IKEA Hack?

Hello Loyal Viewers...I am shocked and yet not totally surprised that it has been a year since I blogged...well, just about. I guess I should add it to the list of things to improve on in 2015. Starting...now.

So, I wouldn't say that I LOVE IKEA, but I do appreciate it. When I first moved into my own place it was my best friend to furnish my living room and provide home from my clothing. It was a great and inexpensive way to get a clean look in my new home and even I can put the furniture together. Oh, I wish I had pictures of the TV stand that I put together...you would all be so proud. 

Anywho, a couple pieces from that first place (to my surprise) have survived a few moves and served me well. This week, as we were packing away Christmas and putting away the tree, we decided to turn one of these faithful pieces of furniture into kitchen storage so that we will no longer have to search all over the apartment for hidden kitchen appliances, bake-ware, stemware, etc (first go to place to look was always under the guest bed).

So, we headed to IKEA to see what we could find. Here are some pictures from the project, if people want to know the details, let me know. I will say that the bookshelf is from a line (Besta Vara) that I believe they are discontinuing, which is unfortunate because it is so versatile.  

Here is the original bookshelf in all of it's glory. Well, actually this is its twin because I forgot to take the before picture of the one that we transformed, but you get the idea. :)

The during...

The after!!!!

A rack to hold cookbooks, some stemware, pots/pans/lids, bake-ware, small kitchen appliances and anything else that might come to mind.

We used the Grundtal Series for the hooks and rods.

Two hanging rods with hooks to hang pans and a utensil box for extra utensils. 

A drawer for lids and splatter guards. 

Lower storage for Kitchen Aid Mixer, Crockpot, and other bake-ware

Some things to note...

1) IKEA does not provide the screws to drill in the hanging rods, we (and by we, I mean Dan) used sheet metal screws (3/4 inch).
2) We purchased the stemware racks at Home Depot, because the ones at IKEA did not fit our glasses (the bases were too wide).  There are also a lot of options online.

I am so thankful to have Dan and all of his tools to be able to help our ideas come to life. Not to say that I couldn't have done this, but it definitely wouldn't have come out so nice and it might have fallen apart over night...the perks of being with an engineer and having a partner in crime. 

Happy New Years!!!

Spring Cleaning

Every year I decide to take a month or so to clean stuff up, although not your typical spring cleaning, we are talking about our diet/drinking habits/etc. I wouldn't say I drink a lot and but I go threw spurts of lots of social events and whatnot. I also tend to get lazy when I am  busy with work (I just finished my year end audit). So, once a year I take some time to say good bye to booze and worse of all good bye to chocolate. I also may or may not be doing this so I look fabulous for a Mexican vacation (hopefully to be in May).

So what do I do? I stop eating entirely for 40 days and live off lemon juice.  Just kidding, not quite that crazy. Each year I do it a little differently. There is definitely some calorie watching and usually a limit on the starches/carbs. Each year it changes based on what I thought was good the prior year and things that I learn during the year.

This year we are going with a low carb/lean meat/no dairy/lots of veggies kind of thing. I also like to throw in some overpriced juice cleanse days.  :) 

For example...here is what a cleansing cart looks like, although this is kind of what my cart always looks like because if I grocery shop I eat pretty healthy...I just usually tend to eat out.

As I have mentioned multiple times...I love Blue Print juices, although the price is sometimes hard to justify. I have found the best way to have kale is to make kale chips, break it up and remove the stalks, cover with olive oil, your favorite spices/seasoning salt and maybe a lil garlic. Put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 mins, just keep an eye on them till they are crispy. 

Key things I learn after these cleanse/spring clean up;

• I feel great when I am not hungover and eating right gives me a lot of energy and keeps me motivated to get things done.
• Not going out on weekends and drinking results in some serious savings in my banking account and as I have made that a huge priority that is a great thing.
• It is fun to find fun ways to cook healthy. 
• You do fall off the grid a bit socially, especially if you have friends that do drink (which I would say is most of us or at least all of my friends). They will be there when you are done and some will even be crazy enough to spend time with you sober.
• Throwing some work outs and what not in there is a good idea as well, just make sure that your calorie intake isn't too low.

On the plus side for my MILLIONS of viewers...it will lead to more blogging...in theory. Wish me luck tomorrow I start day 4 of 40.  Try it out sometime...you will feel awesome. 

Happy Spring Cleaning!



