Wednesday Pot Roast Blogging

Here's our dinner Saturday (and in the distance the watchful eyes of T.J. Eckleburg?). Sure, we did it ourselves, but I can't express how good it was. You can make it yourself by following this link to find recipes adapted from Suzanne Tracht, the wonderful cook at LA's Jar. I knew I'd have to blog about this meal just from looking over the recipes, as it calls for denuded, de-boned short ribs, and how often do you get to type de-nuded, de-boned? (Alas, we could only buy ones that were bone-in, but it was easy to remove them when the meat was cooked, and now I've had the chance to write bone-in, too.) Don't pass on making the green beans--they almost taste sweetly pickled thanks to the balsamic. The salad is simple and a knockout, too: chopping up fresh herbs and sprinkling them in the greens, not in the dressing, is quite clever and makes them really pop. (We didn't make the potato pancakes, 'cause that always seems too labor intensive to me.) You won't need dessert, either. The one sad part of the meal is that the Chateau St. Cosme Gigondas was the last of the bottles of wine we carted about France and brought home from our trip last year.