We've been trying to stay warm here on the farm, and aside from the barn cleaner, an air curtain panel, and water for both the pigs and chickens freezing, things are pretty well buttoned up and running smoothly. I'm searching through the freezers for a one-pot meal to keep the kitchen toasty warm.
First up: 4 packages of beef ribs (two-bone sections) weighing over 2 pounds each. In order to fit them all in the pot, I cut them into one-rib portions. They look great!
I'd much rather have put these on the egg and smoked them, but that takes monitoring and time, which I don't have (we are making cheese twice this week to make up for skipping a week in December). So in to the oven with you!
***Here's the point at which the pre-heating oven started billowing smoke into the house, I turned on the exhaust fan, opened the windows, and turned it off - so much for making the kitchen warm!! I placed the pot on the stove instead and cleaned the oven later.
To the meat I added water to a level 1 inch below the meat, then in went the last onion in the house, 6 cloves of garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, 2 Tbs of a salty, hot chili sauce with no English translation on the front label, some Herbs de Provence (I wanted to use bay leaves, but no luck in the pantry).
Covered and cooked at a simmer on the stove for about 6 hours. Then cooled overnight in the refrigerator, defatted (there was about 3 cups!) and the meat shredded. The hardened fat was given to the chickens to eat.
This photo is about 3 hours in.
This photo was taken after the bones were removed from the pot, but the meat was still tough, so I kept it going until it fell apart.
Here the strained stock was added back to the pulled meat, which absorbed most of it.
I served this first as a spicy soup with the excess stock and bean thread noodles. I had vegetables at lunch - seriously, I need to take the time to get some groceries.
Lots of extra meat/stock for the next meal of boiled carrots and Thai-style noodles. There's still some leftover for another day.
I also made a beef/pepperoni/sausage pizza using the Chebe brand gluten-free mix, which is actually a big cracker, and not a bready dough. I think Dan was disappointed because he had to get a real pizza, the "Cheeseburger Special" from the Pie in the Sky (St. Albans) the very next day.
And finally, a goulash!
My favorite was the Thai noodle dish, Dan liked the goulash the best.
