun dried tomatoes, a little more salt, pepper, and basil. Spoon into deep dishes, and enjoy!

Note: This made a delicious light supper. My one complaint was that it could use a lot more seasoning. Maybe some red pepper flakes thrown in with the couscous? I'm open to suggestions, let me know what you think! (Also, Kaycee thought it could use more zucchini).