Braised Elk Short Ribs

In the timber industry, there are lots of hunters. Oddly enough guys who like to hang in the woods, like to hunt. So, when I go down to California to work with our operations, I am usually gifted some sort of meat (elk, bear, deer, etc). Some might say gross...but it is so good for you and cooked right, it can taste fabulous.  On my last trip down there (via private jet...because that is how we roll) I received a package of elk short ribs. Upon receiving them, I had no clue what to do with them. I, of course, turned to the trusty Internet for guidance and came across this fabulous recipe and figured why not (even though it was way out of my comfort zone of cooking, considering I wasn't even sure what made something "braised").

BRAISED ELK RIBS

5 lbs elk ribs or one slab

Salt & pepper 

BRAISING LIQUID

8 ounces red currant jelly (small jar)

2 tbls Dijon mustard

1 cup tawny port

2 cups stock (chicken turkey or beef)

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp juniper berries (10 to 12) scorched and coarsely crushed

1 tsp ground cardamon or 4-5 pods husks remover and finely crushed

1 tbls brown sugar

1 cup red wine

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

Salt (coarse) and fresh ground pepper to taste

Aromatic vegetables such as onion, turnip, celery and carrot may be added in an amount to loosely cover the meat

Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Rub with salt and pepper. Brown the ribs under broiler or in an iron skillet. 

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, whisk all braising liquid ingredients, being careful to liquify the currant jelly. Over medium heat, cook the liquid until it's reduced by a third. 

Place ribs in a slow cooker such as a Le Creuset, covered cast iron Dutch oven or even your trusted crock pot. Pour the reduced liquid over ribs about three-fourths of the way up. 

Simmer at 230 degrees at least 4 hours. The longer the simmer, the more tender the ribs. Eight hours brings them to falling-off-the bone which is the desired level of done-ness.

Per all knowing Wikipedia...Braising (from the French “braiser”) is a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavor.

So now it all makes sense. I went to the store to get my ingredients, figuring I had most of the spices. The next morning I woke up to realize okay...maybe we don't have all of those...so I decided there were going to be a few adjustments. I found this helpful chart to assist with substitution.

About.com - Home Cooking

Allspice - I only used cinnamon and nutmeg
Juniper Berries - Gin...yeah, I got that. :)
Cardamon = Ginger = Cinnamon (this one was a bit of a stretch and I don't think that you are supposed to substitute a substitute, but why not.

So, at 6 AM I was out on our deck in Seattle BBQ-ing to brown the meat. I felt a little odd freezing my butt off doing it, but figured it would be the easiest way to get it done. 

We have a baby BBQ, but it works perfect - Ribs browned . I think mixed my sauce and heated it to reduce it, I didn't reduce it as long as recommended, I had to get to work and figured it would reduce in the crock pot as well. 

 I also being a lover of veggies added some onions, celery and carrots.

 Threw it all in the crock pot on low for 10 hours, crossed my fingers and left for work. When I came back...the apartment smelled FABULOUS!!! Checked the mix (after stressing about it all day) and it looked amazing and tasted awesome. Doug was even impressed and he is usually the cook between us. There is hope for me yet.

 I ended up taking some left overs in to work, because people are always curious about game meat. A few people had it and I had to remind them that it was elk. The meat was very tender.

Here is the recipe as I did it, if I had more control over my work schedule or was around the apartment, I probably wouldn't have cooked it for so long.

Rachel's BRAISED ELK RIBS

5 lbs elk ribs or one slab

Salt & pepper 

BRAISING LIQUID

8 ounces red currant jelly (small jar)

2 tbls Dijon mustard

1 cup tawny port

2 cups stock (Chicken)

1/2 tsp Cinnamon/Nutmeg

Splash of Gin

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tbls brown sugar

1 cup red wine

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

Salt (coarse) and fresh ground pepper to taste

Aromatic vegetables such as onion, celery and carrot may be added in an amount to loosely cover the meat. For me...more veggies the better.

Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Rub with salt and pepper. Brown the ribs on the BBQ.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, whisk all braising liquid ingredients, being careful to liquify the currant jelly. Over medium heat, cook the liquid until it's reduced by a third. Mine was reduced by a 4th at most.

Place ribs in trusted crock pot. Pour the reduced liquid over ribs about three-fourths of the way up. I put it a little higher, because I figured I probably had more ribs and I was hoping for some reduction in the sauce during the day.

Simmer at 230 degrees at least 4 hours. The longer the simmer, the more tender the ribs. Eight hours brings them to falling-off-the bone which is the desired level of done-ness. Yeah...they were falling off.

I believe this would work for any short rib...beef would be fabulous in this. What is your favorite game meat recipe?