Stewy Goodnesss.

This picture doesn't do this
stew justice! 

Happy December friends! Cold weather, Christmas, New Years..and my birthday month! Gotta say I love December! :) With the cold weather comes hearty warm dinners one of my personal favorites being Beef Stew. Although I've grown up eating it, and have always loved it I've never made it myself until today, and boy did it turned out wonderfully! A few months back my step dad had a cow butchered, which lead to my boyfriend and I coming into about 200 or so lbs of organic, grass fed beef. With this has come a variety of beef cuts, many of which I had never cooked before which included stew meat.

I kind of got thrown into making the beef stew so I didn't have a written recipe that I found online or anything, but I have had beef stew my entire life, and I had experience on my hand as my boyfriend's grandma happened to be here when the beef stew adventure came up.

The stew meat was frozen when this all started and was put into a pot as is with some water. Unfortunately I don't own a crock pot so I just used a regular old pot and let the meat simmer on low for about 4 hours or so. I added water about 3 hours in, as advised by my boyfriend's grandma, and at the 4 hour mark we added Beef Stew Seasoning Mix, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms (which I had never had in stew before).

Growing up the beef stew I always ate had smaller pieces of potatoes as they had disintegrated as the stew cooked. I thought this how every stew was until I learned a valuable piece of information from my boyfriend's grandma. Always used white or red potatoes as they are waxier and don't break down like Russet potatoes do. I saw the light! She had also suggested the mushrooms, which as I mentioned I never had in stew before, but they were a great addition to this stew!! Super happy with how delicious the stew turned out, especially the meat! I've never cooked meat that was as tender as the stew meat turned out so it was quite a nice surprise! Even my picky eater boyfriend who hates stew loved how it turned out! It was so easy to put together too, and I loved how I didn't have to stand over it while it cooked! I just went about my day as dinner took care of itself..can't ask for better than that! :)

Until next time..cheers!!! ;)

UPDATE 2/10/13: As I do own a slow cooker now, I thought I would update this post with an actual recipe for how I make my stew in the slow cooker (which is pretty much the same method as the above post, but I just use a slow cooker now instead of a pot). I'm not going to go into details regarding amounts of these ingredients, as I just kind of winged to be honest. Plus your stew seasoning can give you a better idea regarding quantities.

Noonie's Stewy Goodness: Slow Cooker Edition
Prep Time: 10 mins or so
Cook Time: 8 Hours (Low) 5 Hours (High)
Or until beef is tender.

Whatcha Need:
* Stew Meat of your choice
(I always use beef)
* Potatos
* Carrots
* Mushrooms
* Stew Seasoning Mix
(I always use McCormick's)
* Just enough water to cover the top of your ingredients

Method:
- Place stew meat at the bottom of your slow cooker
- Mix a little water with the stew seasoning, pour seasoning mix and the rest of the water into the slow cooker
- Pile everything else on top, cover and let it be
- Last but not least...enjoy!! :)

Socrates Sculpture Park

The past few weeks I have been pre-occupied with finals, work, school, life, what I'm going to do when I graduate, and a whole host of other problems.... Which provided all the more reason to take a mini-break today and go for a walk!

I live in Astoria, which is well known for its waterfront parks (albeit few people in Astoria actually live on the water) and while I've been to Astoria Park a number of time I had yet to experience Socrates Sculpture Park.

The walk was about 30 minutes, on the way I stopped by a Greek Coffee shop I had been meaning to try which was as delicious and homemade as I had hoped. It was a bit more chilly than I had hoped, but it was beautifully brisk and I got some great views, photos, and art!

The tipped over speaker below was playing music too!

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Adventures via Bitstrips!

Gobble! Gobble!

This photo does NOT do this
dessert justice! :)

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone but I did want to share my little Turkey day creation. It is the season for pumpkin recipes after all. This was my boyfriend and I's 3rd Thanksgiving together, and just like many couples out there we have a split, run around, kind of day as we wanted to spend the day together and with our families. As typical this year we got to lounge around in the morning and spend some time together before we headed off to his uncle and aunt's home in Folsom, dessert in tote. After a delicious meal and dessert we headed to my mom's for "Dessert Round 2", which included pumpkin and cherry pies, as well as this delicious ambrosia salad that my mom makes for every holiday. It's one of those "I don't feel right if I don't eat it on a holiday" type desserts, that I truly look forward to. After all that grubbin', it was of course right to bed when we arrived home later that night. All in all a good turkey day.

So back to that "Turkey day creation" aka "Layered Pumpkin Dessert" that I mentioned earlier. I knew I wanted to make some sort of dessert that incorporated pumpkin. I also knew I wanted to make a dessert that I had never eaten before, or seen at a holiday function, and this is where this awesome recipe comes into play. I initially found this recipe on Pinterest, it immediately caught my eye because not only did it look good, but it sounded out of this world! So without further adieu.....

Layered Pumpkin Dessert

Prep Time: 3-4 Hours

Bake Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

25 Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (1 1/3 Cup)

1/4 Cup Butter, melted

2 pkg. 8 oz. Cream Cheese,softened

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 1/2 Cup Canned Pumpkin

1/2 t. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 t. Ground Nutmeg

2 Eggs

2 pkg. Vanilla Instant Pudding

1 Tub Whipped Cream

1/2 Cup Pecans,chopped

Method:

Heat oven to 350

Mix cookie crumbs and butter, press onto bottom of 13x9 pan, bake 10 mins

Beat cream cheese and sugar with mixer until well blended

Add pumpkin and spices mix, then add eggs 1 at a time blend all well, pour onto crust

Bake for 30 mins, then cool for 1 hour

Beat pudding mixes and milk with whisk for 2 mins, stir in 1/2 of your whipped cream, spread over dessert

Spread remaining whipped cream on top and refrigerate 3 hours or until firm

Sprinkle with nuts before serving.

I didn't change the recipe much except when I made it I opted to use Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg as it contained both of these spices. The other thing I did do different was use a muffin tin instead of a 13x9 pan as I wanted to make individual servings, this really pumped up the dessert's appeal! This recipe was pretty straightforward and the dessert turned out delicious! 

Hope everyone had a nice Turkey day! Heerrreee comes Christmas!
Until next time..cheers!!!