The first meal from the almost-finished kitchen

So, this is what I made tonight, after spending a day installing trim and various finish detail work for 8 hours. We have had 40 inches of snow here since Christmas, which is more than we usually get in 3 years combined, since December 26, the yard has been covered with snow, getting dingier and nastier every day, but its not going away, and I refuse to do the sawing and sanding inside, so all day I was running outside to cut and sand pieces of trim and countertop in the 30 degree air outside, then sweating inside installing it.

A day like this begs for soup, and one of my favorite comnfort-food soups is beef-barley soup, braised bits of beef, kale, and pearled barley. But I didn't want soup for dinner, so it occurred to me to deconstruct beef-barley soup and reconstruct it as a meal.

I went to Wegmons, the greatest grocery store in the world, on Friday, and I bought some boneless short ribs, and I also bought a bag of the most beautiful greens I ever saw, it was a mixture of red and yellow chard, with some purple kale, it was so pretty, deep green and yellow and red and purple, all chopped and washed and bagged and ready to cook.

And I had the barley on hand, because I make beef barley soup frequently.

So, I was thinking, make beef bourguignon with the short ribs, make barley rissotto, and saute' the chard and kale mix, like you would make brocolirabe, with olive oil, hot pepper, and garlic, I also added some red onions for more color and flavor.

I have no pictures of the process this time, but this was the finished product, it was just what I imagined, perfect for a snowy hard day of sweating and working.