Chunky Weeknight Beef Stew and Slow Cooker Magic

I admit it, I have historically looked down on the slow cooker. I’m judgey about food, I know. But the slow cooker/crock pot just always seemed so, well like faking it in the kitchen. You throw stuff in and turn it on and poof, you have dinner. No real cooking required. But then I had a baby and realized HOLY COW, all you have to do is throw stuff in and turn it on and poof, you have dinner! Game changer people. Because let me tell you, my days of swaying about my kitchen, making up recipes as I went, spending time shopping and singing to myself as I gently caramelized something on the stove, those days have been replaced by the road runner version of myself, cradling a 5 month old in one arm and zooming about wondering if I’ll even get time to eat let alone cook.  Yea, life looks different on the other side of the bump. So I broke down and bought myself a dreaded slow cooker and the dang thing has saved my life. I’ve already braised lamb shanks (recipe to come), made chicken stock and now beef stew and that’s all in like 7 days! I drank the kool aid folks. Slow cookers rule.

Weeknight Beef Stew
a girl and her kitchen

1.5 – 2 lbs beef stew meat
4 celery stalks, cleaned and chopped into 1in pieces
4 large carrots, cleaned and chopped into 1in pieces
6 red potatoes, cleaned and quartered
1 package frozen pearl onions
3 garlic cloves, smashed (skins removed)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
 1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp Worchester sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 c beef broth
1 c red wine
 1 tbsp Salt and 1 tbsp pepper (plus more for seasoning meat)
2 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 cup frozen peas
3 tbsp butter, softened
4 tbsp flour + 4 more to dust meat

Put carrot, celery, potatoes, onions, garlic, thyme, bay, paprika, worchester, tomato paste, 1 tbsp each of salt and pepper, beef stock and wine into crock pot and stir to combine.

In a large nonstick pan, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Meanwhile, toss the beef into a plastic bag (this is the easiest way) along with a heavy pinch of salt and pepper and 4 tbsp of flour. Mush the meat around in the bag until coated with the flour and seasoning. Brown the floured meat in the hot oil on all sides (a few minutes a side, you are not trying to cook it but get some color on it). May need to increase heat to medium-high when you add the meat to the pan.

Add the browned meat to the crock pot and stir again to combine. Set the slow cooker to low and cook for 8-10 hrs. About an hour before you eat, using a fork, mix the softened butter with 4 tbsp of flour so it becomes a paste. Then mix the flour/butter paste into the sauce in the crock pot until most of the lumps are gone. Put the lid back on and continue cooking. The sauce will thicken as it finishes cooking.

When you are ready to eat, stir in the frozen peas (they’ll defrost very very quickly in the hot stew) and serve with crusty bread!

Cooks note: you could also add a cup or two of diced mushrooms with the carrots etc if you like. And if you don't have a crock pot,  you could make this on the stove in a heavy bottom pan or in an over at like 350 for 3 or so hours. Just let it gently simmer away. Also, if using the slow cooker and then leaving the house, just set the butter out before you leave, it will be nice and soft when you get home.

Italian Beef and Vegetable Ragu with Soft Parmesan Polenta

This is one of those recipes that I cooked up in my head on the fly while trying to clean out the frig and freezer. So I tried to get all the measurements right, but please take these with a grain of proverbial salt because I don’t really measure anything when I cook on the fly and so you might want a little more or less of this or that. Tasting along the way is always encouraged! This was such an incredibly comforting dish and quite honestly, rather healthy if I say so myself. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tonight! A happy medley of tender vegetables and earthy beef bits swimming in a lightly spiced chunky tomato sauce. You could easily swap in turkey or chicken in lieu of the beef and any other vegetables you have laying around. The sauce is thick and homey and marries perfectly with Emeril’s parmesan polenta recipe, which is my go-to polenta these days. This would totally be an easy weeknight meal too. Enjoy!

Old School Lasagna with Meat Sauce Gets Us Back in the Saddle

To my faithful readers and food enthusiasts alike, it has been WAY too long since my last posts and for that I owe you all an apology. I took an unexpected hiatus you see. We bought a house and then we headed off to Italy…and then to Africa and then life just seemed to get in the way.  It’s been one hell of a year folks, but I’m back and I’m hungry for more food adventures. Thought I’d kick things off again with an ode to my roots….meat sauce, cheese, pasta…mmmmmmmm oh yeah it’s my unapologetic homemade meat lasagna folks and it is a doozy!

