Short Ribs with Red Wine

Last Christmas, I got the Good Meat cookbook, which has proved to be a great addition to my cookbook library. Last night we had short ribs, which were based on one of the recipes in the book. Instead of making a pasta sauce, as in the original recipe, I left the short ribs whole and served them with mashed potatoes. The recipe is like many others I do; it starts with sauteed chopped onion, carrot, leeks, celery, and garlic. The meat is browned, the pan deglazed, nad red wine, stock, and tomato (diced, pureed, or paste) added, along with bay leaf and thyme. This time I also added two cinnamon sticks, as the recipe instructed, and the slight cinnamon taste was a welcome addition. This is winter food at its best!

Lisa’s Carrot Cake

I have been experimenting with non-wheat cakes and breads, since my cousin Kathy has a wheat allergy and some of my friends are avoiding gluten. Yesterday, I baked an old favorite carrot cake, using the non-wheat flour blend I got from the New York Times last fall, for Kathy's birthday. I made only half the recipe, since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and there were only three cake eaters. It was terrific--as good as the original, I think. For the frosting, since Kathy also is allergic to dairy, I changed the frosting as well. Here's the basic recipe:

1¼ cups oil
1½ cups sugar or 1 cup honey (I used sugar)
3 eggs (for half the recipe, I used 2 eggs)
2 cups flour (if substituting non-wheat flour, add about 1/2 tsp. of Xanthum gum)
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
2—2½ cups grated carrots
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
½ cup currants or raisins
(Optional: ½ cups dates, instead of raisins; 1 mashed banana; ½ cup coconut)

Combine sugar, oil and eggs. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and then add to sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla, carrots, walnuts and raisins. Bake in two (three?) greased cake pans for 45-50 minutes at 325

Icing: Combine 1 stick of butter and 8 oz. cream cheese (both softened) and add one package of powdered sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla. Frost cake when cool.

I made my frosting recipe with about 1 cup of powdered sugar, 4 Tb. Nucoa margarine, about 2 Tb. soy yoghurt, and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. A bit of lemon juice would have been good, too.

Choucroute Garnie

Well, once again, it's been quite awhile. I did't manage to take any food pictures for Laura and Weston's CA celebration, but it was our last "summer" dinner, with cocktails outside. Since then, I've been cooking winter fare, including a wonderful Branigan turkey at Thanksgiving and an amazing standing rib roast from the Meat Lab at Christmas.

I got a new ipad for Christmas, and as soon as I can figure it out, I will try posting from that. Shortly before Christmas we had friends over for a traditional charcroute garnie, and I even managed to take a photo. I pretty much followed Julia Child's recipe for the cabbage, though I didn't cook it for quite as long as she recommends. I used duck legs, browned first and then added to the cabbage for about an hour at the end, along with two types of sausages (which I should have poked, as some of them split)and some red new potatoes. The results were delicious!