Cold weather cooking

Well the weather has finely gotten a little chilly here in Oklahoma, and with chilly weather comese warm beef stew. I made beef stew the other day and plan on making this recipe a lot this winter. This is a recipe for stew mix and the stew that I make with it. But you can make your stew how you like and just use this mix instead of a store bought mix. You could measure out a couple portions of mix and give as gifts too along with recipe.

 

Beef Stew Seasoning Mix (makes 26 TBS)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
4 1/4 tablespoons salt
4 1/4 tablespoons black pepper
4 1/4 tablespoons garlic powder
4 1/4 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons celery seeds
4 1/4 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemaryMix all dry ingredients in a ziplock bag or an air tight container, shake well.

Use 2-3 TBS per 2 lbs of meat.

Beef Stew Recipe

Ingredients:

 1.5lb-2lb stew meat

salt and pepper

couple handfuls baby carrots, or 2-3 carrots diced into 1/4 inch pieces

4-5 red potatoes, washed and cubed. (I leave the peels on but you can choose to peel them)

2-3 stalks of celery, diced

1 white onion, cut into medium size chunks

1cup frozen peas

2 TBS vegetable oil, divided

3-4 cups Beef Broth, Or 4 cups hot water and enough bullion cubes to make beef broth (proper measurements on the side of bullion cube container)

Directions:

Dry beef and season with salt and pepper. In a large heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat  add 1 Tbs of oil to pot and place half the meat in the pot, making one even layer. Brown meat on one side (about 2-3 minutes) and take tongs to rotate pieces of meat and brown for an additional 5 minutes or so. Take this batch of meat out and place in a bowl. Add the other TBS of oil and repeat this step with remaining uncooked meat.

Return browned meat back to the pot and add, onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes, 3-4 cups beef broth and 2-3Tbs of beef stew mix. Reduce heat to medium low, cover pot and simmer for about 2 hours, checking liquid levels. If you wish you can add remaining broth into the pot. In the last 5 minutes of cooking add 1 cup frozen peas to the pot. Simmer until peas are cooked. Serve hot.

* You can also do this in a slow cooker, just brown beef as mentioned above and place all other ingredients into slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

 

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Easter Goodies

Hope that everybody enjoyed their Easter Sunday. My little family and I enjoyed a day of relaxation and good food. We also made some cute crafts this weekend. First up food, for Easter dinner we had bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, fried spinach and crash hot potatoes.

Roast Pork Loin with Bacon and Brown Sugar Glaze:

Source: The Comfort of Cooking

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 boneless pork loin, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

2 slices bacon

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Glaze:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
Directions:

Heat oven to 350° F. Place pork loin in a roasting pan or deep casserole dish lined with aluminum foil. Combine the rub ingredients in a small bowl and rub over the pork. Cut each strip of bacon in half and lay strips over the pork loin. Roast for about 40 minutes.
Combine the brown sugar, flour, cider vinegar, and dry mustard in a saucepan. Simmer for 1 minute. Spoon over the pork and return to the oven. Roast for about 15 minutes longer, or until pork registers 160°. Let sit for 2 minutes after removing from oven. Slice and serve.

Pan Fried Spinach:

Source: the Pioneer Woman Cooks, Food from my frontier

3 Tablespoons olive oil

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1 lrg bunch of spinach, cleaned and stems removed

salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and quickly stir it around to avoid burning. Throw in Spinach, using tongs to move it around the skillet. Sprinkle with plenty of salt and pepper. Continue to cook just until wilted. Plate and enjoy

Crash Hot Potatoes:

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Food from my frontier

Ingredients:

12 whole new potatoes (or other small round potatoes)

Kosher salt, to taste

3 TBS olive oil

black pepper to taste

Minced Rosemary (or other herb of your choice)

Directions:

In Pot over medium high heat, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 450° F. Place the potatoes o a baking sheet. Using a potato masher, gently press down to mash each one. Rotate the masher 90 degrees, then mash again. Drizzle the tops of the potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.

And for a sweet treat we had Italian Easter Bread. So yummy.

 

Italian Easter Bread:

Source: The Italian Dish

makes 6 breads

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rapid Rise (instant) yeast, about 2-1/4 teaspoons
• 1.25 cups milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar

• 3.5 cups flour (approximate)
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 6 dyed Easter eggs *
• sprinkles or pearl sugar

Instructions:

* tip:  the Easter eggs do not need to be hard boiled.  They cook when the bread bakes.  I usually just dye the eggs uncooked, without hardboiling them.  Saves time.  Just be careful they don’t crack!

In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter together, just till butter melts.    In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar.  Add the warm (not hot – it will kill the yeast) milk and butter. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.  Don’t worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore.  Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 14 inches long and, taking two pieces, twist to form a “braid”, pinching the ends,  and loop into a circle.

Place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats.  Cover and let rise until double, about an hour again.  Brush each  bread with beaten egg wash.  Put on the sprinkles or sugar.   In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden – about 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.

And super easy spring crafts made by the kids. Super easy, super fun, super fast and super cute.

Coffee filter flowers and Foam bunnies and a chick in disguise.

See how my boys had to make these cute little guys more boyish. The duck and brown bunnies are football players with black under their eyes and a carrot football. They had fun making these. Have a good week and I am going to try to post again this week. Thanks for reading and happy Spring!

 

 

 

 

Irish Beef Stew

I know I’m a little behind on the updating for St. Patrick’s day. I didn’t seem to get around to spending any time on the computer this last week. My in-laws were here spending the week with us. Good times were had by all and lots of cooking that I will update you on soon.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons flour 1lb beef stew meat or diced beef

1 small onion (chopped)

2 large potatoes (peeled and diced)

4 carrots (peeled and sliced)

2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

2 cups beef broth

1 (12 ounce) bottle Irish stout beer

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

¼ cup fresh parsley (minced)

Directions:

In a large pot heat oil. Coat beef cubes with flour and fry in oil until browned on all sides. Remove meat from the pot and set aside. Add mushrooms and onions to the pan. Cook onions until tender.  Add the beef back to the pot. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, beef broth and beer. Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer on low for 1 hour. In a measuring cup mix together 1 table spoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water. Pour into the stew and stir. Simmer until the sauce has thickened. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Source: blogchef.net