Braised Beef Ribs and Creamy Polenta

Have you ever made ribs?  Yeah?  So have I!!!  Well, as of last night, that is.  I guess it's kind of irresponsible to make something for the first time when you have guests, but fortunately, my guests are not picky eaters.  (My children, however, are.)  Here are the recipes two dishes from last night's supper.  I loved this!  I didn't love the fact that I had so much fat to cut off the meat though, but that wasn't the recipe's fault.  Again, I got this recipe for Braised Short Ribs from the Pioneer Woman's blog.

I used bacon because that's what I had, and it's cheaper than pancetta.  I didn't use wine because I didn't have any, and our guests would prefer we use something other than alcohol, even if the alcohol is removed through cooking.  I used 1T of white wine vinegar in a 2 cup measuring cup, and poured in grape juice up to two cups.

After the 2-1/2 hours, the ribs I made were not falling off the bone, but the bone was extremely easy to remove, it just couldn't fall because of all the FAT STUCK TO THE MEAT!!  Have I mentioned that yet?  However, the ribs were free.  I will no longer complain.  


Now, go look at the Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta recipe, which I also made for the first time last night.  I did not, however, use goat cheese.  I substituted 4 oz of cream cheese instead.  I'm sure it wasn't as tangy, but...well, that's ok with me.

I put a pile of polenta on the plate (whoa, what alliteration), and put the ribs on top of them.  I also made mashed potatoes, so I did a little half and half thing.  Half of the pile was polenta and have was mashed potatoes.  It was good, but would have been better had there been less...oh wait, that's right they were free.  No complaining.  

It seems Seth is finally getting better.  He hasn't even complained of his stomach hurting today.  I hope it actually is over this, AND that no one else gets it.  :-/  It hasn't seemed to be a very fun sickness.  Poor boy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to post the link for the cookies I made yesterday.  This may be a semi-food blog, yet. :)