Mar232014

Slow Baked Boneless Beef Short Ribs

Sundays are meant to be lazy I think however sadly I rarely get a “do-nothing” Sunday or day for that matter. Working two full time jobs (my day job and TKW) leaves very little down time. Most of you know I’m a girl on the go-go-go who pretty much never sits still let alone takes time for herself. Maybe I’m afraid I’m going to miss out on something awesome life has to offer or perhaps I’m just so used to it that it’s just become part of my ‘norm’. If I had a dollar for how many times I heard “How do you do it? Just listening to what all you do makes me tired! Where do you get the energy??? Can I have some???” Honestly I’m not sure. Well maybe that’s not entirely true. Ever since I made a life choice years ago to live a healthier lifestyle that incorporated a better eating plan, exercise (trust me at one point in my life exercise was a 4-lettered word and punishment) and a more positive outlook that seemed to kick things off. Now I’ve always worked insane hours. Again this stems from growing up as poor as we did. Truth be told being that poor sucks, no one should go without even the little things in life but I’m not one to depend on others to help make my life better. If I want my life better then *I* have to make the change and *I* have to make it happen. My parents always told me “Anything worth doing is worth doing the very best you can” and I have made that my mantra in life.

Now sure I tire and have my days where I honestly don’t think I can take another step but I dig deep down and push through however if my body says “HEY DING DONG! YOU NEED A BREAK!” I’m going to listen. This is the only body I’ll ever have – well again, that’s not true as I have a bunch of fake parts already.. pins, bolts, rods holding bones together and my lovely pig patch in my tummy. LOL But you get the gist. So while I had intentions on getting 9 million things done this one Sunday my body just didn’t have it in it get it done. I needed rest. However I also knew I needed to make food for dinner and maybe some leftovers during week (though we all know leftovers are a rarity in my house due to my eating machine husband). Since this was going to be one of those rare days where I actually was going to take a nap while Mr. Fantabulous was at band practice I wanted something so simple that I could get done in 10 minutes and go rest.

Since Friday’s after work is when I hit up Costco (as it’s like 5 minutes from my work but a bajillion miles from my home) I found the most gorgeous boneless beef short ribs. Honestly they are the only place that has them, not even my local butcher does. Now I’ve made this with bone-in and while bone-in has a deeper flavor I find them a pain in the butt as I want all meat, not just bone. Plus they are the same price (which I still don’t quite understand). 5 pounds of boneless beef short ribs does not equal the same amount of meat in 5 pounds of bone-in beef short ribs. I actually debated this with a butcher once and we left it as I said he was wrong and he disagreed.

Am I wrong on this?

Even though I planned on napping I never nap real long. If I do it tends to wear me out worse and make me feel drained. Since I didn’t want to sleep all day (though I’m sure my body would have loved that) I did have stuff to do. Now if it were stuff Mr. Fantabulous could do he would but this was TKW stuff and since he’s not allowed to touch the pots, pans or anything in the kitchen I have to get it done. So I opted to go with a slow bake with these. Literally these were so simple they pretty much cooked themselves.

All I literally do was put them in a pan, cover them with some bbq sauce, cover with foil and slow bake. And off to sleepyville I went! Let me tell you what folks it was awesome! I had the most amazing dreams too and it’s funny as all I kept dreaming about was bbq and food. However I think those dreams were influenced by the fact that I had the most amazing beef and bbq sauce scents wafting throughout my house. Now I did have my alarm set however the smells from the oven woke up me. I knew dinner was close to being done as I could smell the ‘doneness’.

As I approached the kitchen the smells were just intoxicating! I removed the foil and let them bake another 30 minutes to get that deep char on top. Once they were done I pulled them out of the oven and plated them. Dear GOD they were GORGEOUS! I brushed them with some of the reserved bbq sauce and then with what was in the pan, I actually poured it into a fat separating container and let it sit for bit. Once it did, I poured out the good stuff into a pan and let the fat stuff stay behind. I brought that pan to a boil and thickened it up with some more bbq sauce and some cornstarch. No way was I letting those flavors go to waste!

By the time Mr. Fantabulous got home I had made a pot of perfect mashed potatoes to go with these, some rolls and a nice Caesar salad. As he walked in with his gear you could see him immediately perk up and start sniffing the air like dog. Cutest thing ever when he does that! Immediately came his smile and I swear he ran to bring in the rest of his gear! Dinner was awesome and I was rested. That truly was a fantastic Sunday and one that I think I need more of!