This one is not for the faint of heart. This is a dish that oozes hominess with sweet yet spicy meat sauce smothered over al dente sheets of pasta tucked between layers of creamy, gooey cheese all bubbling over the side of your favorite casserole dish. With mother nature turning her wintery eye on San Francisco this week, I though it apt to share this “hide out on your couch cause it’s too damn cold outside” dish.

I have to give a nod to my girl, Alex Guarnaschelli, whose Old School Lasagna was my inspiration for recreating a childhood favorite.

A Decadent Mushroom Sauce Perfect for Steak

For the first couple weeks of the New Year, I spent some much needed time detox-ing.  My recent diet has been focused on food including tons of veggies and protein and whole grains but no wheat, no gluten, no alcohol, no caffeine, and no cow’s milk cheese. As anyone who knows me, this was a serious challenge putting a major dent in my pasta and cheese diet, but alas, I was in dire need of a couple weeks to reset the system after an indulgent holiday season.  So over the next few days I’ll be posting some meet and vegetable focused dishes. It’s been a totally fabulous experience particularly because I was allowed to indulge a bit here and there. This recipe represents one of those totally satisfying indulgences! A creamy and rich mushroom sauce draped over perfectly cooked steak seasoned with thyme and rock salt. It was lip smacking good and absurdly easy to put together. So next time you’re in the mood for steak, try whipping up a batch of this sauce. It will elevate dinner to something extraordinary.

You too can make food crack -- Braised Short Ribs over Pasta

There is a food god and her name is most definitively pasta. As clearly evidenced by the preponderance of pasta dishes on this blog, I am an absolute pasta-aholic. This is another sensational dish from one of my favorite people on planet food, Giada De Laurentiis. A rich, dark and meaty sauce that has serious depth of earthly, round warm flavor smothered over freshly cooked, tender pasta. It’s a hug in a bowl.

If that weren’t enough for you, here are two more good reasons to try this dish: it’s cheap and it includes cheese AND chocolate! Short ribs are a fantastic cut of meat. They are down right cheap and require simply a bit of liquid and a long bath on the stove to produce a tender and tasty mass of flavor power. The vast majority of the other ingredients in this dish are highly accessible, many of which happily reside in your pantry. Who knew when thrown together (and I mean thrown, prep time for this one is like a whopping 20 mins) you could make magic!

The second reason for my deep respect for this dish is the fact that I get to garnish this one with both cheese AND chocolate! Don’t let the chocolate thing throw you for a loop. It is completely clutch. The slightly sweet smoothness of the dark chocolate plays well with the salty bite of the cheese. Together they bring out an earthy richness that is warm and soothing all the way through.

But I should warn you. This recipe is basically food crack. It is highly impossible not to over eat with this one and it makes amazing leftovers so honestly, attempt at your own risk. I’ve been known to be caught standing with fork in hand, strands of pasta hanging out of my mouth while smuggling bites late at night in front of the frige in the dark. Enjoy!

No Grill Required Tender BBQ Ribs

We’re pretty big meat eaters in this family so when ribs went on sale this week husband nearly flew to the store. One of the best things about cooking ribs is how seriously easy they are. You absolutely do not need a grill to make fall off the bone amazeballs ribs. As you probably have surmised by now, A Girl and Her Kitchen is all about the pinch of this and pinch of that school of cooking. It’s how my mom generally cooks and while the measuring cups and spoons have a time and a place, they tend to spend more time than not decoratively hanging on my wall. This recipe is no exception to that rule. I took the base inspiration from an Emeril recipe, which is surprising because I tend to want to smack that man any time I see him, but alas there is always a first time for everything.

So despite its dubious roots, this recipe is fabulous.  The rub gives the meat fastastic earthy undertones while the BBQ sauce brings a bright and rich flavor. Your loved ones will give you a standing ovation for these suckers and never know that your hard work amounted to a solid 5 minutes of prep and the rest the meat did on its own. You do however need a few hours to sit at home while they cook in the oven so unless you are lucky enough to work from home like yours truly, this might have to wait for a weekend dinner night, but they are well worth it. So grab a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce, a couple of pantry seasonings and make the easiest yet tender, mouthwatering ribs you have ever eaten in your own kitchen.

