Anniversary Dinner

Last week my husband and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary, and rather than going out somewhere and spending tons of money we decided to continue a tradition we started the year before trading off on who cooks the meal. Last year, my husband surprised me when I came home from work on our anniversary with a meal I had been planning on cooking already made. This year I decided to try a recipe we had in a restaurant in disney world that we both greatly enjoyed, braised lamb shanks. Along with that I made a red wine reduction and parmesan polenta (which actually turned out great this time, no lumps!). For dessert I did red velvet cheesecake brownies from a previous post, which ended up being blue cause I was out of red food coloring! The polenta and brownies were already posted so I'll just be sharing the lamb shanks and red wine reduction recipes tonight. It may sound difficult and while it's not exactly a beginners recipe, it's still rather simple and it tastes great. Lamb is a bit more expensive and difficult to find, but it is one of my husbands favorite foods, so it's definitely worth it for special occasions. Enjoy :)

Braised Lamb Shanks

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 lamb shanks (each about 1 1/4 pounds; 1 shank is a portion)
• Kosher salt
• 1 large Spanish onion or 2 small yellow onions, cut into 1-inch dice
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 3 celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 (12-ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 cups hearty red wine
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary leaves
• 10 to 12 thyme branches tied together in a bundle
• 3 to 4 cups water
• 4 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a large oven safe pot generously with olive oil and bring to a medium heat. Season the shanks generously with salt and add them to the pan. Brown well on all sides, it might go quickly so keep an eye on it while you puree the veggies. Meanwhile, puree the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in a food processor until it becomes a coarse paste. Remove and set aside.

Remove the shanks from the pan to a sheet tray. Discard the excess fat from the pan. Add a little more oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add the pureed veggies. Season with salt, to taste. Saute the veggies until they are very brown and aromatic, about 10-15 minutes. Take care not to let it get too brown. Add the tomato paste and brown for 5 minutes. Stir in the wine, chopped rosemary and thyme bundle. Stir frequently and cook until the wine has reduced by about half.

Add the shanks back to the pot and pour in 3 to 4 cups of water. The shanks should be submersed, if they are not, add more water (I needed closer to 8-10 but it'll change depending on the size of your shanks)  Add the bay leaves to the pan, cover and put in the preheated oven. The cooking time will be about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Turn the shanks over about halfway through the cooking time. Check the shanks every 45 minutes or so. If the liquid has reduced too much add more water. 

Remove the cover during the least 30 minutes for some extra browning. When the shanks are done the meat should be incredibly tender and flavorful. Serve on top of Parmesan Polenta and drizzle with the red wine reduction. Enjoy!

Red Wine Reduction

• olive oil, for coating the pan
• 1/4 cup shallots, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• 2 tablespoons butter

In a saute pan, over medium high heat, add enough olive oil to coat the pan. Add the shallots and cook until translucent. Add the red wine and the stock and reduce by half.* Add the butter.

*if you would like a smoother sauce you can strain the shallots out at this point then return to the pan and add the butter.

(no pictures of the wine reduction on it's own, so here's a picture of dessert! I used a cookie cutter in the pan and dusted it with powdered sugar)

Pot Roast and leftovers

I thought I had already given my pot roast recipe, but try as I might as I look back over the posts I can't find it, so it'll be more like a bonus! This week I had a few things I wanted to talk about that aren't even related to cooking (I know, I'll keep it short) Lately on Pinterest I've been getting into a lot of home improvement things, finding out some things I wanted to share, first off being a cure for those nasty yellow armpit stains! Go here to see the recipe, but I can vouch for it as being awesome! Now I don't have to pass up those white shirts at goodwill cause of the stains, or throw out old shirts cause of it! The other thing I found out is that you're supposed to wash pillows, and apparently 3 times a year at that. I had no idea, I though you just tossed them when they got old enough :/ but now I have clean pillows! You can find a good way to do that here. And now, for the recipes. I love my pot roast recipe and my husband thinks it's amazing, it's always moist, flavorful and even the leftovers continue tasting great. It's super easy too, and if you make enough of it you can make what I made with our leftovers, which were Pot Roast Sliders. Also very easy and a fun way to redo the leftovers :) Enjoy!


Amazing Pot Roast (Sorry if it's a repeat!)

• 1 packet gravy mix (any brand or type, I've used beef and turkey before)
• 1 packet ranch dip mix
• 1 packet dry onion soup mix
• 2-3 pound roast
• 1/2 cup water

Mix all of the dry mixes together and sprinkle on top of the roast in the crock pot. Pour the water along the side, not over the roast and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 6-8. The longer the more tender and more flavor will soak into it. 

Pot Roast Sliders

• Pot Roast
• Hawaiian rolls
• Horseradish sauce
• Swiss Cheese

Bake the rolls until they're golden brown, and layer the ingredients on the rolls. Enjoy! Be careful though, the horseradish can be quite hot if you're not used to it. Ranch dressing or mayonnaise would be good substitutes as well :)

Eating out or eating in?

This week I decided to try a recipe my husband had pointed out as being interested in, Korean Bbq Beef Skewers, and at the last minute I paired them with some bacon wrapped asparagus on the grill, a recipe I already shared a while ago here. The skewers were surprisingly tasty, and if you've done some of the recipes before from the blog you might already have most of the ingredients around the house! After I had made these I took the time to think through all of the ingredients I had bought and how much it was as opposed to how much it would cost us if we had eaten out, and the results made me very happy. I got pretty much everything on sale: my steak, bacon and asparagus, and with drinks and such it was about $20 to make this meal that feeds 4. It is a little on the high side for the meals I usually make at home, but it was a great meal, and after figuring in the tip and drinks, if we would have eaten out something like this it would have cost somewhere around $60. It's not quite the same experience as going out to eat of course, but when money is tight and you want to still have a date night, a nice meal paired with a bottle of wine and some candles can do in a jiffy and save you money :) That's enough on that though, time for the recipe!



Korean BBQ Beef Kebabs

(yay! My photos are uploading normally again)

• 1 1/2 lb. sirloin steak, cut against the grain into thin (about 1/4″) slices
• 1/2 c. rice wine or pear juice (1 4 oz. bottle of pear juice from the baby food aisle is perfect and cheap)
• 1/2 c. low-sodium soy sauce (I used regular soy sauce and thought the taste was fine)
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. Sriracha chili sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Combine wine or pear juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, chili sauce, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add sliced steak. Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator. Preheat the grill (or grill pan, in my case). While the grill is heating, thread the steak pieces onto (pre-soaked) bamboo skewers. Cook over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side, being careful not to let the meat get too cooked. If you like your meat more rare lean towards closer to 1-2 minutes, mine cooked very quickly. Serve immediately; serves 4-6.

(recipe from Our Best Bites )