I’m following the recipe for a really cool beef stew from The Complete Meat Cookbook (see link to cookbooks.) Tons of onions and mushrooms, some carrots, bay leaves, thyme, garlic… And beer. Becks Dark or an Oktoberfest amber is recommended. Nothing to hoppy.

It is simmering, now. It says for an hour and 1/2, but I’ll check it in an hour. I usually make some version of a Lorna Sass pressure cooker beef stew, but wanted to try making it via the simmer this time. And the meat guy’s recipe already smells scrumpcious! If you happen to be vegetarian, I bet the onion and mushroom combo – and the whole recipe would work with seitan – just not the kind premarinated in too heavy a marinade. Although, tamari would give depth to a non-beef version.

It will be a while before it’s done, but the beer I selected is very yummy (had to buy a sixpack since it was not sold singly.) Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen Amber. Fruity. Definitely not lots of hops. Anyway, I’ll report later. I also have to write about a very cool flounder I baked with a crab/spinach/cheese mixture in between two layers of thin fillets.

Well….so much for pastry-making talents transferring easily. Of course, transposing numbers when increasing the recipe by 60% didn’t help since I used too much water, then added to much flour to compensate… Although, except for it rising more than I wanted it too (It was supposed to be thin crust) it wasn’t terrible. The toppings were great, though. And using 2/3 full fat and 1/3 low fat cheddar does make for a nicely textured cheese.

I think I’ll try a whole wheat crust next, one that entails having it rise for few hours, etc…

The Ricotta Pasta and the Bean and Tomato Stew were both really good. I think I’ll probably not make any changes to the stew in the future. Well, I suppose eventually I try some variation, but I liked it as is.

The pasta itself was excellent, but I think that I’d prefer it with either no meat or meat other than ground. I wasn’t crazy about the texture of the ground sausage. I bet it would be nice with chicken or seafood… And, Rachael has five variations in her cookbook, with the other four containing no meat.

I have not done a major grocery shopping for a while…Although, I did pick up some lovely looking swiss chard the other day from our local market. And it needs to be used…tonight! I also have the frozen chicken breast tenderloins from Trader Joes. And I still have fresh basil that is getting less fresh by the day. I’ll have to look, but hopefully, the rest beyond what I use tonight is still okay to freeze.

Anyway – I found a recipe for chicken and rice creamy soup flavored with a fresh lemon juice and calling for 6 leaves of fresh basil added at the end. I am going to adjust the ingredients to hopefully create a very thick stew, or “glop” if you will; thick enough so it can go on a dinner plate along with the swiss chard. I don’t have a red bell pepper, so will substitute green, and I think I with garnish with thin slices of a plum tomato for garnish since it will otherwise be white and green and I am serving it with the chard. Needs color! Too bad it wasn’t the red chard…hmmm, but I don’t think that would do it for color balance.

Although, why am I worrying about the color? My husband is colorblind… Good thing he knows to ask for help when it counts, given that he is an electrician! (No fear, he’s been doing it for over 30 years and hasn’t ever messed up!)

Okay, off to experiment. I’ll put a link to the recipe in my next post. I found it online but can’t find it right now. Luckily, I printed it out so I have the source.