Braised Short Ribs & Garlic-Horseradish mashed potatoes

Braising makes practically anything delectable, even leeks. Remember braised leeks? those were amazing, but this. This is a whole new level of deliciousness. Just imagine fall-off-the-bone flavorful meat with sauce so good you want to slurp with a straw. Oh, and don't let me forget the mashed potatoes. I served them as a bed for the gorgeous short ribs so that each bite would have a bit of tender meat and soft creamy potato. This is truly a fool-proof feast. It's hard to mess up because if you find that the meat is not fall-off-the-bone tender, than you just stick it back in the oven. Please make this. You will not be sorry. I promise.

Braised Short Ribs, serves 2

adapted by Pioneer Woman

4-5 short ribs, bone-in

kosher salt

ground pepper

dried thyme

about 3 carrots, diced

1/2 large onion, diced

1 shallot, diced finely

2 cups red wine

2 cups beef or chicken stock

2 bay leafs

1 Preheat oven to 350. Heat a dutch oven to high heat with a bit of olive oil. Season the short ribs with kosher salt, ground pepper and dried thyme on all sides (if you have fresh thyme, use it). Sear each side of the ribs in the dutch oven until nice and deeply browned, not just gray. Once all the ribs are browned on all sides, remove from the dutch oven onto a plate and let rest.

2 Lower heat to medium high and throw in the diced carrots, onion and shallots into the same dutch oven and cook for about 2 minutes. Raise heat to high and pour in red wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up the brown bits of flavor from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Pour in the stock and cook for another 2 minutes.

3 Season with salt and pepper and drop in the two bay leaves.

4 Return the short ribs to the pot and cover. Place in the oven for 2 hours. Then lower the heat to 325 and cook another 30 minutes.

5 Remove the dutch oven and let rest, covered, for at least 20 minutes. Once rested, skim fat off with a ladle or large spoon (or refrigerate so that fat solidifies at the top, and then reheat on the stove) and serve on mashed potatoes and spoon plenty of sauce on top.

Garlic-Horseradish Mashed Potatoes

3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon prepared horseradish

1 When there is about 20 minutes left of braising, cover the peeled and quartered potatoes and garlic cloves with cold water, season with salt and bring to a boil.

2 When potatoes are fork tender, drain in a colander and return the potatoes and garlic cloves to the original pot. While on low heat, add milk, butter and horseradish. With a potato masher, mash all together until smooth and creamy. The garlic cloves will be soft and will mash with the rest of the potato mixture.

3 Spoon half the mashed potatoes on a plate and smooth with the back of the spoon. Serve with two short ribs and spoon more sauce on top to finish. 

Apple-Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I still have apples left, can you believe it? After using some to sauté with cinnamon and butter, I decided to make an apple cinnamon cake with crunchy pecan topping for my mom. Just 'cause. I found a great recipe and I loooove the crunchy topping. It's the best part. I ate the topping and just picked at the cake part, even though it was tasty.

Next time I have apples laying around, I think I will try an apple crisp — more crunch. What's your favorite way to use up apples?

On a side note, don't you love this baking dish? It's so bright and festive. Love it. Always puts me in a good mood when I use it.

Apple-Cinnamon coffee Cake

adapted by my recipes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk, I used skim

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup sliced apples

Streusel

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Stir. In a separate bowl, combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and egg.

2 Add wet ingredients slowly to the dry and stir until just moist.

3 Pour batter into an 8 or 10 inch baking dish.

4 Arrange sliced apples in a circular pattern on top of the batter.

5 Prepare the streudel by mixing the brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and cut butter until it resembles clumpy sand.

