Cold Weather Meals

This winter has been hard on the North East (not as bad as Washington DC area). In fact the snowmageddon was supposed to arrive last week, so in true panic fashion, schools closed or let out early, my work declared a snow emergency, and my neighbor wanted to park in my garage if I wasn't using it. I was slated to work at the R. house (car shuttle to the repair shop, meetings and after school activities) so I decided that a meal that would be cooking all day was in order. Here it is...and the house smelled great all day.

The braised short ribs, I used a recipe from Foodnetwork.

Roasted Beets
Two batches beets with greens
Peel, and cut up beets (I like to use disposable gloves to keep the Dexter effect down)
Place beets in roasting pan with a little olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme.
Cook at 375 for 30 minutes. When after you take them out of the oven, mix in 1 tablespoon orange juice and 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

Sauted Greens
Wash and trim beet greens. Cut the stems in to small dice, shred the leafy greens into medium size pieces.
saute three cloves of garlic in olive oil until the oil is flavored with the garlic. Add the steams and saute until soft. Add 1 cup chicken broth and then add the leafy greens. Saute 2-3 minutes until they are soft. You can add some lemon zest if you like.

Roasted Vegetables
This is from an favorite recipe from the Moosewood Brunch Cookbook
1 lb small potatoes (I use 1/2 yukon gold and 1/2 red)
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
1 red onion
fresh rosemary
fresh marjoram
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut up all veggies, place in large baking dish with other ingredients. Cook at 375 covered with foil for 30 minutes, then uncover and increase temperature to 400 for 15-20 minutes. Turn once or twice to brown all edges. I also make this sweet potatoes (Japanese are my favorite).

Oh and we had less than 2 inches of snow, but the tummy was happy!