Day 1

First up was shopping.  We had to get slab bacon, which we knew was carried at a local butcher shop and bone-in short ribs which we assumed the same shop would have.  We were wrong about the short-ribs and we quickly feared that this little adventure had just taken a nasty turn.  Fortunately, Husband had a thought - let’s try Andronico’s.  Andronico’s is a wonderful grocery store but not very close to our house.  In this case, however, since we were already out and about we headed up to Andronico's.  As soon as we got to the store we immediately went to the meat counter to see what they had and to our amazement they not only had  bone-in short ribs but they had the European style cut that the recipe suggested we use.  With our fears of failure gone, we then searched for everything else we needed and happily found that Andronico’s had it all.  As a result we’ve assigned Andronico’s as the official Happy in the Kitchen grocer!

Day 2 

We began cooking, or more appropriately preparing, since we always follow mise en place.  The prep work for the short ribs went fairly quickly and in no time at all the large, very full, enamel cast iron pot was in the oven cooking.  We only ran into one minor problem during this stage: how to fit everything in the pot and in  what order to place them.  This might seem trivial and was something Michel Richard apparently didn’t think worthy of explaining.  The recipe stated that you add the seared short ribs to a large enamel casserole pot that contains some vegetables.  At some unspecified point, we were also to add two bouquet garnis, one of which was a rather bulky construction using leek leaves.   While we had verified the ribs would fit in our pot before starting, we really didn’t have much extra room and didn't consider everything else that needed to go in. After we got all the ribs in and topped them with the liquids, we realized we hadn’t put in either bouquest garni.  The first, wrapped in cheese cloth, was easy to slide in but the leek encasement of herbs was a problem since we thought it should be submerged for better flavor.  Husband was trying to arrange everything with the tongs but not succeeding so I knew it was time to take over.  “Sometimes you just have to use your hands” I could hear in my head.  Since I’ve never heard Michel Richard speak I’m pretty sure it wasn’t him but my mom yelling at me to use my hands!  Wherever the thought came from it worked and a minute later we had everything arranged and the pot in the oven.  Three and half hours later our cooking for day two was done.

Day 3

The last day was primarily Husband work - that is, removal of the bones from the meat sauce.  I put the final touches on the sauce, which in addition to the two bottles of Syrah added the day before also contained a hefty portion of port.  About an hour and a half later the ribs were ready for their final cooking.  The aromas from the oven were amazing and we could hardly wait to try out our creation.  That night we served the meat over wide parpadelle pasta along with lots of bread to soak up the absolutely delicious sauce. 

The Result