Beef Stew

I knew that I was going to be home all day on Friday, so I decided it was the perfect day to make beef stew. My mom used to always make stew in a crock pot, but I don't have one yet, which meant slow-cooking on the stove. Which meant that I was going to need to stick around to stir occasionally.

I didn't take a picture of the end result because beef stew always just looks like...brown stuff with lumps. Not very appetizing in a photo. This was taken about 15 minutes after the pot was put on the stove.

I used 5 carrots, 5 potatoes, 2 onions, 2 large cloves of garlic, and (of course) a package of stew beef. For the broth, I started with a package of beef stock then added about 3 cups of water - just enough to have everything covered. I added 2 crushed beef bouillon cubes along with cayenne powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then I put a cover on the pot and left it on the stove, on low heat, for about 5 hours (stirring every 15 minutes).

Once the potatoes and carrots were soft and the meat was tender, I realized that I still needed to thicken the broth/gravy. I really hate trying to thicken with flour (i end up with mini-dumplings), but luckily I had some left-over fried zucchini in the fridge...so that got tossed into the pot. Another 15 minutes and I had perfect beef stew. I thought that it was delicious and ended up eating quite a lot of it that night before giving the rest away.

My most recent attempts at cooking have been great, so I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow night's dinner will come out just as well. Check back in later this week to find out about my Thai-inspired chicken creation along with how it turns out!

Sweet and Savory Pasta Salad

Over the past 2 years, I've become a Food Network junkie. It's gotten to the point where if I'm at home and there's nothing really going on, I'll have the TV on, turned to Food Network. When I first got cable hooked up at my current apartment, I ended up sleeping on the couch for a week because I couldn't tear my eyes from the screen. This has lead to some interesting food combinations in the kitchen, which is strange because I'm a bit picky when it comes to what I eat. Luckily, the majority of these dishes have been delicious, and the ones that didn't quite make the cut were flavorless rather than disgusting.

Even though I enjoy cooking (especially when I'm angry or stressed), I have trouble seeing the point in cooking a nice meal if I'm the only one who's going to eat it. But, now I can share my culinary adventures with the entire world, right here on my blog! So without further ado, here's tonight's dinner...

Sweet and Savory Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

- 1 box of shell pasta

- 1 package of Al Fresco All Natural's precooked sweet apple chicken sausage

- 1 Granny Smith apple

- 1 red bell pepper

- 1 small/pickling cucumber

- 1 lemon

- 6 or 7 baby carrots

- 6 slices of microwavable bacon

- 4 oz Colby Jack cheese
- Italian dressing, ground cinnamon, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper to taste


First I took about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and added a bit of cayenne, garlic, and onion powders to it before stirring them together. I set my oven to 350 degrees and sprayed some Pam in a small loaf pan. I took the sausages out of their package and arranged them in the pan, cutting 3 slits in the top of each one. I them sprinkled some of the cinnamon mixture along the top of each sausage before sticking the pan in the oven. The sausages were in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While the sausages were in the oven, I boiled water for the pasta before adding the box of shells. These cooked for about 12 minutes - long enough to have a nice softness while still maintaining their shape. I strained the shells and rinsed them with cold water before returning them to the pot, where I mixed in just enough Italian dressing to keep the individual noodles from sticking together. After this was done, I removed the sausages from the oven to let them cool.

While the pasta had been boiling, I started chipping my vegetables. First I peeled the cucumber and then I seeded it with a grapefruit spoon. I then cut the red pepper into strips. I diced the pepper and the cucumber and tossed the pieces together in a bowl. I then took 6 fat baby carrots which  I halved and sliced before adding them to the rest of the veggies.

Next I took the Granny Smith apple and cut it into eighths. After removing the core/seeds, I cut the sliced in half lengthwise before dicing them. I laid them out in a Pyrex dish and squeezed the juice of a lemon on top before sprinkling the rest of my cinnamon mixture on top. Then I cut the sausage up into small pieces and stirred it together with the apples, at which point I used a slotted spoon to scoop the apples and sausage into a frying pan.

I put the pan on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the sausage and apples were cooking on the stove, I cut the colby jack into 1/4" cubes and added it to the bowl of vegetables from earlier. I took a plate and covered it with a layer of paper towel, on which I arranged the 6 slices of bacon. I put another piece of paper towel on top of the bacon and weighted it with a second plate. I microwaved this for 60 seconds to make sure that the bacon was nice and crisp. by this point, the apples and sausage were done cooking as well.

I took a large bowl and layered the different components as follows:
- half of the pasta
- half of the apples and sausage
- half of the veggies and cheese
- 3 slices of bacon (crumbled)
- 3 tablespoons of Italian dressing
- rest of the pasta
- rest of the apples and sausage
- rest of the vegetables and cheese
- rest of the bacon (crumbled)

I then mixed everything together with a wooden spoon, took the picture I posted above, and served myself a bowl for dinner. I thought it was a really delicious meal, and I hope that if you make it you'll enjoy it too!