Shortrib Soup

Instructions

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   salt and fresh ground pepper to taste Place ribs and onions in soup pot. Add stock to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 2 hours or until tender, skimming off fat occasionally. Remove ribs and remove meat from bones, discard bones. Set meat aside. Chill broth until fat rises to surface and skim off. Strain broth, if desired, and return to pot. Return to heat. Add celery, carrots, mushrooms and leeks. Cook for 2 minutes. Add meat. Stir in parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Heat thoroughly and serve with a full- bodied Chardonnay wine.

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   Sittin’ Loose Edna Mae, one of my Grama’s oldest friends, worked hard on a farm all day, and in the evening you could find her flopped in a comfortable old rocking chair on the front porch. Her favorite expression for her feeling at that time of day was, “When ah sits, ah sits loose!” Now there’s a country Inn attitude for you—learn to sit loose. The important thing about a country Inn is to have lots of favorite places to sit. Each one needs to be different and inviting yet has to make the sitter feel that they are the first to have found this particular spot, with this special outview of the world or that unusual insight into life. If you need lessons on favorite spots around the Inn, find one of the Inn cats. They know the best places and they usually don’t mind a little, if quiet, company. We have several cats and lots of places. You need to find, however, the cat whose personality matches your sittin’ mood. Now Nine Patch, for example, our long hair calico cat, is built for comfort not speed. Michael says that from behind she looks like a hairy bowling ball with a tail. A true “Garfield” of cats, you see her ambling slowly around the place, examining every blade of grass like a reincarnated Sixties hippie on bad drugs and blinking sleepily through half-open eyes. Nine Patch looks for comfort and she usually dozes on a cosy quilt- covered chair on the porch out of the wind, in a sunny window seat or behind the orchard wall on a warm stone slab. Her places are warm and cosy and sleep-inducing. If you’re in a mellow mood, follow Nine Patch and take a book but only if you don’t intend to read it. Dixie, on the other hand, is a gadabout cat. A fluffy brainless grey and white furball, she’s the kind of a cat that starts to purr as soon as she enters the room as if announcing, “OK, everyone, I’m here and I’m looking for love!” She purrs if you just look at her from across the room. Dixie pays no particular mind to comfort. She’ll sleep anywhere, anytime, no matter how lumpy it is so long as there are people about or the potential of people about. Quite foolishly, she’ll sleep in doorways, busy doorways at that, waiting to make sure she’s there to catch any tidbitd of conversation or food, and often getting stepped on. Follow her to the places where people gather to chat: the

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   main room by the fireplace, the stone patio, around the kitchen table. Don’t be surprised if she follows you to your room at night for some bedside conversation. Then there’s little Hobbes. A small, sleek, short haired cat with grey stripy pyjamas. She’s a little skittish, shy and hard to find. Her places are quiet unobtrusive spots to sit and watch the world, without being seen watching. They’re philosophical, often elevated and hard to reach places. Least visited, most treasured. The loft in the barn by the window overlooking the courtyard, top of the bookshelf, behind the lattice under the porch. Awkward, I agree. You may have to find your own Hobbes-like places where you can be alert, watchful, and contemplative. Or, Like Edna Mae, you can just “sit loose” in a wicker or rocking chair on the long porch that runs across the front of the Inn. to go off by themselves and enjoy space, quiet contemplation, and alfresco dining. We pack picnic lunches. Tuna fish for Nine Patch, Dixie and Hobbes is optional. Grab a cat and go! Speaking of cats, commedienne Gracie Allen was once asked by a fellow cat- lover, “How do you raise your cats?” Gracie shrugged, “Two hands under the belly, and lift!”