The Ultimate Gravy Experience

Great gravy should be the 8^th wonder of the world. When I say gravy I don’t mean the brown stuff you drizzle over turkey on Thanksgiving or drown your mashed potatoes in.  I mean the rich tomato saucey goodness spiked with wine, cheese, garlic and spices that makes spaghetti dance and floats tender meatballs on a delightful path straight to the kisser. The stuff you use your fingers to wipe the bowl clean for. When you are still eating even though you were stuffed 10 bites ago but it’s just so damn delicious that it would be a sin to stop. That’s the stuff I’m talking about; that’s true gravy.

I have a lovely Nana and a fantastic Mom, both of whom make excellent sauce.  I grew up on the stuff and it is divine. Being undeniably me, I’ve taken Nana and Mom’s recipes (or lack there of because as everyone knows there’s no ‘recipe’ for great gravy, it’s instinct, experience and a pinch this and that) and turned them into my own. So while claiming my gravy and meatballs blows my family competition out of the water would be an act of war, or more likely get me left at the kids table for Christmas with only the dregs of whatever roast was being served to munch on, I’m just going to say my stuff wouldn’t be half as amazing as it is without the women before me.

So I present to you my ‘recipe’ for one of the greatest gravies of all time. Though some call it marinara, my sauce is so thick and rich with depth of flavor that continues to make me do a little spaghetti and meatball dance just thinking about it that it deserves the true gravy designation. I’ve included a few of my tricks here such as both parmesan and pecorino rinds as well as roasting the sauce which develops the tomato’s natural sweetness and richness. Do not skimp on the lamb..bone in is a must! This is not a quick dish. This is a full day affair that takes a lot of love. Greatness takes time folks. Be patient; just one bite is worth it enough.

Kitchen Sink Brisket

The first time husband and I took a stab at making brisket we called everyone we knew who had ever made one we liked. Mothers, aunts, grandma’s; we compiled recipe after recipe, scoured the internet in search of the ultimate method. We hummed, we hawed and then we just said SCREW IT and merged all the recipes together to create one ginormous, ultimate Kitchen Sink Brisket. I’m not going to lie, this brisket is amazeballs! Yup, I totally made that word up. It’s a mash-up of “amazing” (which is how this thing tastes, smells, looks...did I say tastes?) and “balls” (because it was down right ballsy to make a brisket with 25 ingredients from 10 different recipes). Ok, so maybe I didn’t make 'amazeballs' up, but someone who had to have been thinking about this brisket made it up because that is exactly how to describe it.

Our Kitchen Sink Brisket debut was at my husband’s family’s Passover dinner 4 years ago. Now I am a Goy (aka not Jewish) or more specifically a Shiksa (a non-Jewish woman) so I have to say, I don’t think anyone expected much of this Shiksa's brisket from the get go (to be fair, this was likely before I got a chance to prove my cooking chops to my in-laws). Then someone asked what was in it and we started rattling off all 25 items. Well, let me just say, the jaws around the table dropped. I’m pretty sure the only reason anyone tried the damn thing in the first place was to be polite. But AHH HAA! (and do please read that with as much Fiddler on the Roof intonation possible) slowly but surely, they all went back for seconds. Alas, the Kitchen Sink Brisket passed the Passover litmus test, one of, if not THE MOST arduous challenge a brisket can go through. My Catholic, Italian nana would be proud :-).

This is a ‘by the nose and mouth’ recipe where, much like my meatballs and sauce, it is a lot about taste and not so much about measuring. So I present to you the last brisket recipe you will ever need…..this one literally has it all! Fear not my friends; brisket is a very forgiving meat as long as you cook it low and slow. It will perfume your house to no end and bring your neighbors to your door asking for spots at the table. So break out your tasting spoons, get a good book and dig in! This is how a Goy and a Jew make a brisket.

