The Peterson Family

The Peterson Family

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The dog

We have a shih tzu, her name is Bella, and before you all think, oh my gosh another Twilight obsessed fan, let me explain. Ever since I was about 18, I'm almost 26 now, I had Isabella as a name I wanted to give my daughter, and then came Twilight, I decided I couldn't do that to my kid, so we we did it to the dog instead. Anyways, we tend not to cut her hair during the winter months, she's a house dog, but she definitely spends a decent amount of time outside and I don't want her to freeze. Also, being a shih tzu she has hair instead of fur, so it just keeps growing and growing, my project yesterday was to finally shave the poor overly fuzzy dog. Now I forgot to take a before picture, however we did pile up the hair so you can see her standing next to it. The hair was easily as big as her if not bigger! All the sudden I was wondering if we needed to start feeding her more. She's plenty active though and seems to be a whole lot happier. She also now kind of looks like a heavily spotted mini dalmation...

Monday, May 9, 2011

Here's the beef spare ribs...

So this is totally one of my favorite things to make, its not nearly as hard as it seems, it does take a while though, but it always pleases.
First, heat some oil in a braising pan (I actually use a sautoir, which is like a regular frying pan, but instead of curving up its sides are straight). Then salt and pepper, and I like to add granulated garlic, your ribs and roll them in flour. Then sear them on all sides in the oil. Then you are going to add enough liquid to cover the ribs about 2/3rd the way up, I use stock, you can use beef broth, or boullion. Cover and stick it in the oven on 275 F for 2-3 hours.
So for the sauce you are going to take some shallots, I used 2 larger ones. Slice them, put them in a saucepan, add some sugar, and a little butter, and cook till golden, you may have to add a little water every once in a while so it doesn't burn, keep an eye on them just so they don't burn, but you don't have to stir them the whole time. After they look like this you can let them sit till the ribs are done.
The topping is just very thinnly sliced purple onion they were tossed with flour and seasoned salt, you can slice them ahead of time, but don't toss them with the flour until you are ready to fry them. To finish deep fry them in 325 F oil till golden.
Lastly the potatoes, I use red because I love that they are more starchy, I left the skins on. Boil them, then whip them up with some butter, milk and some smoked gouda cheese (one of my absolute favorites).
So now your ribs are done, take them out of the pan and put them on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil, and put them back in the oven for a few minutes just to crisp the outside up a little. Now we are going to finish the sauce, first skim off the fat and then add the juices and all that other good stuff in the pan to caramelized shallots, and blend it (again I used the immersion blender), and bring it to a boil. Now chances are you didn't use stock, so you are going to need to thicken the sauce a little, my go to is cornstarch, I like that it thickens, but doesn' really change the color of the sauce. Just take some cornstarch and mix it with water and add to the shallots and l roasting liquid that should already be boiling. So hears the thing about cornstarch, you have to boil it at least 1 minute, first because that gets rid of the starchy flavor and second, after 1 minute that's as thick as it's going to get, so if its still to thin, add a little more and boil another minute till it's a consistency you like. And there you have it. :)

Friday, May 6, 2011

Cinco De Mayo...

I've actually tried to get to this the past several days and it hasn't happened. Anyways here's what's up. The Easter lesson went really well, I honestly think it could have gone on a lot longer. Also I finally got my little guys pictures taken, its been almost 8 months, I know I'm a horrible mom, but it's just so hard to want to pay for pictures when your kids don't really do anything new and now they are finally sitting up, therefore totally worth it, plus aren't they just they just so cute? Can you tell who's who? Next thing, I've felt like this totally lazy mommy for the longest time, I mean I went to culinary school and I was never actually even making dinner. The hubby would come home and I swear 9 times out of 10 we ate ramen...how sincerely pathetic is that? So in an effort to be a better wife, mother, chef etc. the hubby and I sat down and made a plan of what we were going to have for dinner for the next 2 weeks and I finally feel like I'm doing something, which leads me to the title of this post. So yesterday, day 4 of my dinner goal, was cinco de mayo, and I really got into it. I made black refried beans, which by the way I like way better than the standard. I also made homemade tortillas for fajitasfor the first time ever, guacamole, and pico de gallo. Tyson made the drinks, and he did a great job!
So the food run down, for the beans I used canned beans- remember I'm all about making it easier which is a total necessity when you still have to take care of 2 babies when you are doing anything- I cooked up some onions, garlic and bacon, added the beans and heated that up, added water and chicken boullion, and used the immersion blender and just cooked it down, seasoned with some salt and they were yummy and my tiny little guys agreed, which is totally the best part.
I got the recipe for the tortillas off of the Ourbestbite.com blog, I love that blog! and my hubby loved the tortillas, said they were just like the ones from his mission in El Salvador, so I guess that means they were pretty good right? The filling for the fajita was just sliced peppers, onions, and rump roast cut into strips with a little fajita seasoning. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of all of this, so sorry, but you'll have to take my word for it, they were yummy. I think we are gonna end there on the food front, but if you have questions feel free to ask. However, I will leave you with this tomorrow is braised beef ribs with a sweet shallot sauce, smoked gouda mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and fried onions (and no those are not onion rings). I'll try and remember a camera for that one, its def one of my favorite things to make.- Last point of note, this totally won't let me post it the way I want it to, so sorry that it's so freaking spaced out, maybe one day I'll get the hang of this.