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I noticed an article in Cook's Illustrated regarding the excess fat from braised short ribs. In the article, they actually suggest getting boneless short ribs. According to their tests, cooking the ribs off the bone resulted in dramatically less fat with no noticeable difference in flavor.

As for my weekend project, I made cassoulet for the first time. In prepping for the recipe, I also made my first foray into cooking dried beans which was way easier and less time consuming than expected. I used the quick soak method (boil for two minutes, then soak off heat for an hour) and then cooked the beans the day before. For the meat in the cassoulet, I used a combo of mild sausages, duck legs confit and bone-in pork chops. It was pretty easy to put together and I have a ton of leftovers!

I made beef barley soup from scratch, making even the beef stock. It was delicious, even though I somehow neglected to add salt while the soup was cooking ( I blame the recipe for leaving out that instruction), which was easily remedied at the table.
It was great - and perfect for the (even in Texas) chilly weather!

Mine did not go well. Of the several chouquette recipes I looked at, I chose the one which had me remove the water & butter from the heat while stirring in the flour, rather than the several which had me stirring in the flour over low heat. As a result, I have very rich pancake batter, instead of chouquette dough. Oh well. The pancakes tasted good with stewed fruit, as well as with herbed goat cheese and nuts.

I made chili from the Silver Palate cookbook, a recipe that included lemon and dill, besides the usual suspects. It was delicious, and didn't take all day.

I made the 5-Spice Short Ribs recipe from the "Ask Aida" show on Food Network. These came out really well! I highly recommend them: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aida-mollenkamp/sticky-five-spice-short-ribs-recipe/index.html

I completely forgot about that thread. I did make a new recipe though. It's Chinese New Year. So I ended up making Nian Gao. We make a baked red bean based dessert version in my family.

It's really the first time I've made it myself. But it's not 100% new to me since I've helped my mom when she made it before.

Didn't turn out like hers usually do. Ended up pretty thick...and thus had to cook it for longer, causing the edges to be kind of crispy. On the verge of burning really. Still really good though. Good sticky texture which of course is the point. I'll just need to use a larger pan or an additional smaller pan next time.

I made a whole roast chicken for the first time this weekend. I seasoned it, browned it in duck fat, then baked it in a dutch oven at 450 for about 45 minutes. it was so incredibly juicy and perfect.

I made Butternut Squash risotto, combining about 4 recipes I found online to work with what I had. I also replaced the white wine with an irish whisky I received as a gift a while back and didn't drink. My experiment was successful and I also roasted enough squash to make soup later in the week.

I made the mushroom bourguignon from smitten kitchen. It smelled AMAZING and my husband--skeptical about a meatless dinner--loved it and went back for more. I liked it but I'm not sure I loved it... I will add more carrots next time. It was definitely a different sort of dish for us, and I'm glad I tried it (and it was way easy). I'll see if the leftovers tonight lead me to a more favorable conclusion.

I made Bittman's 15 minute fried chicken. Easy and tasty, but greasy. Sadly, the boyfriend wants it in the regular rotation.

@ anninva, I made that recipe last week too--served it over polenta instead of noodles. I definitely loved it, it made so much for just two people that we enjoyed it for lunch almost all week, too.

The new recipe I tried this weekend is a chickpea, chard and tamarind stew:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/10/new-vegetarian-yotam-ottolenghi
I mentioned it in another post, but it's worth posting again. Delicious, super-healthy, and easy. The recipe says to blanch the chard and drain it, and since I had all that water from blanching I used it for the stew. I also added crushed red pepper for extra heat. Highly recommended!

I made 2 new ones: the kale-potato puree and some Chinese almond cookies. Both turned out very well! (I just sampled one cookie last night. They're made with orange zest, and in my experience zest-flavored cookies are usually even better the next day.) I'll use the leftover puree as a soup base for soup.

Timely--I'd also noticed CI's recipe for it in this month's edition. I got to test the Guiness version last year as one of their volunteer testers, and it was my first non-Asian short rib experience, both preparing and eating. It was delicious!

This weekend, I made some clementine curd, chocolate macarons with peanut butter filling, roasted celeriac, and chana dal (not to have all at once, of course). I'd made citrus curds before, but this recipe used whole eggs, and I liked the lighter flavor and texture. I'd also made macarons before, but never with chocolate. I kinda botched it and didn't want to use my nice curd as filling, so I made peanut butter frosting, instead. A happy turnout! I definitely want to play around more with the celeriac, and the chana dal was delicious--I like them a bit more than regular lentils.

I made barbacoa this weekend from a recipe I got from my mother in law. It was basically just putting the meat in the slow cooker with aromatic herbs and salt. It didn't come out as good as the one she makes, and boy was it greasy, but it was ok for a first try at it.

I sort of did a new recipe and true to form, it didn't really work out. I can sometimes manage great concentration while cooking, but other times I just flake out and ruin the easiest things ever. I was making the herbed almonds from Chez Panisse that Faith wrote about back in December and had checked on them twice, stirring and checking the doneness. A few minutes later (while working on a goat cheese ball and toasts), I thought - oh crap - they're burnt. Sure enough, not a one was edible. I had to run to a surprise party so I just finished the toasts, grabbed the cheese and dumped the whole bowl of almonds in the trash...I guess I will try them again but it's frustrating that I can mess up the simplest things!

I tried a couple of new things this weekend.

I have been wanting to make more recipes out of my Cooks Illustrated book, so I picked the alfredo sauce recipe. It was really good...not so rich that I couldn't finish my portion, but really full of flavor. The technique was a little different than others I've made, but it was definetly the best.

I also made a new recipe for bread to go with the bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce:

http://good-life-eats.blogspot.com/2009/01/thick-chewy-and-crunchy.html

I've also been wanting to make a lemon white chocolate cookie, so I worked on a recipe for that. It needs another test run before I'm perfectly happy with it, even though it was tasty.

@STLColleen, I have begun toasting nuts in my Crockpot. It takes a couple of hours, and you leave the top OFF so they don't steam. I've had very good luck!

Thanks, cmcinnyc! I would have never thought of it and it sure sounds like the margin for error is greatly widened with that low, slow heat. I will definitely give that a try next time. :)

I made Nigella Lawson's cereal bars that someone linked to on the quick breakfast post a week or so ago. Good, but very sweet, with a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk in a 9x13 pan. I'm thinking of stealing a vegetarian trick and making cashew cream, sweetened with maybe half the sugar/honey equivalent of the milk. If that doesn't work, I'll try dry milk made up thick, again with about half the sweetener.

The other things on my list for the weekend were the celery soup from 101Cookbooks and egg "muffins" (I think of them as mini-frittata), but I didn't get to either. I do have the celery chopped however!

I made spaetzle. It was a horrible mess! I think I'll leave pasta making to the pros, since I couldn't even handle the allegedly easy version.

i made a good dinner last night and it felt great to cook instead of running around with a quesadilla :) i made cabbage, mashed potatoes and beef stew. yum!