With money seeming tighter and tighter these days, many of us are finding that dining out has become a thing of the past. We've all been eating more meals at home.

It's been months since I've dined out! Yet, I still want to enjoy a nice dinner from time to time and feel like I'm getting a restaurant quality meal at a fraction of the cost!

So with a little experimenting, paying a little closer attention to sale items, and a few kitchen enhancements (spice replenishments, a few handy untensils, some extra mixing bowls...) I've made some really fantastic dinners...without ever having to find a parking spot or leave a tip!

JANUARY 9TH, 2O11:
Hello followers! Hope you've enjoyed my blog so far. I'm so glad you all keep checking even though my posts last year were few and far between.
Like a lot of you, I am going to commit to post more often this year, at the very least once a week @ the cooking blog. The baking blog, I'll aim for once a month or so.
My intention is to post on the cooking blog ALL my favorite recipes this year and put together a cool, little cookbook for my kitchen at the end of the year. :)
(You'll notice recipes at the end of each post. The text in bold are my modifications and there is a link to the original recipe at the bottom for your convenience)

Keep checking back to see what I've been mixin' up...

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Very Best Beef Stew...

So, I admit, this is actually a post I swiped from one of my other blogs...I recently found myself with some leftover tri tip roast and this was the first recipe that came to mind during this especially chilly fall week.  This recipe is neat because it explores working with shallots...I really interesting alternative to white onions.  This was a really delicious stew that I served with Rosemary ciabatta rolls from, yes, Fresh and Easy!
Hope you try this one.  It also leaves a lot of room for variations!





OK, admittedly, I may have gotten too excited something as simple as beef stew...but here goes:

First thing when I got home from work I cut up some veggies; portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, celery and shallots:
First I sauteed the shallots and celery until they just started to get tender...
Then the mushrooms...And finally some tomatoes...
Then I added my cheat...McCormick's Stew seasoning...with and extra cup and a half of water...I prefer my stew more soupy...it would have been mush without extra water. Then I let the seasoning mix and veggies simmer for about 10 minutes while I cut up the baby reds I'd just boiled and the beef roast meatAnd then for my second cheat...I felt like the stew needed some more veggies, so also added 2 small bags of frozen mixed vegetables. I used the microwave steam-in-bag variety. I just microwaved them for a couple minutes, bag was still cool to the touch and then tossed them in to the mix...Then I brought the mix up to a boil, reduced heat to low and simmered for about 20 minutes while I toasted some garlic bread in the oven...and the finished product:

Who's hungry?
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)