Short Ribs in Highland

I made the short ribs on Sunday, April 19. Dad's first comment on reading the recipe was, "Cut off the fat? That's what you buy short ribs for!!" As it happened I didn't trim off any of the fat because mine were quite lean--they are from one of Uncle Jerry's grass fed critters. I really liked the idea of cooking them in the oven at a high temperature first--I've done that before with roasts to brown them and it makes for a nice finish on them (In fact if you are trying to cook a frozen pot roast you can sprinkle it with flour, dot with butter and put in a 500 degree oven for a little while, then transfer it to the crock pot or dutch oven to finish cooking it slowly.)

Sorry for the digression---I followed the recipe quite closely except that I did 8 ribs rather than 6--they were packaged 4 to a package, and I only put in 4 cups of beef broth because my dutch oven was full by then--but since you boil it down later I don't suppose that mattered. I did have a bottle of red wine so I used it. But the funny thing was that I had cooked the vegetables and was just ready to add the wine and Dad was having a meeting in the family room with some men from his High Priest's committee---so I just turned everything off and waited until they left--somehow I didn't think I should fill the house with the smell of boiling wine at that point!

I wish I had thought to cook some mashed potatoes to go with them, but I didn't. I thought the finished product was very richly flavored, that's why I thought potatoes would have been nice. I was surprised at how well the vegetables held up with all that cooking--the carrots especially were quite recognizable--I had expected them to turn to mush. I felt that the wine sort of overpowered everything--I think one cup of it would have been enough to give that depth of flavor without taking over, and if I had not had wine I would have been very happy with sparkling grape, or regular grape juice (tho maybe that would have been a bit sweet?)

I really like short ribs anyway and don't think they need to be disguised. I did like the mixture of vegetables--I think you could improve this recipe by cooking the ribs with part of the vegetables for the long slow cooking, and then adding some newly chopped ones for the last 20 minutes of cooking.

No Logan, that isn't the same Scott as the one who invented Scott's Soccer bars.

I didn't make the cupcakes yet, but will make them when we are going to have company. Dad and I can't have those kinds of things around!!

I'm not posting pcitures because the rest of you ahve done such a good job of doing that.