6 Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter and apples. Bake for 45 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Steamed Mussels in White Wine Broth

Who here orders steamed mussels in a restaurant because they are amazing? That's what I thought. Most of you do, me included. I love love mussels and the broth is to die for, right? I always sop it up with bread at the end because I don't want any to go to waste. Well, today is your lucky day because I found out it is so easy to make at home! And it tastes the same as in the restaurant, I swear! The most important thing is to buy them fresh from a seafood counter, one that you trust. I bought mine from Wholefoods and guess what? They are not expensive! I bought 2 lbs for me and Adam as a late lunch, and that was plenty, for $6 and some change. It really is easy and inexpensive, but impressive. I may even prepare mussels as an appetizer for guests, that's how easy and delicious it is. The next most important thing is cleaning them well before steaming. I covered them in a large bowl with cold water and left them for 20 minutes. This way all the dirt and grit falls to the bottom of the bowl. Then you have to debeard them, which sounds weird, but mussels have excess vegetation that grows within the shell and they kinda stick out from the shell. They look like stringy, well, beards. So you have to pull each one out before you cook them. Then comes the fun part! Steam for 10 minutes and then you're done. You are left with a lovely broth, I made mine with white wine, chicken stock, shallots, butter and olive oil. Oh, and a squeeze of lemon juice. This resulted in A LOT of broth, even too much for me, so next time I may cut back on the chicken broth.

Steamed Mussels in White Wine Broth

adapted by inspired taste

2 lbs mussels (think 1 lb per person)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

salt and pepper

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken broth (maybe 1/2 cup is better?)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

lemon wedge

1 Place mussels in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Let sit for 20 minutes until all grit and dirt fall to the bottom of the bowl. After that, de-beard the mussels by pulling out the excess vegetation and discard. If any of the mussels are open, discard.

2 In a large pot heat olive oil and butter over medium heat. Stir in shallots until softened, then garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in white wine, chicken broth and drained mussels.

3 Cover pot and steam over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

4 Serve immediately with chopped parsley and squeeze of lemon juice. I also added a pat of butter to swirl in at the end. YUM!

Sautéed Apples with Butter and Cinnamon

I bought a big bag of red delicious apples and besides eating them whole as a snack I wanted to make something with the remaining 3 I had left. Then cracker barrel popped in my head, as it often does, and I thought "sautéed apples!" I peeled and sliced up the 3 apples I had, sauteed them with butter until soft, then seasoned with cinnamon. You see that brown sugary syrup in the pan? That's the good stuff you want. MMM-mmm. It was a nice little side dish or can even be served as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Delicious, fast and versatile!

Soft sliced apples with butter and cinnamon

3 apples, any type, peeled and sliced

1-2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Heat a skillet over medium high heat and throw in the sliced apples and butter. Sauté until soft, about 3 minutes.

2 Season with cinnamon, stir and serve!

Chicken Pot Pie-less

This is my second chicken pot pie I made in two weeks. Why? Two reasons – because it is sooo good and comforting in this cold weather and easy to just heat up for lunch and because I roasted 2 birds. I have no idea why I roasted two birds at once, but it ended up working out because I got two of these chicken pot pie's out of them. Thats how good they were. This is a perfect way to use up leftover roast chicken. It's hot, saucy and packed with carrots and peas as well. Instead of using actual pie crust, I was lazy and just whipped some yukon gold potatoes as a topping. The original recipe by Martha used phyllo dough instead of heavy pie crust which would have been wonderful but I didn't have any in the freezer, so the mashed potatoes were a perfect alternative. It's kind of like a shepherds pie but instead of ground meat there's chicken. You can either poach a whole bird or use any leftover chicken you have and hand-shred it. You don't need a whole bird for this recipe. There's lots of ways to use up leftover chicken — chicken quesadillas, chicken salad, bbq chicken sandwiches, and of course chicken pot pie-less! Chicken Pot Pie-less 1 tablespoon butter 2 medium shallots 1 garlic clove, minced salt and peppa 1 1/2 cups chicken stock 2 tablespoons flour 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally leftover roast chicken, shredded 3 tablespoons parsley 1/2 cup slightly thawed frozen peas 3-4 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered 1 Preheat oven to 425. Cover your peeled quartered potatoes with cold salted water and bring to a boil. 2 Meanwhile, melt butter in saucepan and soften the shallots, garlic, salt and pepper over medium heat. Cook until all the flavors are melded together and pour in 1 cup of the chicken stock. Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup chicken stock into the flour in a separate bowl. Whisk into shallot mixture and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, will thicken. 2 Add carrots into the saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in shredded chicken to coat and return to a boil. 3 Remove from heat and stir in chopped parsley and peas. Transfer to a baking casserole dish. 4 While the chicken mixture is cooling, drain your potatoes and mash them up until smooth. Season again with salt and pepper. You can use a hand beater too for extra creaminess. 5 Spread the mashed potatoes over the chicken mixture in one even layer. Using a fork, make peaks in the potatoes by dragging the tines of the fork in large sweeping circles. Pop into the oven until the mashed potatoes are golden brown.

