From Scratch Short Rib Ragu

Braised short ribs is one of my favorite winter meals. While it cooks all afternoon the house smells amazing and of course it's quite tasty. There are several ways to make short ribs and this recipe is for a ragu. This meal is a commitment to active cooking, but worth every minute!


Ingredients:

Short ribs
Oil
Salt
Beef stock
Coffee
Tomatoes, diced
Homemade pasta
Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Using a french or dutch oven coat bottom with oil over medium heat. Lightly salt short ribs then brown on top and bottom. Add beef stock and coffee and bring liquid to level of short rib, but do not submerge. Cover and cook for four hours.

Meanwhile make your homemade pasta and hang to dry. I used the Pasta Bible and made garlic spaghetti noodles.

After four hours remove from oven and place short ribs on cutting board. Shred short rib meat and discard bones and tissue. Pour liquid into a fat separator or clear bowl. You want to use as much liquid as possible for your sauce and throw out the fat. Return meat and liquid then add diced tomatoes. Bring sauce to simmer. Cook your pasta to your preference and grate Parmesan cheese. Plate your pasta, top with ragu meat sauce, and sprinkle with cheese.

Perfect Salad for Chicken Wings

We had a couple friends over to watch the University of Texas game last night. My husband made his wing sauce a little spicy so the cucumber and blue cheese paired well. The guys even took seconds! Inspiration for this salad came from Kaleidoscope Pizza 's Rogue Ranch and Buffalo Bleu.

Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Red pepper, sliced thin
Carrot, sliced very thin
Cucumber, sliced very thin
French fried onions
Blue cheese, crumbled
Ranch dressing

I am not comfortable yet with my knife skills so I used the mandolin. I love French fried onions and think that are a nice substitute for croutons. Our favorite blue cheeses are from Rogue Creamery. For this recipe we used the smokey blue.