March 15, 2018
March Recipe of the Month: Guinness Braised Short Ribs
By MPrice
Guinness Braised Short Ribs
Serves 4 to 6 people depending on the number of ribs you make.
Ingredients
4 to 6 bone-in short ribs (about an 8 ounce piece, trimming fat if necessary)
Salt (kosher) and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 medium carrots, chopped
4 thyme sprigs
1 rosemary sprig
1 bottle Guinness Extra Stout (or your own favorite dark & malty Irish Beer)
1 1/2 cup beef stock (or 1 cup beef stock and ½ cup brewed coffee)
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Season all sides of the short rib with salt and pepper.
3. Heat a heavy, oven safe pan over high heat. Add olive oil to pan and let it heat for a moment. Sear all sides of the short rib about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add onion and carrot, saute 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes more.
5. Deglaze with beer, scraping up bits from bottom of pan. Bring to boil.
6. Return short ribs to pan. Add beef stock, thyme and rosemary.
7. Cover pan and bake for 2.5 to 3 hours, until meat is tender.
8. Separate the fat from the drippings, and use the remaining drippings (thickening with a roux or by reduction if desired) as a sauce at service.
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How pretty is this signage? A perfect welcome to the party and those florals from Artisan Bloom are stunning!
The Tasting Room was the perfect venue, don’t you think? We love the mix of feminine florals with just a touch of blue for Meagan and Clayton’s baby boy, Tristan!
Another peek at those beautiful tables! SO PRETTY!
We loved how many fun details were party of this shower as well! Guests were invited to take a Polaroid of themselves to put in the guestbook with a note for the soon-to-be parents!
We knew we had to have a fresh juice bar! Fresh squeezed OJ, Pomegranate Lemonade, Cucumber Mint Water, and Mango Lemonade were all served. Yum!
Of course, since we hosted a brunch party, we made sure to have a signature Coffee Bar!
This action bar with artisan cheeses, salad, crackers, and honeycomb was definitely a crowd favorite!
Seriously, how pretty was this event??? I couldn’t help but share one more of this beautiful setup!
We love our Ebelskiver action station! How could you not love these delicious pancakes? Plus the guests love having theirs made to order!
The hand calligraphied menus were such a great addition to the event! Also we served Eggs Benedict because you can’t have brunch with out Benes. Our delicious version were also made to order and topped with whichever toppings the guests wanted. So good!
Of course we also had a whole selection of desserts! Plus, we love displaying some of them in our honeycomb display. Such a whimsical touch!
Thank you to all of the wonderful people who came to celebrate Meagan, Clayton, and baby Tristan! And thank you to Soiree Productions, Artisan Bloom, The Tasting Room, Logan Walker Photography, and Pepper Nix Photography for coming together to host such a beautiful event for them too! It was the best day to celebrate the best soon to be parents!
Check out more Salt Lake City, Park City, and Utah County catering at www.culinarycrafts.com!
An end grain cutting board is the Cadillac of cutting boards. Both functionally and aesthetically, they are tough to beat.
Let's talk a little bit about why an end grain board is so special. Think of your cutting board like a paint brush with the wood grain being the bristles of the brush. Lay that paint brush horizontally, and you have a long grain cutting board. Your knife is going to rest on top of the bristles. Functional, but quite hard on your knife. Additionally, these are not quite as durable as an end grain board as scratches will add up over time and pieces of wood fiber can even eventually be dislodged.
Now take the paint brush and hold it vertically and you have an end grain cutting board. Your knife can slide easily into the bristles. In fact the bristles actually make a cushion for your knife. And after each cut the bristles or wood fibers can spring back into position. Scratches are less likely and less visible and the board itself much more durable.
So, if an end grain board is so much better, why don't we see them everywhere? The biggest reason is simply due to the additional work that is involved in making an end grain cutting board, which then makes them quite a bit more expensive.
For a long grain board, you can simply glue strips of wood together and voila!
However, to expose the end grain, you have to then take the completed board and cut it into strips, flip them on end and glue the whole thing back together before sanding for hours and hours to achieve a flat smooth board.
So, if an end grain board is definitely the way to go...are all end grain boards created equal? Certainly not. The biggest thing to look for in selecting your new board is the type of wood.
We don't want a soft wood or a wood that has an open or loose grain structure. We also don't want an overly oily wood. We are after a nice hardwood with a dense, closed grain pattern. But some woods have a VERY dense grain structure. So much so that even the end grain is still quite hard on your knives. Imagine our paint brush standing on end but being squeezed so tightly the knife still can't be cushioned because the bristles are so tight. Pine and cedar are cheap and easy to work with, but just too soft and open grained. Teak, ebony, bubinga, acacia, hickory and others will make a stunningly beautiful board, however they are just too densely grained. Cocobolo, goncalo alves, purpleheart and other tropical hardwoods are some of favorite woods for certain projects, but just too oily for a cutting board. My top choice for an end grain board is hard maple, often referred to as rock maple. This is the perfect balance of dense grain, that is hard and durable and actually still quite affordable. Now, some of the most beautiful boards out there combine different lumbers to create spectacular contrasting patterns, so a great choice for secondary woods could be walnut, oak, cherry, or others.
I decided to make these for my holiday gifts. They were a lot of work but totally worth it! Check out what I have been up to all year!
Today's Friday Instagram of the Week comes from, Heather, one of the fantastic guests from our Annual Penny Party! We had SOOO much fun unveiling our new foods and trends and seeing all of your wonderful faces too! This pic is of our charcuterie station and it was one of the most popular of the night! We loved it because it married 3 of our FAVORITE local vendors fine offerings in perfect harmony; 
Today's Instagram of the Week comes from @nannetteyorkfloral who posted a peek of this STUNNING 
The cocktail menu consists of a B
We LOVE our local distilleries and High West's American Prairie Bourbon was a perfect addition to Barrel-Aged Blood Orange High West Old Fashioned. The proprietary blend of bourbons are aged from 2 to 13 years, creating a complex taste - which really added something special.
Another interesting element? Ryan Crafts decided to incorporate oak chips to every drink!
Another fantastic local distillery is Beehive Distilling and we were so THRILLED to use it in the Barrel-Aged Key Lime Beehive Gimlet. They use a blend of 7 botanicals that create a really unique profile. Couple that with Key Lime? A whole lotta awesome going on.
Bing Cherries will serve as one of the garnishes and adds a touch of sweetness that is just perfect - especially for winter cocktails!
As you can see, something really amazing is being put together for our NYE menu! We hope you will join us for this extraordinary event - but hurry quick! Tickets are going fast! (Get them 
We LOVE this plan because it really does make planning SOOO easy - but let's be honest too... It's no fun for just one person to do this all by themselves! You need your family (or friends) to join together to help make this a perfect holiday. So, being the super smart woman Mary is, she wrote this plan with different tasks in mind to delegate out. And believe me, when everyone lends a hand, that's when the best memories are made. Happy planning everyone!
Check out more Salt Lake City, Park City, and Utah County catering at 