Kalbi

I woke up thinking of what to do with the beef in my fridge (short ribs and ground beef). I made some oatmeal and in between eating the oatmeal and grapefruit, I started mom's meat sauce.

I love the simplicity of this sauce and how the tomato and beef flavors shine. It's really simple - 2 cans of diced tomatoes (add fresh tomatoes if you have them), 1 can of tomato paste, mix in ground beef, crush 4 cloves of garlic, 1 slice of American cheese (seriously, she thought of this), simmer. Great by itself, over spaghetti or toasted bread ("pizza") and easy to just freeze and eat later.

From there, I started marinating the kalbi for dinner. I had gotten a pack of beautiful flanken style short ribs. I tenderized them under a piece of plastic wrap to prevent splatters of meat and blood. I put the ribs in a large container and poured in soy sauce, rice wine, honey (I couldn't bear to put the Korean apples in) and sesame oil. I also cut up onion, ginger and scallion. It'll marinate for the whole day in the fridge and we'll grill it up for dinner. I hope it turns out okay.

Fast forward 8 hours or so and the whole house is filled with smoke and the smell of beef. I had forgotten that despite exclamations to the contrary made by marketing executives, the Griddler, is not for indoor grilling. But then they'd say, "Actually, the Griddler did a fantastic job and it is not our fault that your kitchen is not outfitted with an exhaust fan made from a jet engine."

The short ribs turned out excellent but sadly, will be relegated to times we are able to grill outside.