2 posts tagged “food”
Today, I intended to work from home in the morning, and to spend the afternoon helping someone move. When I checked my email this morning, though, it turned out that she didn't need help today after all. Which should have been great, because that left me more time to work.
Instead, though, it sent me into a downward spiral of procrastination and no work. Probably because I felt like I had lots of time, and hadn't left the house. Sigh.
And then, what was to be a slow-cooked chili ended up not, so much, because the stupid burners on my stupid stove don't stay plugged in (or connected or whatever). Grr. Not loving the electric stove just now. Or ever, really.
We went out to the OPH for brunch today. Good times, as always. It's especially nice to enjoy one of our Minneapolis favorites here. We had fun, and stayed way past the point where they stopped refilling our water and coffee.
This afternoon, I decided somewhat last-minute to make some kind of stew. I bought two pounds of beef at Bob's yesterday without knowing exactly what I was going to do with it. Given my lack of plan, I ended up falling back on an old favorite of ours - Penzey's Harvest Stew. It's meant to be made with lamb, but I nearly always make it with beef instead. It's not up on their recipe index, so I'll reproduce it here:
Harvest Stew
2 lb stew meat, cubed
vegetable oil
1 tsp sweet curry powder
1 tsp hot curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tb water (for mixing with spices)
1 onion, finely minced
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into thick coins
4-6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
3/4 C chicken stock
1-2 tsp salt
Preheat over to 325F. Heat oil and brown meat; put it in a large casserole dish with the carrots and potatoes. Mix spices and water to form a paste. Add the onions to the frying pan, reduce heat to medium, and cook until onions are golden. Add spice past, and cook one more minute, stirring to prevent burning.
Pour the onion/spice mixture over the beef. Add the stock to the pan, stir to get up the tasty browned bits, and pour over casserole. Add the salt, and mix everything together very well.
Cover tightly, and bake for at least an hour and a half, covered. Stir occasionally. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional thirty minutes to thicken the sauce.
Servers 4-6 Prep. time: 20 min Cooking time: 2-3 hours
It ended up being quite tasty, and went well with the half-whole-wheat bread I made to go with it. Victor ended up carrying back a 15-pound(!) bag of potatoes from the grocery store, because apparently our ghetto-mart doesn't have any other potatoes at present.
We also had the end of a bottle of wine with dinner, so now I'm a tad tipsy... but still able to post (mostly).
