Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Provencale for Project Sam {Webisode #56}

What’s Going on Today: Catching up after the weekend in Boston! Back to work on the book.

Naptime Goals: Unload groceries, set up the slow-cooker, ignore it until dinner time!

Tonight’s Menu: Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Pronvencale, Egg Noodles and Salad.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: A little time away is good for everyone.

Last weekend my husband and I spent the first weekend without our daughter since she was born. We went to Boston while she stayed, happily, with her grandparents. We missed her a lot, but I think the time alone was most sane thing we’ve done in a long while. We really needed a break from our routine. We ate what we wanted when we wanted, went to movies, explored Boston (travel series to come soon) and even took some time to do pretty much nothing. There was no schedule, no extra noise, just peace and quiet with each other. Of course, we were happy to have our reunion on Monday. I was thrilled to give my little bug a big hug and kiss and listen to all of her stories about time with Nana.

When we arrived home late Monday night the house was clean and oddly peaceful, even when we had rolled our bags upstairs and deposited laundry all over the bedrooms. It seemed we had managed to bring our aura of calm happiness back home with us and I didn’t want to spoil it too quickly by snapping into my usual Type-A Mom mode. So, instead of writing up several shopping lists and embarking on a mega-grocery trip that evening, I spent 15 minutes at the store buying just enough to get us by for a few days. A bigger grocery trip could wait.

As luck would have it, the next day there was a storm and everything was canceled. I had picked out some ribs at the store the evening before and decided that a snow day was as good a time as any to pop them in the slow-cooker. My daughter and I had plans for the movies so I needed a hot and hearty meal that wouldn’t tie me to the kitchen for the afternoon. There are so many great ways to prepare short ribs and in this case I knew I wanted to adapt my Dad’s Short Ribs recipes for Short Ribs Pronvecale to work in the slow-cooker. I love the aromatics in the stew and the sweet winey glaze that coats the meat after it’s been braising for hours. I also knew this would be an ideal dish for Project Sam, my foodie-mama friend who wants to get better at using her slow-cooker this winter.

As you’ll see here, I was able to prepare the ribs in just a few minutes and left them in the slow-cooker for the afternoon while we went to the movies. When we arrived home all I had to do was cook up some egg noodles and serve the freshly cooked ribs right on top. It was a great winter meal that kept us warm through the rest of the chilly evening.