The sun came out today. It was out yesterday too. This has been very important, because I’ve been in a fit of the blues lately. I think it may have had to do with the cold, and the dark. I’m hoping with slightly warmer weather, my mood will lift – as will my willingness to post things on the blog. I’ve been in such a funk, I haven’t wanted to do anything.
And yes – for now – the Project is dead. I had a bad week of it – and I really felt like I was spending way more on groceries – just for ingredients for the Project – which was killing my budget – and at this point, I can’t justify the expense in making a whole lot of dishes that don’t lend themselve to left overs, and that didn’t go over very well. It was also affecting my weight loss. So – the Project is dead for now. Though it may come back for special occasions.
I need to get back on track with my weight loss – which means I need to stop the emotional eating. And baking stuff for people that is high in carbs and not good for me at all. So, hopefully I’ll be able to do that.
I do have some reviews coming – I just need to find pictures and put them in the post.
Welcome spring, even if it’s still a bit chilly – you are very much welcome and needed.
I love comfort food, and it’s been especially appropriate these last two weeks. Two blizzards in one week made me decide that I had a distinct craving for stew. Not just any stew. Beef stew. Good beef stew. So I yielded to the craving, and this time I outdid myself. Better yet, my secrets will be revealed.
Forgive me ahead of time for vague measurements. It’s how I cook unless I’m following a recipe. I made this in a 5.5 qt Dutch oven on the stove. It took about an hour and a half from prep to serve. A note about the steak. I gave up last year on stew meat. Gross. Steak became the new meat of choice, usually a nice lean top round. This time, I used some top round and some New York strip steak. Next time, it will be New York strip steak all the way. Trust me, if you can afford it, it’s worth every penny. For the stock, I used Swanson’s Beef Stock for Cooking (33% less sodium).
Steak Stew
1 to 1.25 pounds of steak, preferably New York strip
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 large potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, green beans)
beef stock to cover the ingredients in the pot (I needed around 40 oz)
5 tbs bouquet garni
ground pepper to taste
Several generous dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/5 to 1/4 bottle of Lea and Perrins steak sauce
Cornstarch to thicken (needed a couple tablespoons)
Water to dissolve the cornstarch
1. Grill the steak (or brown it if grilling isn’t practical).
2. Combine all the ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer until the potatoes are tender.
4. Thicken with a mixture of cornstarch and water and then serve.
We are back from Farpoint, which was held this weekend in Timonium, Maryland just north of Baltimore. It was a great time, and I’m going to put a more detailed review of the con, because it’s very small, but just excellent, but I had to take a moment to squee – just a bit over one thing that happened this weekend:
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It is just so ironic, that the week I manage to get the podcast out about my goals for the year, that I’ve completely fall off the wagon. So to be honest – here’s how my goals stand:
Weigh less – I’m off my eating plan and haven’t weighed myself in a week. I’ve also been eating like crap due to the storm.
Knit More – I’ve actually burned through some yarn. I’m another ball in on my cardigan, and I finished up my hats for the Boom Effect. And I started a pair of socks.
Stuff in the Basement – last week – instead of exercising like I had intended, I instead emptied five boxes, and filled three trash bags, and bag for donation. And made sure that stuff was gone.
The Project – I have not been able to bring my self to cook this week. Time is running out, since I’m going to be going to Farpoint this weekend, and will be in a hotel, instead of in my kitchen. I’ve got three of the dishes planned out – so since tomorrow is supposed to be a snow day – maybe I can get at least three done. As for the veggie dish – I may need to catch up with that in a later week. I’m not sure what I’ll do. Read the rest of this entry
In this episode, Sara and I talk about our goals for 2010, and our submission for The Boom Effect. And MA has technical issues and loses the best part of the podcast.
Better show notes in a future episode
Promos:
The Balicon Podcast
The Empress Sword
Comment here for feedback. Or send us voicemail. Again – better shownotes next episode.
