Baked Short Ribs and Cornbread

I'm back and better than ever! Preparing these home cooked meals for my family for dinner is so great to do again. They're happy, I'm happy, and so are our wallets.

And, it's a Friday night and what does a high school girl like myself have planned to do? Make dinner of course. On the menu: Baked short ribs in a red wine sauce and buttermilk cornbread with homemade creamed corn. As soon as I got home from school (3:04), I began dinner. I found a "quick" short ribs recipe and had that browning and in the oven in no time. Then I struggled with the side. Eventually a craving for cornbread overtook me, and I went for it. I started by making some creamed corn to put in it since we've had a bag of frozen peas in our freezer for almost a year now...

Making creamed corn is pretty easy and extremely tasty. My mom and I both hate most corn since we're usually given what's out of a can. But we both we drooling for this stuff! Think about making this sometime 'cause its worth it and much better than canned crap.

Well, I didn't actually have any cornmeal. So, when my mom got home she ran out and got some (thanks again, mom!). I whipped the ingredients together real fast in order to get it made in time to eat. Unfortunately, in my rushing I didn't notice you were supposed to keep the wet and dry ingredients separate until the end. Kind of obvious, I know. I just mixed as I went. 20 minutes later we were eating. The cornbread had such great flavor. It had exactly the taste I was looking for. Unfortunately, (and possibly due to the strange why I combined the ingredients), it was very dry. My family and I still devoured it down, with plenty of butter, though.

And of course the main attraction, the meat, was fantastic! I've never had that kind of cut before but it was cheap at the store ($4.75 for a pound, at least I think that's cheap). We use a ton of salt on our foods in my house, but none was needed for this meat.

These were all new dishes for my family tonight, and really out of the norm for us. I'm really glad I went outside of my comfort zone and tried the new and exciting recipes!

In the browning stage

Straight out the oven (Can you see that steam?!)

Baked Short Ribs
found here

Go and get it:
1 pound short ribs
1 tablespoon flour
¼ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup red wine
1 clove garlic

The how-to:
Preheat oven to 300° F.
Roll ribs in flour seasoned with paprika, salt and pepper. Brown in hot fat.
Place ribs in casserole, add wine and garlic. Cover and bake in a slow oven (300° F. ) for two and one-half hours or until tender.

Creamed Corn
from Simply Recipes

Go and get it:
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup heavy cream
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

The how-to:
In a large saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp of the butter on medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook 2 to 3 minutes until translucent.

Add the corn to the onions and butter in the saucepan. Add 2/3 a cup of water and the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the corn is tender.

Add the sugar, nutmeg, and cream to the corn. Cook, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Buttermilk Corn Bread with Creamed Corn
from here

Go and get it:
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup creamed corn
2 tablespoons canola oil
optional bread crumb topping

The how-to:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk together to combine well.

In a large bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, and creamed corn, whisking together to combine thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk mixture and stir to combine. If the batter will not pour, add more buttermilk to the batter. Add bread crumb topping if interested.
Spread canola oil along your baking dish. Pour the batter into the dish. Bake until the cornbread is golden brown and springs back upon the touch, about 20 minutes.