Grilled Cheese and Soup

Nothing better during the hot summer months than some delicious hot food.  Hot soup and hot sandwiches in the hot, hot heat are the most obvious pairing.  Here's a basic breakdown of how we turn up the heat on a hot summers day. 

Chop what vegetables you have the patience to and have someone else put up with the ones that make you cry.  It's like dealing with family.

Give that chicken a boiling bath, then add it to a pot of sauteed cry-vegetables (onions).

Add in the other vegetables you actually put in the effort of chopping.

For a good thyme add in some broth and boil then simmer it on down.

A song as old as time, bread and cheese.  Adding another partner in that sandwich makes it spicy.

See, they get along.  Fun between the bread sheets.

Their passion is so hot, it's like a cigarette in bed.  The kind of cigarette in bed that catches fire with potential casualties.

That looks about right.  Now shut up.  No burgers today, just grilled cheese and soup.

As you can see, putting some stuff into a boiling pot then throwing some things between bread and using a heated surface to blend the otherwise volatile ingredients creates a mouthful of love ever so familiar, but never boring.  So delicious, but never annoying.  A culinary comfort of hot, hot passion.  It is the combination of eros and unconditional love that is almost too easy it could be considered criminal.

Tunesday - Leon Bridges

In previous Tunesday posts, I covered the likes of The Alabama Shakes and Lee Fields.  Acts that have soul in both sound and delivery that seems to have been missing from modern music until recently.  Following those same lines is a newer artist named Leon Bridges.

Mr. Bridges brings an old R&B sound with such simple yet dynamic arrangement in both vocals and instrumentation.

Unfortuantely, Leon is still in the works of putting together a full length record, but there are a few videos out there on YouTube and the like.   Dude is something else and will likely be in the public eye in no time.  His recreation of a sound we've all heard before re-birthed with a new twist is refreshing and exciting.

Check out the below video, then scour the internet for his other stuff.  Then just wait until he's all over the radio as he should be.  We need more original, soulful and beautiful tunes in the forefront of popular music.  The man obviously respects true artistry.

Fallin' Off the Bone - Braised Short Ribs

Meat! Everyone loves it, except for vegetarians.  Too bad for them but plenty good for us.  More Meat!  Meat is great, but meat from the bone is so much more flavorful and when properly taken care of via slow-cooking in a beautiful broth bath post-braising, it's even better.

Look at that beautiful meat, seasoned to perfection.

This was a recipe that Alison's aunt Marci shared with us after serving it one New Year's Eve.  It's pretty damn easy when you look at it.  Vegetables, ribs, seasoning, herbs and some wine are pretty much the entirety of the ingredients you'll need.  The only other item that will help in making your culinary effort even more successful is a good cast iron Dutch or French Oven.  In our instance, we utilized our wonderful Le Creuset round French Oven.  Not only does this piece of cookware heat evenly, is oven-safe, but it is also freakishly easy to clean.  When we finished cooking, we thought we were in for a good soak and some elbow grease, but neigh!  A little soap and water and our beautiful cookware was good as new!

Braising our beautiful riblets!

After seasoning our lovely ribs we threw them in our pan with a bit of olive oil and set them to braise, locking in the moisture necessary to yield deliciously moist and tender meat.  After a little time braising in the pan, we set the ribs aside and got our veggies ready to do their magic in absorbing the leftover juices in the pan from our ribby little friends.

 

Look at those tasty little babies!

 

Vegetables are good for you if you haven't heard.

As the ribs sat aside, we dropped our vegetables into the pan with the drippings from the ribs and leftover olive oil.  For this we diced up carrots, celery and onions.  We let the vegetables cook down a bit and added a bit of stock to them, basically creating a vegetable / beef stock.  Once to a boil, we added in some wine, rosemary and thyme.

Who is a loon and why is he smoking?

 

All our beautiful ingredients combined and ready to hang out in the oven for a bit.

 

Will you look at that?  Will you?

After combining our wine, herbs, ribs and vegetable mix, we threw the French Oven in the actual oven to continue cooking in delicious harmony.

Once out of the oven, we used mashed potatoes as a bed for our ribs with a bit of our stock dripped over and around our meat and potatoes.  Since the vegetables broke down to a mush and were mainly used to impart flavor, they were discarded but that is just collateral damage for having such tender, delicious and moist ribs.

I can't remember exactly where the actual recipe from this came from, but you can find many variations on the web.   Hell, you can even wing it and do whatever the hell you please.  Kind of like this article.  Get to it!