Sunday, October 10, 2010

Beef Stew

First off...the pretzel dogs were not what I expected.  I took pictures, and maybe I'll post them another day - but they looked better than they tasted.  They have you boil them in a baking soda and water bath, supposedly to give them a crispy outside...they were just WAY too salty tasting!  I think I am going to go the pigs in a blanket route next time and wrap them in the dough-in-a-can croissants!!

OK...Beef Stew....DELICIOUS!!!!

I know, what kind of blogger doesn't post pictures - I have been feeling kinda under the weather for the past week or so and quite honestly I don't want to go through the process of downloading them...so take it from me, the beef stew looked totally normal, and it was delicious!!

Here's what you'll need....
-A Crock Pot
-About 1-1/2 pounds of beef stew meat (go to the meat section at the grocery store, the butcher will show you)
-A small bag of baby carrots (I think it was a one pound bag)
-About 4 medium sized potatoes
-An onion
-Two 8-ounce cans, or I used one 15 ounce can of tomato sauce (Not marinara sauce).
-Some pepper, seasoning salt...maybe a bay leaf.


Alright - here's what I did...
I cut up the stew meat using my deadly sharp kitchen shears into smaller pieces so it was child friendly.  Then I used my Vidalia Chopper (but you could obviously just use a knife) to cut the carrots and potatoes and onion into the desired size pieces and throw them into the Crock Pot with the meat.  Put your seasoning on now (pepper, seasoning salt, a bay leaf) and mix it all up.  Then pour your tomato sauce on top, mix it around a little and then let it cook!!

I put in on High for about 5 hours and then left in on low until my husband got home at around 8:30pm....I started it around 1pm I think....The recipe said to cook on Low for 8-10 hours, but I've learned that with the Crock Pot you can put it on High for a while at the beginning to make up for lost time and then turn it down and let it go to low later.

This was REALLY good, the meat was super easy for the kids to eat and the veggies were plenty soft.  Obviously, if this was for a more mature audience you could cook it less and not have the veggies get totally mushy, but that's a personal preference!

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you try it!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Pretzel Dogs

I got a photo message on my phone from my wonderful husband the other day who has far too much faith in my cooking skills, showing a picture of a picture of an odd looking pretzel with the caption "Do you think you could make this?"

After a few attempts to connect back and forth I got him on the phone and he told me what it was....and asked if I could figure out how to make a "pretzel dog."  I told him with all the phony confidence I could muster "Sure, I could do that...give me a few days and I'll make them for you."  I can't help it, talking to him makes my brain go to mush and I don't think very clearly.  I had NO idea how I was going to go about making those pretzel dogs...the closest thing I could think of was wrapping a hot dog in a croissant - which I have actually done before in a bite-size form.  But I was guessing it was the pretzel portion of the food that got his attention, and we all know croissants aren't the same thing.

So, I did what any devoted, loving wife and mother would do in my situation...I turned to the all powerful Google and BAM - I found exactly what I was looking for.  I also found a new cooking website that I am in love with - A Dash of Sass.  I will post the link to the blog and recipe below.

Tonight I am going to attempt to make the ever tasty pretzel dog...and I will let you know how it goes.  I think it will be rather yummy, but you never know!!


By the way, I have been doing a lot of cooking, I just haven't been good about posting.  I know, kind of disappointing.  I am going to try and do better now that I have a more definite schedule and have more energy from all the exercise!!