Tuesday, October 5, 2010

First pot of stew for the season!

The cool nights called for a good old pot of vegetable beef stew and it really hit the spot! We bought a beef roast - don't buy "stew meat" as it is about twice as expensive. I prefer chuck roast, but this time we found an arm roast on sale. Cut it up in nice big chunks. I trim it pretty lean, but put a good chunk of fat in the pan so it will flavor the soup. You can remove the piece of fat when it has rendered enough to suit you.

Brown the chunks of beef...

It helps if you don't crowd the pan like I did...it will brown more quickly. I seasoned with Worcestershire sauce and pepper. I added 1 carton of beef broth and 1 carton of chicken broth when the beef was browned.
Cut up celery, onions and shave some cabbage to add. I put in a handful of barley, about 2 cups of corn, 1 can of carrots and 3 cans of stewed tomatoes.
I put in a package of fresh mushrooms and seasoned it with the basil and parsley I grew this summer. I added some Cajun seasoning and a little salt. It sure smelled good while it was simmering.
This makes a good hearty soup and you can add anything you like to it. You can also add as much of anything as you want. Hubby likes to drink the juice from a mug, so I always make sure to have plenty of liquid. I also prefer to use beef broth or bouillion or chicken broth...not those little cubes...they are way to salty. I have some beef stock base that comes in a jar and it is pretty good.

Another way to change this up is to stew a whole chicken in plenty of water and season it very well - salt, pepper, sage, celery and onion....and cook until the chicken is done. Remove the whole chicken and de-bone it. Add the veggies you want and when they are done add the boned chicken. 

This makes a lot of stew and it is so good for lunch (and another supper). We had garlic cheese bread with it - slice part of a loaf of French bread, butter it, sprinkle with garlic powder and dried parsley, top with shredded cheese and broil til the cheese is melted and the edges are browned. There's not much any better than this!

Have a great day!





Saturday, October 2, 2010

This is the boy....


that spilled the paint...


that he then walked in and took off down the hall. The dog then proceeded to walk through the paint on the floor, slipped, fell down and covered herself in a lovely shade of cream. She then took off in the opposite direction from Little Man to the front door. I took her outside, got Little Man's shoes off and started cleaning up paint. Please keep in mind that while this Lucy and Ethel episode is going on, Big Guy is screaming at the top of his lungs in his playpen.

I got most of the puddle cleaned up and went and got the dog, who by this time was totally mortified to be running around in a coat of paint, put her in the tub and bathed her. I had much good help from Little Man. Got the dog out of the tub, wrapped her in towels and took her in the living room. Big Guy apparently thought that was fine because he finally quit screaming and smiled. Little Man sat down with the dog and helped dry her off. I went back down the hall to assess the damages (new flooring, remember) and stepped in a huge puddle of lemonade that my little buddy had dropped on the floor.

I wiped up footprints, pawprints and lemonade off the floor. By then, I was sweating, shaking and cursing. Big Guy had stopped screaming, the dog was getting dry, Little Man was seated and calm, so I thought I'd sit down myself. HAH! That's when I looked at my shoes - covered with paint...my sweats - covered with paint...Hubby's office chair - not quite covered with paint but painted anyway...Hubby's desk - a dash of paint here and there, and my hands - paint dried under my fingernails and on my skin. I got a dish scrubber and took care of that.

The dog still has a bit of a cream colored butt but she will just have to grin and bear it. Son-in-law came to pick them up after he got off work at 10 p.m. and the little angels were sleeping with little smiles on their faces. Son-in-law said "Awwww...aren't they sweet?" Amen.