Happy In The Kitchen Club

It's our first, and who knows, maybe our last, Happy In the Kitchen Club dinner. The lineup of cooks are as follows: Me, Lee, Suzanne, Jennifer and guest chef Susan. Plus we have, Wendy, our own sommelier who is providing lovely wine pairings. We started this club because we wanted to cook difficult, but tasty recipes, so we chose a book that seemed to match our needs--Happy In The Kitchen, by Michel Richard. I did a quick search and found there is another HITK Club out there as well. Copy cats! Although I see they were the first, it still makes me want to show them up. The lady that wrote about her club said she started with the Syrah Braised Short Ribs, the same thing I'm making, and now I can't stand her. I guess I am competetive about some things, as long as it's not sports.

It takes about 3 days to make this recipe. One day to shop, one day to prep and do the initial cooking and the next day to finish it off. The shopping is extensive, I went to at least 5 places in the market to gather various ingredients, mainly Don and Joe's Meat Shoppe, Dilaurentis Specialty Store, Market Spice and various produce stands. I actually battled the tourists carrying at least 40 pounds of stuff through Pike Place and when each seller asked what I was making and how they could help me, they then proceeded to ask me if they could come to our party. I was very flattered--I guess the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I chose this recipe because it looked good and I didn't really pay much attention to the ingredients, but once I saw how many ingredients this called for, I realized this is a once a year kind of treat. It takes applewood smoked slab bacon, the best short ribs you can get, two bottles of syrah and a bottle of port--not cheap. Plus if you spend all that money on wine and such you are certainly going to get the best organic produce available which makes this whole thing add up. I read there will be plenty of leftovers, so I guess this makes it more worth while--short ribs for a week.

Fast forward to a few hours later after the HITK party---no leftovers. Another term for short ribs would be really good pot roast that takes tons of time and money. I'd order them in a restaurant anyday and appreciate all the work that went into them, but not so sure I'd be into making them for the heck of it again.