Home making

Last Saturday we went bowling with a couple couples which was lots of fun. We went with the Browns and Kim & Joe (who are getting married today)!! The first round Joe beat all of us and the second round Albert won and I lost with everyone else falling somewhere in the middle. None of us were all that good so we just had fun.

 

Monday through Wednesday were spent filing our taxes. I'm so glad we're finally done!! It was so much more complicated than last year when it was just me. Albert owns a house and various investments so we had to figure out how to put all that in there. Plus we bought a car, moved, I graduated, and we got married. Lots of great deductions, but time consuming and somewhat frustrating. Luckily we have a nice budget we came up with on google docs that keeps track of a lot of our spending.

 

On the home improvement front I've been complaining that I didn't have anywhere to hang my purses and all the bag holders I saw were too big to hang on our little closet doors so Albert found these that fit perfectly on our closet. I love it! You can get them at Bed, Bath, & Beyond if you're in the market.

 

 

 

Albert decided to make braised beef short ribs last weekend which turned out pretty good. They were very tender (although a little fatty for our tastes) and the sauce was very good. The picture doesn't look nearly as appetizing at it really was.

Ingredients:

• 6 bone-in short ribs (about 5 3/4 pounds)
• Kosher salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large Spanish onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled, cut in 1/2 lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 1/2 cups tomato paste
• 2 to 3 cups hearty red wine
• 2 cups water
• 1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
• 2 bay leaves

 

Directions:

 

1. Season each short rib generously with salt. Coat a pot large enough to accommodate all the meat and vegetables with olive oil and bring to a high heat. Add the short ribs to the pan and brown very well, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Do not overcrowd pan. Cook in batches, if necessary.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
3. While the short ribs are browning, puree all the vegetables and garlic in the food processor until it forms a coarse paste. When the short ribs are very brown on all sides, remove them from the pan. Drain the fat, coat the bottom of same pan with fresh oil and add the pureed vegetables. Season the vegetables generously with salt and brown until they are very dark and a crud has formed on the bottom of the pan, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape the crud and let it reform. Scrape the crud again and add the tomato paste. Brown the tomato paste for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat if things start to burn. Reduce the mixture by half. 
4. Return the short ribs to the pan and add 2 cups water or until the water has just about covered the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven for 3 hours. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more water, if needed. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking to let things get nice and brown and to let the sauce reduce. When done the meat should be very tender but not falling apart. Serve with the braising liquid.  

  

We really like the Brownie Sundae Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, but I can't have it anymore so last night we decided to make our version. Luckily we had a lot of mixes so it was pretty easy.

 

 

For the first layer we used part of an Arrowmills gluten-free brownie mix that turned out really well (probably the best gf brownie mix I've tried although rumour has it that Betty Crocker is coming out with gluten-free cake, cookie, and brownie mixes in June!). The second layer was just the cheesecake part of the Jell-O Instant Cheesecake mix and we topped it off with a chocolate mousse mix.

 

 

We left it in the fridge for a couple hours and then put it in the freezer for and hour so it would be easier to cut. It was tasty. All the flavors went together really well. Look how pretty! Just like the Cheesecake factory right?

 

Well, not quite as good as the Factory. Next time I want to try making the cheesecake part by hand so that we can really get that cream cheese flavor and texture in there. The original has white chocolate mousse and we also might try making that by hand since it doesn't come in mix form (we would have this time, but we didn't have all the ingredients and it's kinda tricky).