Another week down! I’m almost 10% of the way there. Slow and steady is the way to go? Anyway – today’s dish is a dessert dish called No-Pan Pear Pie. And pound cake is one of the ingredients. Now this seems like sacrilege – how can there be cake in pie? Isn’t there an ancient feud between pie and cake? Then how can they exist together in the same dish? It’s a little shocking. Now AB calls this not a true pie, but a fruit gallette. So maybe it’s okay for cake to be in a gallette. But – this is not the whole way that this dish is deceptive. There are not only pears in the pie. There are blueberries! So – the question I ask the great Alton Brown – why not call it No-Pan Pear/Blueberry Pie? Maybe it was the whole alliteration thing.
20 Recipes down, 188 to go.
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It occurs to me, as I contemplate my dinner options for tonight, that I really play fast and loose with recipes. Tonight was going to be macaroni and cheese and ham. This recipe has morphed considerably from the time it came into ours family. Twenty-eight years ago, when my mom was a newly minted cardiac nurse, she got the mother-of-all macaroni and cheese recipes from a patient. The secret to this recipe is that the sauce is based on a roux.
When I grew up and started cooking on my own, I started tweaking the recipe. I used the microwave to make the roux because I was hopeless at making it on the stove. Then I upsized the recipe to make a larger casserole. My mother had been adding ham for years, but I raised the stakes by adding broccoli. Unfortunately, my husband is not fond of this variation. (I will include the original and modified recipes at the bottom of the post.) Read the rest of this entry
Sigh. It’s week 5. Week 4’s dishes were done last night at the time. I had hoped to go for a gold star again this week, but I had to spend an hour an a half one the phone with Turbo Tax, trying to figure out why my tax information for last year had up and disappeared, since I’ve been using their online service since my 2001 taxes. Yeah. So no No-Pan Pear Pie, that actually has cake and blue berries in it. Yeah – that’s a weird one. Instead we had a meal, I’m going to call the Big Hot Mess. Because really – nothing went right.
19 recipes down, 189 to go. Read the rest of this entry
With three hours to go, I managed to pull this week out. We may have eaten at 8:30pm at night, but I did do it. Today I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done. Today we applied for Dan’s passport, almost ate lunch at IHOP, ate at Arby’s instead, introduced the Kid to the wonder that is the roast beef sandwitch, and Dan and I both had eye exams and picked out new glasses. And then when we got home, we sat down to watch the documentary about MMOPRG players, which was very cool, but at that point, I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done. It looked like it might be a Gamer Grub night.
But I’d had a plan and shopped while we were out, and the stuff I’d picked were actually pretty simple to make – nothing crazy. These recipes came from my ‘alternate’ Alton Brown books: Feasting on Asphalt, and Alton Brown’s Gear For Your Kitchen. So this week didn’t use use the Grand Trio, but rather the supporting players. And for the most part it was a success.
16 recipes down, 192 to go Read the rest of this entry
Okay, I know I could be cooking, but the Kid is doing the dishes, so I can start off with a clean kitchen. But overnight, an article on Boing Boing caught my attention. It appears that Amazon has pulled all of Macmillian’s titles from it’s Kindle Store – because Macmillian wanted the price point of ebooks to be approximately $15, rather than Amazon’s $10. This is because they are one of the suppliers for Apple’s ebook application for the poorly-named iPad and the almighty Steve Jobs mentioned that ebooks might cost approximately $15.
Now, I have a Kindle, and love it dearly. Because of it – I probably read a whole lot more last year than I would have. The iPad doesn’t really interest me, and when I heard that the Apple’s ebook prices would be about $15, I shut down. See – $9.99 is the most I’ll pay for an ebook. I just can’t justify anything more – especially for a digital file with DRM on it. Would I pay more for non-DRM – probably not. And even at $9.99, I really have to think hard before I push that button to pay. But with that price point in mind – if I am to get a digital copy for that price or less (or even free), if I really like the book – I’ll pony up to pay for a hard copy.
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