Macoranadi

 The Resident Archaeologist was somewhat suspicious of this recipe. He looked at the beef short ribs I brought home from the grocery, asked me how I was going to cook them, and was not sure he would like the results. You see, he has always broiled his short ribs and basted them with sauce and once he is in the habit of cooking a food one way, he tends to stick with it. Me, I'd never gone near a short rib, and barely recognized them in the grocery. I was a little nervous that this might not turn out well, and had been thinking I'd have an expert short ribs guy to advise me. But he disappeared to his office and I was on this rib adventure all on my own.

I decided that instead of cooking the ribs for several hours on the stovetop, per recipe instructions, (I'd feel obligated to babysit them), I'd use a crockpot. I found a crockpot recipe at Taste of Home website which requires red wine and beef broth and some onions, garlic, and carrots. It sounded delicious, so I set to work browning the ribs. I then had some of that red wine handy to deglaze the pan to prepare it for the onions and garlic. The whole marvelous meat and wine and veggies mixture went into the crockpot for about 7 hours on low. And came out fall-off-the-bone delicious! 

I'm sure the cooking-on-stovetop would have had similar delicious results, but I guess I come from the crockpot generation, so I feel more comfortable using that method for something that requires hours of cooking. 

You will see rice on the side, and a slice of buttered brown bread (see Steamed Brown Bread blog) on the plate with the beef. I googled "Macoranadi" since I am unfamiliar with its meaning. There are several spellings for it, and it appears to simply refer to a dish that includes meat and pasta. Had I known, I would have cooked up pasta on the side...but that will be for next time. And there definitely will be a next time. Why? Well, I think I won over the Resident Archaeologist. He went back to the kitchen for seconds!