The Sunday-Feeling Friday

[Short ribs] Onion peeled and cut into chunks. Carrots rinsed and cut into 1-inch pieces, no peeling. 4 garlic cloves smashed flat, skins off.

[Short ribs] Pot on medium-high with 2 tablespoons oil. When it shimmers, beef in one layer (two batches if crowded). Brown 3 to 4 minutes a side. Do not move it while it browns.

[Short ribs] Beef out onto a plate. Onion, carrot and garlic into the same pot. Stir for 5 minutes.

[Short ribs] Tomato paste in, stir 1 minute. 2 cups wine in. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon; that is the sauce. Let it bubble hard 3 minutes.

[Short ribs] 2 cups broth in. Beef back in with its juices. Liquid halfway up the meat. Lid on. Into the oven. Timer 2 hours 30 minutes.

[Short ribs] Wash the board. Go do something else. Do not open the oven.

[Short ribs] Timer. Fork into the biggest piece and twist: it should fall into strands. If it fights you, back in for 30 minutes.

[Short ribs] Pot out, lid off, 30 minutes on the stove to cool, then lid on and the whole pot into the fridge. Go to bed. Friday is the easy part.

[Evening] Friday. Unpack the shrimp, cream and raspberries into the fridge. Frozen shrimp: into a bowl in the sink under a thin stream of cold water for 15 minutes. Read the Friday rows of all four cards; there are not many.

[Chocolate] Snap the bar into squares along its score lines, unwrap, into a bone-dry mixing bowl.

[Chocolate] ¾ cup cream into a mug. Microwave 75 seconds, until it steams. This keeps the stove free for the syrup.

[Chocolate] Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Do not stir. Timer 2 minutes.

[Chocolate] Stir from the centre outward for 1 minute. Streaky becomes dark and glossy.

[Chocolate] Pour into two small glasses. Tap each on the counter twice to level.

[Chocolate] Glasses into the fridge, uncovered, on a flat shelf. Wash the bowl now, while the chocolate is soft; dried chocolate is cement.

[Spritz] Rosemary syrup: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup water and 3 rosemary sprigs in the small pot on medium. Stir until the sugar is gone, let it bubble 2 minutes, then off the heat with the rosemary still in it.

[Shrimp] Sauce: ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons horseradish, juice of half the lemon, 5 shakes of hot sauce, pinch of salt. Stir. Taste a spoonful: it should tingle in your nose. No tingle, one more tablespoon of horseradish. Cover, fridge.

[Spritz] Fish the rosemary out of the syrup. Pitcher: 1 cup gin, 2 cups grapefruit juice, ⅓ cup syrup. Stir, taste a spoonful, fix it with more juice or more syrup. Lid on, fridge. The 7:29 jar: 1 cup grapefruit juice, 3 tablespoons syrup. Lid, fridge.

[Shrimp] Drain the shrimp and pat every one dry with paper towels. Shells off, tails on. Onto a plate with the other half of the lemon cut into 2 wedges. Wrap, fridge.

[Spritz] Cut the grapefruit in half and cut 4 thin half-moons from one half. Cover, fridge. Pick out 2 good rosemary sprigs for the glasses.

[Short ribs] Pot out of the fridge. Lift the hard white layer of fat off the top with a spoon and bin it. This is the restaurant step and it took sixty seconds. Lid back on, pot on the counter.

[Evening] Dishes done, counters wiped. Bowl, pot and board washed. Two wide bowls and two small plates set out.

[Short ribs] Oven to 300°F. [Spritz] Two glasses into the freezer.

[Short ribs] Pot in, lid on, middle rack. Timer 60 minutes.

[Apartment] Shower. The pot does not need you for an hour.

[Shrimp] Build: two wine glasses three-quarters full of ice, a shot glass of sauce pushed into the centre of each, 6 or 7 shrimp hooked over the rim tails out, lemon wedge on the rim. Both onto a plate, fridge.

[Evening] HANDS-OFF FROM 7:20. Music on, lights down, overhead off, table set, candle lit. A small plate for the shrimp tails between the places.