Beef, its whats for dinner

Last week, I decided to make some beef stew after buying some beef on sale. Yay for sales! I had never made beef stew and was really pleased with this recipe. I made this in the crock pot and came home to some yummy dinner. Gotta love having a reason to use the crock pot!



Beef Stew
adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped

DIRECTIONS
Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

Notes:

• I put the meat, flour, and seasonings in a ziplock bag and mixed it all up before putting it in the crock pot.
• At the very end, I added some gravy mix to thicken up the sauce.
  

1934 Hershey Chocolate cupcakes

My father in law got a Hershey's cookbook with recipes from 1934 and I promised him that I would make something from the book.



We had a family BBQ last weekend and I decided this was a great time to try a recipe from the cookbook. Cupcakes sounded yummy and I found a pink mint frosting recipe to go along with it. The chocolate cupcake itself was quite yummy, however, I think the frosting was a little too minty and took away from the cupcake rather than compliment it. So that was a little disappointing. I will have to give it another try with a different frosting recipe.

Chocolate Town Syrup Cupcakes
From: Hershey's 1934 Cookbook



1/2 cupful butter
1 cupful granulated sugar
1 teaspoonful vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/4 cupful flour (all-purpose)
3/4 teaspoonful baking soda
1 1/2 cupfuls (1-pound can) Hershey's Chocolate Flavored Syrup

Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour and baking soda, and add alternately with the chocolate syrup to the creamed mixture. Pour the batter into paper-line muffin cups, filling each 1/2 full. Bake in a moderated oven (375 degrees) for 20 to 25 minutes.
Yield: About 30 cupcakes.

Mint Buttercream Frosting
From:Big Oven

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 cups powdered sugar sifted
1/4 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon all natural peppermint extract

1. beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. add 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and peppermint extract, beat until combined.
3. add more powdered sugar as needed to get piping consistency.

Notes:

• I halved the recipe and used 3 cups of powdered sugar for a thicker consistency.
• I think I might have put a little too much mint extract by accident.
• I added red food coloring to make it pink.

Spanish Gourmet Club

Sunday we had another one of my gourmet club get togethers. The theme for this time was Spanish cuisine. I studied in Spain for 2 months when I was in undergraduate school so I was very excited to have some yummy Spanish food.

I decided to make Tortilla Espanola, also known as Tortilla de patatas or in English, Spanish Omelette.

Tortilla Espanola
recipe adapted from here.



1/2 pint of olive oil
5 medium (40 oz each) baking potatoes, peeled, sliced and lightly sprinkled with salt
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 eggs
Salt

Heat the olive oil in a 9-inch skillet and add the potato slices carefully, because the salt will make the oil splatter. Try to keep the potato slices separated so they will not stick together. Cook, turning occasionally, over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain into a colander, leaving about 3 tablespoons of oil in the skillet.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt. Add the potatoes, and stir to coat with the egg. Add the egg-coated potatoes to the very hot oil in the skillet, spreading them evenly to completely cover the base of the skillet. Lower the heat to medium and continue to cook, shaking the pan frequently, until mixture is half set.

Use a plate to cover the skillet and invert the omelette away from the hand holding the plate (so as not to burn your hand with any escaping oil). Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and slide the omelette back into the skillet on its uncooked side. Cook until completely set. Allow the omelette to cool, and then cut it into wedges. Season it with salt and sprinkle with lemon juice to taste (optional).

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Other dishes served at the Gourmet Club:

Tapas (appetizers):



Beef empanadas



Vegetable empanadas



Seafood paella



Beef Tenderloin Asturias (It was so yummy that I almost forgot to take a picture)



And for dessert, we had bread pudding (it is not Spanish, but it was absolutely delicious! Another yummmy dish that I almost forgot to take a picture of.)