Mmmm Mmmm Good! :)

So ... I finally have a mostly-functioning kitchen now--a functioning brand-new, huge, porcelain sink, and a stove and oven that are hooked up again. I feel like a new person. Probably sounds silly, but I was honestly going crazy without a kitchen.

The kitchen table, the portable dishwasher, and our old fridge were all stuck in our tiny living room, there was kitchen stuff in bins everywhere (including the back porch), and I just felt so cramped. So I feel like I have a new lease on life now. I felt so elated on Saturday when everything was functioning, I just wanted to celebrate. But I had to keep dinner on Saturday simple (Adobo, Rice, and Salad) due to time constraints. So I pledged that Sunday dinner would be a spectacular celebration of our kitchen.

And I thought I would show you how to make this (in case you should ever so desire). I am going to format this post "a la Pioneer Woman." If you guys want a user-friendly recipe, just email me, okay? If you don't have my email, let me know you want it, and I'll post the recipe.

Our complete menu was Osso Bucco, Risotto, Homemade French Pesto Bread, and Salad. Dessert was Ghiradelli brownies and ice cream. I'm only going to show you how to make the Osso Bucco.

Disclaimer first: this is a rather complicated dish that takes a total of about 3 1/2 hours to make. However, I will say that for special occasions (adult birthdays, anniversaries, holicays, etc.), it is a very appropriate meal. So if you feel like blessing someone, this is the way to go (in my very humble opinion of course, lol!)

Here is a quick overview of the ingredients (+veal shanks which I forgot to include in the photo):

You begin by finely dicing 1 c. onion, 1/2 c. carrots (except I grated the carrot--what Carlos (my son) doesn't know won't hurt him, lol!), and 1/2 c. celery (see my special helper--she's very handy in the kitchen!):

Just a very important side note: apparently this is how twelve-year-olds work in the kitchen. Apparently we are not fully prepared to work in the kitchen until we have our high heels on :)

You then dredge the veal shanks in salted and peppered flour. Sorry, don't have a photo of that because my hands were way too messy to touch the camera. My special helper refuses to touch raw meat and get her hands messy with flour. We're working on that, though! ;)

Next, melt a half a stick of butter (1/4 c.) in a rather large pan (if you focus on how much delicious flavor it will add to the final product, it really helps to distract you from what all that butter does inside your body, lol!)

Using high heat, brown the veal shanks in the butter for ab0ut 3-4 minutes on each side. Mind you, after going to four stores in search of veal shanks, I finally gave up and used beef shanks. That's also a much less expensive option, but the veal shanks do definitely work better with this dish. You want to cook them for about five minutes on each side.

Remove the shanks from the pan and cook the carrot, onion, and celery over medium heat for about five minutes, until they look a little translucent and cooked down. While that mixture is cooking add 3 cloves of minced garlic as well.

Note: Notice my helper's beautifully manicured nails :)

Wanna close up of this yummy mixture? I could just let this cook for a few more minutes and eat it with bread. Mmmm. Well, not really. My mouth is watering for some Osso Bucco.

Next, add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste to the vegetable mixture (mmm ... I LOVE tomato paste. Here's a gross little secret about me: I eat it straight out of the can. I only divulge that secret because I'm certain I'm not the only person in the universe that loves to eat tomato paste straight out of the can. I'm sure there must be some aliens on some unknown planet who also enjoy tomato paste ;) Anyway, back to the recipe: mix the tomato paste until it's well combined and cook for about four minutes.

This is a very close up of the tomato paste-vegetable mixture. Can you smell the tangy scent of tomato paste and the sweet smell of the carrots and onions? Is your mouth watering yet?!

Next, add 1/2 c. dry white wine to the pan. For those of you who don't drink at all, you can just add beef broth. I'm Italian--we don't know how to cook without using wine :)

Return the shanks to the pan, and add enough beef broth to halfway cover the shanks.

Then--finally--comes the easy part. Just cover the pan, reduce heat to low, and simmer for three hours. You'll want to check the pan several times during this stage. If the liquid gets below half, just add more beef broth. Side note: I did turn the shanks about halfway through. If you want to do it just a word of caution--be careful because the meat will be very tender and the meat might fall into pieces, which, of course, will ruin the fancy presentation when you're about to wow your guests at the table, lol!

Then I forgot to photograph the last two steps (because company had arrived, lol!). You are going to make something that sounds very fancy, but is easy. You are going to impress your family by making a "gremolata." Don't ask me what that means--my knowledge of Italian doesn't extend that far, and I'm too lazy to get my Italian-English dictionary right now. But it's easy: finely chop 1 tablespoon of parsley, mince a large clove of garlic, and zest the peel of 1/2 lemon. Mix it all together and add it to the pan during the last five minutes of cooking.

Be sure to spoon a tablespoon or so of the sauce mixture over the meat when you put it on the plate to serve. Mmmm!

You must promise me you'll do justice to this dish by accompanying it with Risotto :) It is the perfect accompaniment (sp?) to Osso Bucco. And please don't use regular rice. Invest in the very expensive Arborio rice for this dish. It really does make a difference. The texture is different. I used this recipe, except I didn't make the rice into patties like she suggests, and I didn't add the peas.

Hint: a way to get your camera-loving child to help without complaining is to take pictures and tell her you're going to put them on your blog :-D