Meatloaf Mania

Meatloaf really is a wonderful thing. It’s easy to make, pretty darn cheap, and tastes good. It makes great sandwiches and leftovers and pleases just about any palate. This particular recipe I absolutely adore. It came from an old colleague who pulled it out of a magazine, the name of which I have long forgotten. But this is one hell of a meatloaf. Don’t let some of the ingredients scare you off because the result of this recipe is a sweet yet well spiced loaf that always elicits an “Mmmmm I LOVE meatloaf!” from the husband. I also secretly love this recipe because it lets me practice my knife skills on some standard pantry items like onion, carrot and celery. Whatever the reason, this is definitely a killer recipe.

Meatloaf

1 c fine fresh bread crumbs (from 2 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/3 c whole milk
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 lb bacon (about 4 slices), chopped (plus 3 slices for topping, optional)
1/2 c pitted prunes, chopped
1 1/2 lb ground beef chuck
1/2 lb ground pork
2 large eggs
1/3 c flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 350º with rack in middle of the oven.

Using your cuisinart food processor, turn two slices of white bread into bread crumbs. In a large bowl soak bread crumbs in milk.

Meanwhile, cook onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low, cooking until carrot is tender, about 5 more minutes.

Remove pan from heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, allspice, salt, and pepper. Add to bread crumb mixture.

Using your cuisinart, finely chop 4 slices of bacon and prunes and then add to onion / bread crumb mixture along with eggs and parsley. Mix well.

Using your hands, mix in ground pork and beef until the meat and vegetables are evenly distributed. Pack the mixture into an oval loaf in the bottom of a glass pie pan or other shallow baking dish.

Top with 3 slices of bacon (optional). Bake for 1 – 1 ¼ hours until the center of the meatloaf reaches 155º. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve with side green salad or other veg.

Game Day Chili

It’s prettty much a requirement in my house to have chili during the super bowl. And this year I planned ahead making a heaping pot of chili during the week and let it hang out for 3 days, allowing all the flavors to meld together into utter chili bliss. That way when game day rolled around all I had to do was pull the pot out, plop it on the stove and heat the sucker up, making minor seasoning adjustments along the way. Easy and delicious.

A Girl and Her Kitchen’s Gamy Day Chili is one of those dishes with roughly 5 million ingredients. I am sure other people out there make simpler versions, but I think mine has a depth of flavor that you might not find with those other recipes. This is also a dish where I do a LOT of taste testing. So while I have made an effort here to put down specific amounts of the various ingredients, this is not a perfect science by any stretch of the imagination. Chili is a subjective and mysterious thing. So take bites along the way, using your taste buds and your gut to guide you to what you like adding more heat or smokey flavors as you see fit. Either way, this chili recipe always gets rave reviews from our friends on game day.

Game Day Chili
(A Girl and Her Kitchen)

Chili
4lbs lean ground beef (or half ground beef and half bison meat)
2 onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes with chilies (try MultiGlen)
1 bottle dark beer
1 cup coffee (strong)
1 cup good beef broth
1 cup red wine
2 cans kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
2 tbsp olive oil (or sub with bacon grease)
2 tsp brown sugar
3 ½ tbsp chili sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1-2 tbsp coca powder (unsweetened)
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp oregano
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp hot sauce
2-3 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp coriander
2 tbsp salt, divided (more to taste)
Black pepper to taste
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground chipotle chili powder
1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 jalapeño pepper (optional)

Garnish
sharp cheddar (shredded)
sour cream
1 can sliced jalapeño peppers
scallions, sliced
hot sauce

Directions
In a very large heavy bottom pot (e.g. creuset oval french oven), sauté onions in olive oil (or bacon fat) on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic, season with a 1 tbsp salt and some freshly cracked black pepper and sauté 3 more minutes. Note: bacon fat is a great item to have in your frige. It can add serious depth to most anything. When frying bacon, pour the grease off into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and then pop it in the frige. Use heaping spoonfuls in any dish you like.

Add in the beef, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat. Brown the meat on medium high until mostly cooked through.

Add in the spices, 1 tbsp salt and stir well to combine. Then add the tomato paste, chili sauce, brown sugar, red wine, beer, coffee, beef broth, diced tomatoes with their juices, jalapeño pepper (if using) and beans. Mix well. Simmer on medium low for one hour. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Continue to simmer for at least another hour, though more would be better. In total should simmer on low for 2-5 hours, stirring occasionally and tasting along the way. About an hour before serving, stir in red wine vinegar, adjust seasoning as needed and continue to simmer on very low heat. If making ahead, add the red wine vinegar when reheating day of game. You may also need to add more cayenne and chipotle chili powder as those mellow over time.

