Moving right along with this month’s Sweet as Pie picks, we made Braised Short Ribs on Saturday night.  We’d actually made these a couple of times before, so we were ready for the deliciousness.  I served them with smashed red potatoes and stuffed mushrooms.  Mom and Grandmother were down for the evening so we actually had a full table.  Here’s how it came together:

You start by dredging the short ribs in flour.

Carrots, onion, and shallots.

The recipe calls for pancetta, but we just use bacon.

After browning the ribs, the vegetables went into the pan.

After adding red wine, chicken stock, and some fresh rosemary and thyme, the whole thing went in the oven for a few hours.

Falling-off-the-bone yumminess.

And even better? Sharing it with my favorite people.

Overall, Phillip and I enjoyed it (again) and Mom and Grandmother said they did.  I believe Grandmother because she likes just about anything, but the dish was probably too heavy on the wine for Mom – that’s just not a flavor she’s fond of.  We’ve made it before and we’ll make it again.  It takes a while and the ingredients are a bit more expensive than other dishes, so it’s probably a once-in-a-while or a special occasion meal.  But oh, it’s a good one.

Next for the March Sweet as Pie picks was Simple, Perfect Chili chosen by Kerry at The Woman at the Well.  Was it simple?  Yes.  Was it perfect?  I can only answer that with other questions:  Is there such a thing as perfect chili?  Are we all not continuously on the hunt for a better, more flavorful, spicier/not so spicy, thicker/thinner, etc. chili?  So there you have it – I don’t believe in perfect chili.  Nevertheless, this one was pretty good.  Here’s the story:

Since the chili required an hour of simmering, Phillip got it started while I was still at work.  I’d left everything out on the counter for him with the written instructions and we did a quick run-through this morning before I left.  After that week of great cooking he handled during the bar, I had no doubt he could handle the pressure of browning some ground beef.  And I was right.  When I got home, the meat was brown and had been simmering on low heat for about an hour.  All I had to do was finish it out.  First things first – I require some sort of tomato in my chili.  This recipe called for some tomato sauce in the meat-simmering phase, but I thought it needed some more tomato flavor so I took PW’s suggestion and added a can of Rotel.

Already starting to look like chili.

At this point I also added about 3/4 a can of water the mix, although if I’d had some on hand, I would have added some tomato juice instead.  Phillip requires beans in his chili and he chose some of the pinto variety (I think mostly because they had “frijoles” printed right on the can).  As you all know, I’m not a fan of beans which is probably at least one of the reasons I really enjoy chili of the Cincinnati variety – have it your way (and such a great flavor combo – try it sometime).  Anyway…

Yucky ol', pasty ol', just for you Phillip because I love you and want to make your chili dreams come true, pinto beans.

In addition to adding a couple of good shakes of cayenne to the spice mix, we also added one whole jalapeno, seeds and all.

Thickened and flavored with a little corn meal and water mixture. Those beans are going to be too numerous to eat around, I can tell already.

The final product – we dressed it with some chopped onion, sharp cheddar, and Fritos:We really enjoyed this chili – it was simple and very good.  Phillip even had two bowls!  I especially liked the spice blend we ended up with and I didn’t need to continually adjust the seasoning as I have with previous chili attempts.  “A keeper!” as my dad would say.  I’ll make it again (but still keep tweaking it on the all-American perpetual quest for perfect chili).

I’m behind on Sweet as Pie this month!  For the second March installment, I made PW’s Chicken Pot Pie, picked by my cousin Katie from Come Hell or High Waters.  I even took the time to make my own pie crust.

My new sifter (thanks, Mom!) worked great when combining the dry ingredients for PW's Perfect Pie Crust.

Cutting in the shortening (sorry, but I still think butter tastes better in a pie crust).

Add in the egg and stir to combine. This recipe makes two pie crusts, so I now have an extra in the freezer. Strawberry pie, maybe?

Once the pie crust was made, I got to work on the pot part of the pie.  I used some leftover grilled chicken we’d made earlier in the week, so the chicken part was easy.

Our vegetable medley - onions, carrots, and some peas for Phillip. We skipped the celery because neither of us cares for it - I did sprinkle on a little celery seed though.

