EY's Rants and Raves

Doesn't sound much like a fair deal for an anniversary, but these weren't any ribs as you shall see. They started out like this Friday night... They were seasoned with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Then they went in the fridge for a cool, seasoned evening.



Got them out Saturday and browned them in a big pot. No pix of the browned ribs. I forgot. You ever forget? Happened to me.

So here they are all browned, doused in a bottle of wine, all cozy and snug in the pot. Lovely pot, isn't it? Yes, The Boy treats me right. And I feed him well.


I checked on them a few times since I was halving the recipe. I didn't think 4 lbs of ribs would take as long to cook as the 8lbs in the recipe did. Turns out, it did take nearly 2 hours. If you're saying "two hours to cook! My what a hard recipe" relax. It's 2 hours where you're not doing anything to the food. You could be reading a book, working out, watching TV, flying a kite (near the house of course--don't leave an oven unattended), or doing laundry, which is what I was doing. This recipe has a long elapsed time, but very little active time.

After your 2 hours of you-not-actually-doing-anything-to-them you get a lovely pot of


Isn't it beautiful? Believe it or not, it gets better. Let this cool, slap the lid on and put in the fridge overnight. I said it was good and didn't require that much of you. I didn't say it was "instant".

The next day, lift off the layer of solidified fat. You'll be amazed at how much of it there is. Seriously. Make a dog in your life happy (although not all at once--it's a lot). Make some lovely mashed potatoes. Make gremolata called for in the recipe. For heaven's sake, MAKE the gremolata....it's delish and you already have all the ingredients from seasoning the meat 2 days ago. Plate it up and you get something like


Pair it with a Martin Ray Diamond Mountain District Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon or other "Special Occasion" wine of your choice and you have a delightful dinner. Be sure to share it with someone you love, after all, you did work on this for a few days. Heck, spritz yourself with water and throw some flour on your shirt like the lady in the Rice Krispie commercials used to do. From the taste of the dish, no one will guess that you didn't slave over this. In fact, The Boy pronounced it one of the best dishes I've ever made. And we cook regularly.

My earrings are certainly lovely and I'm tickled as I can be about them. But the ribs deserve their own post, seeing as how I've been mentioning them a lot lately. I do like a project and a cooking project is all the better.

Labels: food porn