Pasta Carbonara

Ok, I've never had pasta carbonara. Never made it at home and never had it in a restaurant either. Why has no one told me how amazing this is?! I have heard of it, but I guess I ruled it out because I don't eat bacon. Enter turkey bacon. Thank goodness for these strips of smoked salty turkey because this is by far the best pasta dish I have ever made. Even better than my favorite. Now, its not as fast and easy as my favorite pasta, there are a few steps involved, BUT it is soo worth it. Oh my gosh, it was so good – garlicky, creamy, cheesy, smoky, slurps through your lips. Mmmm. Please make this. It is absolutely ridiculously heavenly delicious!

Pasta Carbonara

adapted by Pastor Ryan via Pioneer Woman

1 lb angel hair pasta

4 eggs

a couple strips of turkey bacon, or the real thing

1 cup freshly grated parmesan, plus more for garnish

8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 small onion

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup white wine or dry vermouth

handful of parsley, I didn't have any fresh so I sprinkled some dried parsley

ground pepper

1 Slice up your turkey bacon and cook in a medium skillet until browned and crispy. While the bacon is cooking, heat a big pot of salted water for your pasta. When it comes to a boil, add your pasta and cook until al-dente. I used angel hair, which is very thin, so it cooks fast so be sure to watch it if using angel hair.

2 Remove and drain turkey bacon on a paper towel. Meanwhile, throw in diced onion into the same pan and cook until softened over medium high heat.

3 Thinly slice the garlic and throw in with the onions. Cook together for a few minutes and remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

4 Now, drain off any grease from the pan and return it to high heat until starts to smoke a little. Pour in white wine and whisk to get all the juicy bits stuck on the pan, thereby deglazing the pan. Add 1 cup chicken stock. Return the turkey bacon and onions and garlic back to the pan and bring to a simmer.

5 In a large bowl big enough for all of the pasta, crack 4 eggs and add the freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley. Stir all together.

6 Drain the pasta. Be sure the pasta is very hot. Pour pasta into the egg mixture and then pour the turkey-bacon onion mixture. Mix all together and toss well. Tongs work well here. Garnish with more parmesan and parsley and get ready to taste heaven.

Dulce De Leche Chocolate Pudding

Let me warn you now, if you have an aversion to chocolate or sweets please continue to scroll down to another recipe because were entering a rich thick dark chocolate zone. Seriously, this thick pudding is really rich so I served it with some berries to tone it down. Ice cream could be nice as well. A spoonful of pudding and berry – I was in heaven. The sliced almonds were also a nice crunchy texture against the smooth and creamy pudding. I had recently found some dulce de leche (in bar form) at the hispanic section of my farmer's market so I wanted to incorporate it into this pudding. Hey, some dulce de leche couldn't hurt anyone, right? So I finally found a recipe that combined both sweets and it was deeeelicious. I served them in individual ramekins and even had some left over for a quick snack. I urge you to spoil yourself and make this chocolate pudding asap. You don't even have to share it with anyone. I won't tell.

Dulce De Leche Chocolate Pudding

adapted by Cafe fernando

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups half 'n half

6 oz dark chocolate, I used 70% cacao, coarsely chopped

1 cup store bought dulce de leche, in bar form not liquid

sliced almonds, for garnish

1 Combine cornstarch and sugar in a large heatproof bowl.

2 Slowly whisk in milk and place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and stir, scraping the sides and bottom.

3 After the mixture thickens, about 20 minutes, add 6 oz of chocolate into bowl and continue stirring until smooth and thick.

4 Add dulce de leche and stir until melted.

5 Strain through a mesh strainer into individual ramekins (this took a while) and let cool until room temperature.

6 Top with sliced almonds and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with fresh berries or ice cream.