Irish Stew

In preparation for St. Patrick's Day we had some "Irish Stew".  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as Giant Eagle didn't have "lamb stew meat" and "pork stew meat."  I actually bought what they had labeled as "Pork and veal for city chicken", took it off the skewers and cut each big cube into two or three pieces.  Two pounds seemed like a ton of meat, but actually was very well proportioned once everything was put together.  The only other thing I changed from the original recipe was to use bullion cubes instead of a can of beef broth.  

This recipe marks my first time buying, cooking, and eating parsnips and a turnip.  It's kinda funny going to a grocery store and looking very closely at the labels trying to figure out what the heck a parsnip looks like.  To all you turnip and parsnip skeptics out there, I purposely dug some out of the cooked stew to see what they taste like.  Pretty much nothing.  They taste like a vegetable in a stew.  Who knows, maybe they contributed a ton of yummy, or maybe none - just added a root veggie to my dinner.

Enjoy your Saint Patrick's Day with some Irish Stew!

Irish Stew

(makes about 8 servings)

• 2 T olive oil

• 1 small sweet onion, diced

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

• 1 T dried Italian seasoning

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

• 2 lb. pork and/or lamb stew meat

• 1 (14.5 oz) can beef broth

• 3 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 1 medium turnip, peeled, quartered, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1 medium sweet onion, cut into large chunks

• 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

• 1 can beer (12 oz)

• 8 small red potatoes, quartered

• 2 T cornstarch

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Place diced onion in skillet and season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.  Mix in garlic.  Cook and stir until tender.  Mix in meat and cook until brown.  Reduce heat to low and pour in beef broth.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes.  

2. Transfer the skillet mixture to a large pot.  Mix in the carrots, turnip, parsnips, peppers, remaining onion, and celery.  Pour in the beer.  Cover and cook for 2 hour over low heat.

3. Remove 1/2 cup stew liquid.  Stir potatoes into pot and continue cooking for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  About 15 minutes before serving mix cornstarch into the reserved liquid.  Stir into the stew to thicken.  

Enjoy!

A leprechaun stopped by and liked it so much he left us this....

Source: Allrecipes.com - Irish Stew, My Way by CLWEST47

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irish-stew-my-way/detail.aspx

Steeler cake

Go Steelers!

I was craving chocolate cake with mocha icing (see recipe for icing here) so I made this for the game today!  Haven't done too much with icing recently, so I had fun.  I used this template, flipped it to be backwards, printed it, traced it and put it on my cake so that I would have nice looking diamonds and circles.  

Easiest Mac n Cheese

Not just easy - probably the easiest mac n cheese ever.  Maybe even easier than Kraft Mac n Cheese.  No boiling water, testing your noodles, draining pasta.  It's just a dump and go.  And also...  it's excellent!

We had this at one of Nick's family reunions and I enjoyed it so much I asked one of Nick's aunts if she could get us the recipe.  She e-mailed it to me and we made it for a Steelers game a few weeks ago.  I was excited that not only was it simple, but it was a hit!  Here's the easy peasey mac n cheesey recipe!

Wait til you see the directions for this one!

Mac n Cheese 

•1 1/2 c. uncooked macaroni

• 4 c. milk

• 1/2 c. melted butter

• 1 1/2 c. cheese (velveeta and/or whatever else you have)

• 1 tsp. salt

• dash pepper

Mix everything in a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 3 hours @ 235°F.

I stirred whenever I passed in the kitchen, probably 2 times.  It was runny when I took it out but it will congeal a lot as it cools.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are very cakey - and very good!  I made them with wheat flour and they were excellent - and I could pretend they were a little healthier.  :)  It's less noticeable if you use half and half wheat and regular flour.



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour  (or substitute with wheat and they'll still be awesome!)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. milk
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional - I didn't add)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°.  In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt.  In a bowl attached to your mixer, combine sugar, oil, and pumpkin.  Add egg.  Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and stir in.  Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

2.  Add vanilla, chocolate chips, and nuts.

3.  Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.  Move to a wire rack to cool.

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Source:  allrecipes.com  Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

Spiderweb Pumpkin and Ginger Cupcakes

My favorite time to bake is when I have a Saturday when we don't have to do anything.  It's especially nice for when I am doing something with icing.  When I have to wait for something to cool, mix colors, decorate, etc. I just like to have a lot of time.  These weren't too bad time wise.  The cupcakes were easy to make and so was the icing. The recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes - I made 15 and they were the perfect size.  I love how festive they are for Fall/Halloween!  They're from a book that my brother and sister-in-law got me for my birthday (Thanks again, guys!)

Spiderweb Pumpkin and Ginger Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 3/4 tsp. baking powder

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp. ground ginger

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

• 3 large eggs

• 1/4 cup (about 1 1/4 oz.) crystallized ginger cut into 1/8-1/4 inch pieces

Icing:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon

• 1 to 2 tsp. whole milk

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger into a medium bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low-medium speed, beat the melted butter, sugar, and pumpkin until smoothly blended.  Mix in the eggs and crystallized ginger.  On low speed, mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated.  The batter will be thick.

Fill each paper liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/2 inch below the top of the liner.  Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.

Carefully place the wire rack on top of the cupcakes in their pan.  Invert the pan and rack to release the cupcakes onto the rack.  Turn the cupcakes right side up to cool completely.  

Icing:

In a large bowl attached to an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla on low speed until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed for 1 minute to lighten the frosting further. 

Frost the cupcakes.  Transfer 1/4 cup of the frosting to a small bowl and stir in enough cinnamon to make it a light brown color and enough milk to make a thick but pourable frosting.  Set aside to use for the spiderwebs.  Use a small spatula to put a second layer of frosting on each cupcake.  Be generous with the icing - a scant 1/4 cup on each.  Make a smooth even layer on top.

Spoon the reserved cinnamon frosting into a small self-sealing freezer bag and seal it.  Cut a tiny hole in one corner of the bag, about 1 1/6 inch long.  Hold the bag about 1/2 inch above a cupcake and slowly pipe two circles, one inside the other, with a dot in the center.  Using a toothpick and beginning at the center on the dot, slowly drag the toothpick to the outside of the outer circle.  Alternate the direction of the toothpick as you continue making lines to form the web pattern, making the next line from the outside of the cup cake to the inside.  Finish the rest of the cupcakes the same way.

Halloween cupcake liners

Love these spiderweb cupcakes!

Happy Halloween!