8:00am and i am ready for the day. ive been up since 630, had my cup of coffee, showered, dressed and kids are getting ready for school. i am going to be at school all day so i must get dinner at least thought of, i won't have time when i get home. oh yeah, school all day? well i don't attend school for a grade, but my kiddos go to school, a cooperative elementary school. it is called MCEP, Marysville Cooperative Education Program. parent volunteer is a requirement. to attend this public school, you have to put in 2.5 hours a week per kid. i have two so i just stay the whole day at school, spend my morning in my son's first grade class (a bunch of rugrats) and spend the afternoon in my daughter's 3rd grade class (also a bunch of rugrats but seem to have their acts together just a bit more).
anyway, back to dinner. i decide to make ribs in my crock pot. so i pull out the crock pot, grab the ribs from the freezer and the rest of the ingredients and get started. i will put the recipe at the end because this is one of my favorites, yummy. so this particular recipe calls for 2 onions sliced, so i grab my mandoline, and successfully slice up the first onion, into the crock pot it goes. when i start to slice up the second onion the tip of my thumb joins the onion through the slicer....OH MY WORD!!! i quickly run my hand under water, it is stinging not only from being sliced off, well just the surface, but also because it is now covered in onion juice...yowza!! so i have now sliced my thumb, bled through two bandaids, but hey dinner is on and cooking.
it is funny how much you use the pad of your thumb without realizing that you do so. everyday things suddenly become a major challenge; tying shoes, zipping up a coat, pulling on my socks, putting the key in the ignition and turning it, and yes typing....i am making so many mistakes that this is taking twice as long as it should. not only do i keep bumping it into everything, like it is now 18 times larger than normal and has a mind of its own, but it is throbbing and still bleeding a ton. surface wounds tend to bleed sooo much, it seems worse than it really is.
i remember a time last year when shreddie text me, i was out on a date, if i could remember what time of year this happened i could tell you exactly who it was, but i don't remember. anyway, i was out on a date and i get this text that says, "i just cut off the tip of my thumb..." normally i wouldn't have text back but ummm hello my best friend just text me that she cut off her thumb. well she ends up going to the hospital and they send her home. i go to visit the next day not knowing exactly what i was going to find, but i was thinking that the tip of her thumb to her first knuckle was going to be gone. so her thumb is completely bandaged up and it appears at least through the bandages that it is still intact. her thumb does not appear to be a stump! so i ask her to see it, i love this kind of stuff, grew up with parents in medicine. so she unwraps all the ace bandaging and gauze and well her thumb is still intact. i look at her and say, "i have to admit i am a little disappointed, i was expecting a stump!" shreddie looks at me in disbelief how in the world could i be disappointed, she is injured. of course shreddie milks her injury for quite awhile, but she eventually recovers from her wound.
i now have a similar thumb to shreddies, yes this is what best friends do, we share; stories, hopes, disappoints and injuries. ha! dinner was super yummy and i have enough to take to work tomorrow. my thumb is still throbbing, but is not bleeding anymore. i haven't taken the bandaids off to examine the exact damage, but i will. hopefully by tomorrow i will be able to type better, i do this for a living, i need to be able to use my thumb to its fully capacity. so moral of this story; a mandolin comes with a handle to spear the food that you are slicing to avoid injury. USE IT!!
onion smothered short ribs:
2 medium sweet onions, thinly sliced (i use a mandolin)
3 pounds of beef short ribs
salt, pepper and flour
1 clove garlic, minced (today i used garlic salt and just sprinkled it in, not as good, but works in a pinch)
1 bay leaf, crumbled ( i leave this whole so i can pull it out and i put in a couple more because i like the flavor)
1/2 tsp. dry rosemary
3 whole cloves
1 14-ounce can beef broth
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp. prepared mustard
parsley for garnish
1. seperate onions slices into rings. this should make about 4 cups. sprinkle short ribs with salt and pepper and dredge in flour (i season my flour with the salt and pepper in a ziplock bag and shake the ribs in it). place 1/2 the onions in a 9x13 pan (i use my crock pot). place ribs on top of onions, then add remaining onions. add garlic, bay leaf, rosemary and cloves. pour beef broth over all. cover and bake at 350 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. i put all in crock pot and cook on low all day.
2. remove meat and onions to a deep platter. keep warm. pour cooking liquid into a saucepan and add wine vinegar and mustard. bring to a boil and cook until slightly reduced. pour sauce over ribs and onions. garnish with parsley.
serve with buttered noodles or mashed potatoes.
this recipe serves 6. it is from Mystic Seaport: A New England Table
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