The perfect lunch for 3 guys on a snowy day like today

It's a miracle that my Cardamom Beef Stew with Potatoes, Celery Root and Parsnips turned out as good as it did! Because of my cold, I have no sense of taste or smell, which is incredibly frustrating. This recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks, Home Cooking with Charlie Trotter.

B had a few guys from work over for lunch and together they polished off a roaster full of this stew!

Cardamom Beef Stew

1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups chopped yellow onions
2 tbs canola oil
20 Cardamom pods crushed OR 1 tsp ground Cardamom
1 pound stew meat cubed
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cloves of garlic minced
6 cups meat stock
2 cups large diced potatoes
1 cup large diced celery root
1 cup large diced parsnips
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

To prepare the Stew: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the celery, carrots, and onions in a hot roasting pan with the canola oil and cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes or until caramelized. Season beef with salt and pepper and add it to the pan along with the garlic, cardamom, and stock. Cover pan with foil and braise for 2-3 hours or until the beef is very tender. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

To prepare the vegetables: About 45 minutes before the beef is ready, toss the potatoes, celery root and parsnips with the olive oil in a large bowl and add them to the beef in the roasting pan. Allow to cook another 45 minutes. I added some cornstarch to thicken the broth a little, and I suggest you do the same.

Feel free to serve the stew on top of noodles or rice.

My house smells like a cute little bakery

I just took the last pan of Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins out of the oven, and they smell like thanksgiving! This recipe comes from Allrecipes.com one of my favourite go to recipe sites.











I was snap happy this afternoon!

Hoisin Lettuce Wraps

These Lettuce wraps were similar to the ones served at P.F. Changs, except ten times better! Thanks Sook the Cook for the awesome recipe, the leftovers were even better. The only change I made was I added 1 cup of Bamboo shoots to the mix of vegetables.

You can find the recipe here.

Because my husband always comes home from work famished, he munches while I finish preparing dinner, and generally spoils his appetite. Last night I decided to be ahead of the game. since the Leuttuce Wraps are very light, I made Korean Tonkatsu (also adapted from Sook the Cook) as an appetizer so B could eat a little something before the main meal. The Panko breading of the Tokatsu was perfect, however next time I plan on using Chicken instead of Pork.

Stew and Buns..whats not to love?

Dear readers: NO my child and husband have not been starving to death, I have been cooking dinner for the last month just haven't put forth the effort to blog about it. Between our anniversary, engagement parties, Valentine's day, quick jaunts to Toronto and back, gymnastics & swimming lessons, I've been a little busy. However, not busy enough to stay off FB, how does that happen anyways? I'm considering cancelling it altogether, I've said this for a while, but now it's just getting annoyingly time consuming and addictive.

Last night I made the most simple, yet delicious Chicken Stew I've ever had. It came from my grandma looking "Company's Coming" cookbook. I made a few small modifications to the recipe, I used whole white baby potatoes instead of regular potatoes cut up, and rather than chopping the chicken thighs into cubes, I left them whole. The meat was so incredibly soft, we barely had to chew it. So maybe this is why a grandma wrote this cookbook, maybe it's for our denture-wearing friends. Regardless, this recipe was outstanding, I will definitely make it again.

Chicken Stew

4 medium potatoes, cut bite size

4 medium carrots, cut bite size

1 chopped onion

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 cups hot water

1 tbs chicken bullion powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp ground thyme (I used fresh thyme)

1/2 tsp Liquid Gravy Browner - if anyone knows what this actually contributes to the dish, please enlighten me.

Layer potatoes, carrots and onion in a slow cooker. Lay Chicken thighs on top.

Stir next 6 ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over Chicken. Cover. Cook on Low for 9-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours (I chose the latter, I put it on at 1pm and it was perfectly done for dinner at 6pm)

Whilst placing an ACE baguette into my cart yesterday I realized it's been a while since I last attempted to make bread. I bought the ingredients for bread, kept the ACE just in case the bread flopped, and proceeded home.

Here is how they turned out, I was VERY pleased with the final product, Benn had 4 of them with the Chicken stew and another 2 today at lunch as his sandwich bread. YUM!

Looking forward to enjoying one tonight, toasted, with some triple cream brie and pears.

I rarely have strong cravings..

...But lately, THIS rice is what I feel like eating 24/7, it's that good! Thanks Menu Maniac for this awesome fried rice recipe!

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

Do you know why we have eyebrows?

They were put there to act as miniature umbrellas for our eyes, so when we sweat or it rains, the eyebrow hair catches the moisture and diverts it around our eye so it doesn't interfere with our vision. Interesting? I thought so! Don't ask how I know this, all I will say is it had something to do with me Googling "why do we get goosebumps?" I was in an inquisitive mood yesterday what can I say.

I made a pot of Spaghetti for dinner last night, with store bought sauce, but I spiced it up with fresh basil, tons of freshly smashed garlic, oregano, and Parmesan reggiano. I think B thought it was completely from scratch..oops! There was a ton leftover, so I planned on heating it up for dinner again tonight, but as I ate my toast and egg whites (yes D.D, I'm still on that kick) I started catching up on blogs I follow. Thanks to Kevin the leftover spaghetti is still sitting in the fridge because instead, I made Hungarian Mushroom Soup and pan fried Pemeal Bacon. The soup was very flavourful, although next time I will puree it, as I found the texture of the mushrooms a little disturbing.

What have you readers been cooking up lately? Share some recipes with me, I'm always on the lookout for new ones.

A Taste of Autumn

January is more than half way over and I'm still trying to kick this sore throat! The medication I've been taking is leaving me without an appetite and sluggish, which is never a good thing, but especially not when I have so many new cookbooks and recipes I'm dying to try, yet nothing sounds appetizing. I did, however manage to make a few new dishes this week, one of them being Pumpkin and Feta Risotto from my New Food Fast cookbook. Risotto is quite time consuming to make, but totally worth ever bit of effort. This recipe has the perfect balance of sweet and savoury, it's creamy texture is so comforting and definitely very filling!

Pumpkin and Feta Risotto

1lb Sweet Pumpkin (I used buttercup squash)

oil

sea sat and pepper

5 1/2 cups Chicken Stock

1 tbs Olive Oil

2 cups arborio rice

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

5 oz marinated feta in oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the pumpkin on a baking tray and toss with oil, salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes or until soft.

To cook the risotto, place chicken stock in a saucepan over medium heat and allow to simmer. Place oil in a separate sauce pan over medium heat. Add the rice and cook or 1 minute or until rice is translucent. Add the stock, 1 cup at a time, and stir until stock has been absorbed. Continue adding until all the stock has been used, and rice is creamy.

To serve, stir the chives, Parmesan, pepper and pumpkin through risotto. Top with feta and its oil and serve.

note- I toasted the seeds from the squash and sprinkled them on top of the risotto for a garnish and a little crunch.