Serve with shredded sharp cheddar, diced jalapeño peppers, hot sauce, scallions and sour cream for 'do it yourself' garnish. Yields 10-12 servings.

Where's the Beef?!?

I was prepared for battle, armed and dangerous in my kitchen fatigues. I had assembled my mise en place army and was standing ready to take on the seemingly epic culinary undertaking that is (drum-role please) ......  BOEUF BOURGUIGNON!

 I hope you all read that in the deepest, darkest, rumbling from the depths kind of voice possible because that is exactly how I felt walking into this. I mean there are movies about this dish…movies! I’m trying to stack up to Julia and Anthony here people, no small task.

Now, I LOVE this dish. It’s one of those meals that when done well can be something you dream about for weeks after eating. Rich and smooth and earthy with that depth of flavor that can only come from having taken a bath in wine for 4 hours. I mean really, what doesn’t taste completely awesome after all that?

As it turns out, it’s just not that hard! Maybe it’s because I’ve been making a lot of stews recently. Or maybe it’s that I just can’t stop drooling over all the bacon, butter and winey goodness long enough to worry about the actual cooking part. Or maybe it was that damn Aaron Copland Rodeo music from the “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” commercials that has been running through my head all day. Whatever the reason, I made it through and it was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!

It had a dark, full-bodied and luscious sauce that glistened (thank you copious amounts of butter). The beef just fell apart into these delicious silky morsels. In fact, one look at the fork and those damn beef chunks parted like Moses and the red sea. It was ambrosial. I kept looking up at my husband with the “I totally made this!” look in my eye but my mouth was too busy chewing so the words never made it out. I thought about serving the bourguignon over noodles or something but then decided that it was so rich and simply divine that all it needed was a bowl and a spoon. I will definitely be making this dish again and if you have a spare 5 hours to sit at home ;-) you should too.

Boeuf Bourguignon
(by A Girl and Her Kitchen, adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 8 ounces pancetta, cubed
• 3 lb lean stew meat
• 3 large carrots, cut into 1inch pieces
• 3 shallots, sliced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 bottle (3 cups) red wine (any you like will do)
• 1 shot of cognac (such as Hennessey)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 ounces demi glace (if not available, swop out water and demi glace for 3 cups good beef stock)
• Water to cover
• 4 tbsp butter (unsalted), softened
• 3 tbsp flour
• ½ pound frozen whole pearl onions (optional)
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, stems discarded & caps thickly sliced
• ½ tbsp sherry vinegar (optional)

Preheat oven to 325° with rack in lower third.

Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Sauté pancetta in oil until lightly browned. Remove pancetta with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Dry beef cubes with paper towel and season well with salt and pepper. Reheat fat from pancetta in the pot and brown beef cubes on all sides in batches, 3-5 minutes. As they brown, set aside with pancetta.

Sauté carrots and shallots in the same pot until shallot is golden brown. Add salt and pepper, then beef and pancetta back to the pot. Toss in the cognac to help deglaze the pan. Then stir in tomato paste, garlic, thyme and bay leaf and toss with meat until well distributed. Add the wine and demi glace. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pot. Add the water just to cover. (Note: if you do not have demi glace, replace demi glace and water with 3 cups beef broth.) Bring to a simmer.

Cover pot tightly with liq and braise in oven for 3-4 hours. Meat is done when it pulls apart easily with a fork. 10 minutes before you take the meat out of the oven, add the frozen pearl onions if using. (Check out what 4 hours in the oven did to my pot top! I had to scrape some off to add to the sauce because it had so much flavor!)

While the meat is cooking in the over, sauté mushrooms in one tablespoon of butter until they are lightly browned and starting to caramelize. Do not over crowd the pan with mushrooms. Work in batches. Once all mushrooms are browned, add the previous batches back to the pan, season all mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste. Add sherry vinegar and cook until liquid is evaporated.

When the beef is ready, remove pot from oven and set on the stove. Combine the flour with 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter with a fork. Stir into the stew. This will help thicken it. Then add the mushrooms and mix well to combine but be gentle because that meat is ready to fall apart. If the sauce is too thin, boil rapidly to reduce for a minute or two. Serve with boiled potatoes, rice, noodles, or on its own.

