July 7, 2011- Kalbi Short Ribs

I got Kalbi marinated beef short ribs from the Fred Meyer meat counter yesterday morning.  They grill up really quickly and are usually quite tasty.  Well, I didn't get the best selection this time.  The meat was really fatty and the marinade didn't penetrate the meat like it usually does.  I guess that's what I get for shopping so early in the morning.  We grilled asparagus tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper as our side dish.  

Thursday, 10/21/2010

Last Friday I picked up some short ribs in Kalbi marinade from the Fred Meyer meat counter.  I thought we would have them over the weekend, but we never did.  I wanted to use them tonight, but was pretty sure they were not going to be good anymore.  It must be my lucky day, because they were still good!  Ben grilled them on direct high heat for 5-6 minutes.  We had iceberg lettuce wedge salads to go with it.  My salad was exactly as I wanted it to be.  1/4 of a lettuce head + bacon crumbles + Kraft's Zesty Italian Dressing = tasty salad.  Ben's didn't turn out as I expected it to.  I got him blue cheese crumbles and assumed we had a blue cheese dressing in the refrigerator.  While it is hard to tell if blue cheese has gone bad, Ben was pretty sure the dressing wasn't good anymore. He opted for the same dressing I used, but was not thrilled with it. 

Katie was willing to eat some rib meat, but mainly just ate grapes and cheese.  

I cooked up a pound of bacon tonight so that we could use it for our salads and then breakfast over the next couple of days.   Rather than using a frying pan, I baked the bacon.  I lined an old cookie sheet with heavy duty foil and then placed two square, metal cooking racks inside the sheet.  The racks had to overlap to fit, but it allowed me to use the entire sheet's surface for bacon.  I covered the racks with one layer of bacon and put the cookie sheet into a cold oven.  I then heated the oven to 400 degrees with the bacon inside.  I first checked on the bacon after 27 minutes.  When it wasn't done yet, I continued to check on it every 3 minutes until it was done enough for my taste.   For thin sliced bacon, 27 minutes is often enough.  For the thicker, leaner cuts of bacon, it takes a while longer.  The cooling racks keep the bacon out of the rendered fat.  This is a method Ben learned from Alton Brown on the Food Network several years ago.

I was just about to write about how sad it is that we can no longer watch Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" on TV anymore.  We gave up cable in January and it has not been available on Hulu.com or through Netflix.  But, as I was pulling up the show to link to it for the blog, I found that there are five full episodes currently on the Food Network's website!  So, if you want to learn about salmon, canned tuna, celery, popovers, or home freezing...check it out here:)  You learn a lot about the food itself and then how to prepare it.  We've learned a lot from Alton.

Monday, 8/16/2010

Katie and I picked up Ben from work today on our way home from the grocery stores.  I drove up to Ballard so that we could go to Fred Meyer and the relatively new Trader Joe's.  It is really hot today, and I didn't want to heat up the house by cooking. So, I opted to grill instead.  I bought a flank steak pre-marinated in kalbi sauce at Fred Meyer.  The butcher was nice enough to offer me a steak from the bottom, because it would have been sitting in more sauce.  Ben grilled the steak on direct medium heat while I made up a salad.  I used sweet butter lettuce and added a poppy seed dressing and glazed walnuts.  The sweetness of the dressing was a nice compliment to the kalbi sauce.  Ben said the steaks were on the grill too long, but I still liked mine a lot. Katie had a little steak and cheddar cheese.  I gave her a piece of lettuce, but she stuck out her tongue and gave it back to me. 

Friday, 6/11/2010

Katie was walking around the house shouting "Da-da" around 4pm. I decided to call Ben at work so that she could hear his voice. After she was done "talking" with Ben, he and I opted to go out for dinner rather than eat at home. Katie and I picked up Ben from work and headed to Maggie Bluff's. We had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. During that time, Katie grabbed my iPod out of my purse and was playing with it. All of a sudden, she bolted towards the marina. Who knew she could move that fast?!? Ben and I both started after her, but he got to her first. They walked along the path together; it was very cute:)

We ordered fish and chips for Katie, since she has been eating fish so well in recent weeks. We sacrificed our own health by eating her chips for her;) Ben and I each got a salad and then opted to share a couple appetizers. Ben was brave and ordered the Broadway Pea Salad- sweet peas, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas and bacon tossed with creamy pepper dressing. He didn't like it at all. The dressing was not what he expected and it had lots of onions in it which were not included in the salad description. So, I shared my caesar with him. It was an ok salad.

The appetizers we shared were the Buffalo Chicken Wings and the Basket o' Ribs. The wings were really good in my opinion. They were deep fried, but not breaded. They had some heat, but not enough that my nose ran. It was nice to actually be able to taste the chicken and not have my tastebuds messed up by how hot the spice was. Ben would have preferred them to be breaded, but agreed that the flavor was good. The ribs were ok. I really like the Kalbi flavoring. Unfortunately, I don't think I chose pieces that had the best quality meat on them. I've purchased much better from the Fred Meyer butcher case. They were still good, but I would have been happier if the meat had been more tender.

It was a lovely evening at the marina. By the time we got home, it was time to put Katie to bed. Ah, what a great Friday night!