Vegetable saute. So colorful!

Next, I added the chicken and sprinkled on some flour for a thickening agent. Then, the liquid – chicken broth and some white wine.  The wine really punches up the flavor in this recipe so I definitely recommend adding at least a splash.

While the chicken mixture thickened, I worked on rolling out my pastry.

Luckily, I had my handy-dandy Pampered Chef pizza/ring/pastry lifters or I never would have gotten the crust up in one piece.

I assembled the pot pie and carefully placed it in the oven (it was VERY full, so be sure to use a true deep dish for this one).  At this point, two things happened.  First, our kitchen sink decided it had had enough and stopped draining.  Three days, $600, and two visits from the plumber later, the “jetter” (essentially a pressure washer for pipes) finally was able to clear the clog which the plumber promised was the product of years of build-up (and therefore, not entirely my fault).  Second, my oven decided to randomly shut off.  At one point during the pot pie cooking process, I opened the oven door to check on the progress and noticed that my oven was not nearly as hot as it should have been.  Argh.  Since the oven was being finicky and took a while to reheat, it took us a while longer to get the pot pie to start to brown.  We probably should have left it in there a little longer to get better color, but we were hungry.  That’s real life cooking for ya.

The finished product - not that pretty, but pretty appetizing. We dished it up with some hot biscuits (from the toaster oven).

Overall, this was a hearty and comforting dish that left us with plenty of leftovers.  The wine was key to the flavor and next time I’ll adjust the seasonings a bit to fit more to our tastes.  With such a flavorful dish, I’m not sure the homemade pastry really added that much.  For chicken pot pie I think I’ll stick with the store-bought pastry OR mix up some biscuit dough for a drop biscuit topping.  Well on my way to perfecting my pot pie!

Oh how I’ve missed cooking these past three weeks!  Three weeks ago, Phillip took over dinner duty while I studied for the bar.  Two weeks ago, I was in South Carolina for the bar and a quick trip to Charleston.  One week ago, I was back in South Carolina for a mandatory seminar and then off to the Bahamas.  As a result of all this studying and coming and going, I hadn’t had a wooden spoon in my hand in what felt like forever!  So I was eager to hit the grocery aisle running this week, and what better way to get back in the kitchen than with a Sweet as Pie pick?  Penne a la Betsy was on our Tuesday menu and it did not disappoint.  Of course, we did tweak it a bit to suit our taste.  The recipe directed me to saute a pound of shrimp.  Since Phillip doesn’t do shrimp, we substituted some scallops for him.  And I didn’t use a full pound because I didn’t want leftover seafood – I just don’t think it reheats well.  However, I still made the full pasta recipe since pasta reheats very well and I knew this dish would be hearty enough without the shrimp or scallops.

Sauteed in a little butter and olive oil.

Then, some onion and garlic. I've stopped measuring out minced garlic. I just eyeball it because I'm not likely to put in too little and I love garlic, so there's not really an adverse consequence if I measure too much.

Meanwhile the penne was a-boiling.  After deglazing the pan with a little white wine, the recipe called for a 14.5 ounce can of tomato sauce.  I didn’t read that correctly and only purchased the 8 ounce size.  Hmmm…there’s some tomato paste in my pantry.  Score!  The ingredients are essentially the same – it’s only really the consistency that’s different.  So I made up the difference with some tomato paste and added a little more liquid to thin it back out.  Substitution success!

A little thick, but nothing a splash of water and bit of extra cream can't fix.

In goes the cream.

At this point I tasted the sauce and it was just missing something.  Maybe it was due to the tomato paste.  Anyway, I added some salt, a little oregano, and several good shakes of crushed red pepper.  Then it was time to sprinkle in some fresh basil, add the seafood back to the pan, and dump in the penne.  The finished product:

Phillip’s two cents:  I liked it.  You can definitely taste the wine.

We really liked this dish and will probably make it again.  I think it would be delicious with chicken or even without any meat at all.  The extra seasoning really made a difference for me so I’ll repeat that step in the future and may even add some extra heat (Phillip couldn’t taste it at all) or lighten the flavor some more with a little more white wine or a splash of lemon juice.  So happy to be back in the kitchen!