Feeding my Irish side with Guinness and Beef!

I love stew. It's warm, it's comforting, and it reminds me of my dad. Dad is the stew making guy in my family. So when it got chilly this week, I decided it was time to make a big steaming pot of beef stew. I have always been one to throw alcohol into food. Wine gets thrown into marinara sauce and to sauté seafood, beer goes into taco meat and of course mac n cheese. So it was no surprise that when I came across a Guinness Beef Stew recipe I was very intrigued. I really like Guinness. I don't like beer by and large but I do like me some Guinness. I don't know why and it kind of snuck up on me one day when I was drinking the most amazing milkshake ever, a Guinness infused one no less.... Mmmmm a Shakin' Jesse from Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe in Oakland is dream worthy. For better or worse, I decided to take a stab at this Guinness Stew thing.

In true A Girl and Her Kitchen fashion, I found the recipe I liked and immediately went about adjusting it. I am that girl who finds a good base recipe, builds upon it with ideas from other recipes, and then adds things here and there as I cook and taste test. By and large, my laissez-faire method has served me well.

I started with a recipe from the Parsley Theif adapted from Cooks Country magazine. Then I addedd bacon (bc EVERYTHING is better with bacon), garlic, rosemary, cayene, red pepper flakes, frozen peas, tomato paste, mushrooms and pearl onions. I split the stock and did half beef and half chicken and then added a bit more beef stock for good measure. OH and for some reason along the way I threw in a dash of red wine vinegar. Felt like it needed a mini acid boost.

I decided to season my flour with salt, pepper and cayene pepper and toss the toweled off beef chunks in that before browning them. I used shallot instead of onions (though I did also add a bag of pearl onions).

And then I changed the cooking method. I know that sounds big, but I don't own a slow cooker.

Somehow it just didn't make it on the wedding registry list.

So I made do with my 5 1/2 quart round french oven from creuset. I use this pan for everything!! It also helps that I am working from home right now so the stew could simmer away on the stove for hours while I worked. If you have a slow cooker, go ahead and use it and let me know how it goes.

The stew turned out to be spectacular! It was rich and had serious depth of flavor. For those of you who shy away from Guinness or beer in general, do not fret!! The Guinness gave it such a deep wonderful almost earthy flavor while not actually tasting like Guinness at all! And the unsweetened coco powder plays perfectly off the Guiness. The potatoes fell apart a bit but that actually thickened the sauce and even added a creamy element.

I made enough to feed an army so I am sure we'll be eating this for the next few days. Good thing stew is one of those dishes that just gets better with time. :)

Closing 2009 with a full on food coma

This was the first year that my husband (hereto referred to as hubs) and I hosted Christmas. It was a pretty big deal because when I moved out here from the east coast it was a big blow to the folks. So hosting Christmas this year was my way of showing that I can carry forward the family traditions even when I'm 3,000 miles away. So I put my day-job skills of project planning to work and came up with a ridiculous Christmas Feast Matrix spanning 5 days. Every opportunity to eat, well I was going to feed them and feed them well. As it turned out, I might have over fed them. Combined I think the family gained a new member in weight but I was proud of everything that got put on the table. Of course the pièce de résistance was Christmas day dinner but I have to say, Christmas eve was damn good too.

Christmas Eve - Mustard, Rosemary, Garlic and Balsamic Crusted Rack of Lamb









Served with Smashed Peas with mint and Parmesan Polenta.

Christmas Day dinner brought a 7lb beef tenderloin (which was spectacular and purchased from Costco (along with the aforementioned lamb) for a totally reasonable price!)

The beef was rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic thyme, and garlic powder and then roasted to perfection. (35 minutes at 450).




The beef was served with Tyler Florence's epic mashed potatoes that were cooked in cream...yes, CREAM! Some fresh thyme sprigs and garlic cloves were in the cream bath with the potatoes. After mashing, they also got a shot of grain mustard. Best mash ever!

To round out Christmas Day dinner plate we added roasted broccolini with balsamic, a decadent horseradish cream sauce and an earthy, rich wine infused mushroom bordelaise sauce. The meal was divine and a hit for my first Christmas hosting.