Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a great evening! We had a fairly low key evening that consisted of heavy appetizers and steaks on the grill with friends before going midnight bowling. No one is ever too old to go bowling! Said late night resulted in a big breakfast and a nice, long nap afterwards. Ahhhh to have a few days off! :)

Do you have any New Years Resolutions? I’m vowing to try to give up my Diet Coke habit. I’ve gone over 48 hours now without one and I’m not doing too bad. Check back in with me next week though and we’ll see if I’m still singing a differen tune.

Now, I know it’s standard to have Hoppin’ John (if you’re from the South) or black-eyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Years Day for good luck but personally, I’ve always found it to be gross. The name doesn’t even sound appetizing. Yuck. So much for good luck in 2012.

To mix it up a bit, I made Braised Short Ribs and Cheddar Cheese Grits.

I started by heating my dutch oven on high heat and then adding in some olive oil. Once the oil was smoking, I added in my ribs that had been seasoned with salt and pepper to cook to a nice brown on each side.

I moved them onto a plate and then added in a medium onion, chopped and a container of sliced white mushrooms. Once the onions had cooked down a bit I added in 2 cups of red wine (I used Shiraz), a 28 oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes with their juices, about a cup and a half of beef stock and added in a few sprigs of rosemary.

Stir the mixture around to remove the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. They will add delicious flavor to the sauce.

Then I added in the short ribs, put the top on, and put them in the oven that had been preheated to 375 to cook for 2 hours.

As you can see by the lighting change in photos, it had gotten dark by the time these babies were done but man were they tender!

The sauce cooked down significantly making the ribs super moist and flavorful. The bones literally came right off when I tried to pick up each rib individually. Perfection!

As for the grits, I used Byrd Mill yellow stoneground grits. As a kid, all of the grits that I saw were instant grits which just look like a bowl of mush as far as I was concerned so I never really gathered a taste for them until a few years ago. While stoneground grits may be a little more labor intensive, they’ll well worth the extra effort.

I cooked them according to the package directions and then added in an entire 2 cup bag of shredded cheddar cheese, about 2 tablespoons of butter and about a 1/4 of a cup of milk for added creaminess. Once that was all well combined, voila! Cheesy, creamy heaven! Not to mention they’re great with my Chile Infused Vinegar.

While this meal definitely kept me “slaving over a hot stove” all day, it was well worth it! Try these and let me know what ya think!

Now I’m off to bed. Back to the grind tomorrow. At least its only a 4 day work week!