I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Despite having to wait until Saturday to eat my Thanksgiving dinner and the fact I burned my pumpkin pie crust (sooo sad, but the filling was pretty good), dinner was delicious and very satisfying!  I have so much to be thankful for and it was good to reflect on that and also to hear what my kiddos were thankful for.  Michael was thankful for his leappad and for his friends and he hoped they got to eat Thanksgiving dinner, and Ethan said he was thankful for cookies (or maybe he just wanted the ones I made for Mike to take to work), and kept wanting to pray.  Sweet boys!

Here are some pictures of our day....Mike was working so he wasn't with us during the day when these pictures were taken.

I wish I had a thanksgiving-ish recipe to share with you, but I forgot to take a picture of my turkey (and everything else) and my pie crust burnt, so I'm going to give you a recipe I already had in the works.  I'll try and be more holiday meal prepared before Christmas :)

Ok, so Mike and I try to eat the best quality meat we can, so about every 9 months, we purchase a side of beef which has been grassfed/grassfinished.  Needless to say, we eat a lot of beef.  Sometimes it gets really mundane and I get stuck in a rut and cook the same meals every week for dinner.  This particular day I was feeling bored with dinner so I created this dish and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out.  It was tender and delicious!

Braised Short Ribs

Serves six

ingredients

4-1/2 to 5 lb. English-style beef short ribs (8 to 12 ribs)

3 Tbs. coconut oil

Kosher salt

ground black pepper

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onions

1 Tbs. chopped fresh thyme

1 Tbs. finely chopped garlic

2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 cup apple juice

1 cup canned diced tomatoes

2 cups beef broth 

instructions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F. In an 8-quart Dutch oven (or large pot), heat 2 Tbs. of the oil over medium heat. Season the ribs with 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper. Add half of the ribs to the pot (or as many as will fit without overlap), and cook, turning with tongs, until nicely browned on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer the ribs to a platter and repeat with the remaining ribs.

Add the remaining 1 Tbs. oil, carrots and onions to the pan. Season with 1/2 tsp. salt. Cook, stirring and scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan, until the aromatics are soft and lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add thyme, garlic, and rosemary, and cook, stirring, until well distributed and fragrant, about 1 minute.

Pour the apple juice into the pot and cook, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot, until the liquid is reduced to about 2 Tbs., about 1 minute.

Transfer all the ribs (and any juices that have accumulated) back into the pot. Pour the beef broth and tomatoes and 1 cup water over the ribs and using tongs, arrange the ribs as evenly as possible and no more than two layers deep.

Bring the liquid to a simmer, cover, and put the pot in the oven. Cook, turning the ribs with tongs about every 40 minutes, until they are fork tender, at least 3 hours (the longer the better).