Practically Perfect in Every Way

Wednesday was one of those days that was practically perfect in every way (thank you Mary Poppins, and yes, I’m still in Disney mode).

While I may be heard to grumble from time to time about how early my kids are up in the morning, the honest truth is . . . I kind of like it.  (In case you’re wondering, yes, I’ve tried keeping them up later, putting them down earlier, exhausting them with activities, but the fact remains, my kids are simply early risers and there’s no changing biology.)   While I try to encourage the kids to stay in their rooms until 6, the reality is they are often up and downstairs with me by 5.

Since we start the process of leaving the house for school at around 8, I’m left with about three hours each morning to fill with them.  While I try not to stick to any one specific routine each morning (other than I like everyone to be dressed around 7 so there’s no mad dash to leave the house on time . . . makes things much less stressful), there are certain things we try to fit in every morning; breakfast, an attempt at bed making and room-tidying, and a little bit of mommy school.  Which leaves me with the rest of the time to fill. . . . .

Lately, we’ve been using this time to cook.  Which brings me back to why Wednesday was so perfect.  I decided this week to really involve the kids in the menu planning; they each got to choose the meat for one night and one vegetable.  My son chose steak.  And since I already had 4 pounds of boneless short ribs in the freezer, we settled on braised short ribs.

As soon as breakfast was finished, we all went into the kitchen and got to work on making the marinade for the the short ribs; the kids love peeling garlic, measuring out ingredients and they especially love massaging the marinade into the meat.  By the time the meat was ready to go into the fridge, we were all smiling, everyone has happy, and the day could not have gotten off to a better start.

The rest of the day seemed to go swimmingly and I even had a few spare moments before running to pick up the kids to get some potatoes peeled, the broccoli chopped and the ribs into the oven.  All of which is my long-winded way of saying . . . all the dinner prep work was done so that by the time we got home from school, the house was smelling amazing from the slowly-cooking ribs, I had lots of time to spend with the kids before dinner without rushing to cook dinner, which again = happiness for all.

Which brings us to the moment of truth . . . . dinner.  There was great excitement as the kids carried their plates to the table; they couldn’t wait to taste what they had helped to make (it helped that the ribs were smelling fantastic).  I waited with baited breath as they took their first bites . . . . . . . and . . . . it was a HIT!!!  Both kids devoured their dinner.  My son liked it so much, he asked for (and got) leftovers for his school snack the next day.  And the Husband had leftovers for dinner the next night and claimed they were just as good the next day.

So that’s my story of how a braised short rib recipe made my day.  I can’t promise that it will make your day as great as mine was . . . but it is a good recipe, and I highly suggest you make it!!