Wiggling Around

Yesterday, I made pot roast in The Original Slow Cooker…Crock Pot. Carlos bought this for us 2 years ago.  Unfortunately, I don’t use it that often maybe 4 or 5 times a year.  The recipe booklet it came with is limited so I need to explore some others.  That may be why I don’t use it that often because other than the limited recipes, the pot is AWESOME.  Using a crock pot is sooo easy.  Just throw everything in, set it to low, let it cook for 8-10 hours, and you’re done!  If that’s too much time, you can blast it on high for 4-6 hours!

This recipe is taken directly from the booklet.  I modified it a bit because my kids don’t like the potatoes cooked this way and would prefer them mashed!  I need to clarify that: Max loves them and Little a not so much!

So here goes:

2-4 pound beef chuck roast

1/2 cup flour

salt and pepper

3 carrots, sliced

3 potatoes, quartered (I left this out and saved them for mashed potatoes)

3 onions, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 cup mushrooms (I omitted this…kids hate mushrooms..I kinda do)

1 cup beef broth (I didn’t have any so I used chicken broth)

This part is so cool because it’s SO FAST and SOOOO EASY…I love fast and easy! lol

1.  Coat roast with the flour, salt and pepper.  Sear roast in a pan on the stove.  They say this is optional, but I do this to seal in the flavors and make the meat moist! This is funny! I cooked bacon this morning and left some of the grease in the pan, hoping it will make the meat more flavorful :^)

2.  Place all veggies in the crock, except the mushrooms.  Add the roast and spread the mushrooms on top. Pour in broth.

3.  Cover and cook on Low for 10-12 hours or on High for 6-8 hours, or until tender.

There aren’t a lot of scraps for the Red Wigglers, but they’ll be happy with the carrot peels!

This is really the best banana bread recipe!   It’s just super tasty and made with the real stuff. You’re not gonna find fake sugar or fake oil here.  Just real honest to goodness real ingredients!  It’s super easy to make and doesn’t take a real long time to mix it up.  I whooped it up in 10 minutes and baked it for about 50 minutes, depending on your oven. (Ours at the moment is really screwed up.  Things aren’t made the way they used to be so I make sure to poke it before pulling it out of the oven.)

As you can see by the picture, I bake this often and I am a really messy baker! There are oil drops, batter smears and water stains!  I could have retyped this, but I love the history behind the paper and the recipe!

My sis in law, Yvette, made this for us when she came to visit Bend for the very first time.  She had these really cute loaves of bread for us along with a bottle of wine. What an awesome house warming gift!  We really love bread, all sorts, and really, really, really, really, really, really love red wine!  We drank the wine that night and ate the bread the next morning.  We loved it so much that upon her return to La La land, she found an email from Carlos, requesting the recipe for the bb bread. Yvette is really, really nice and emailed it that evening! and there ya go!

By the way, I think it’s really, really cute that his sisters call him “carlitos”.   I can’t get rid of the recipe for that reason, too!

The red wigglers also really love the banana peels!

Here’s my first true cooking post.  I have a few foodie posts on the blog, but this one is a bit different.  I am adding the recipe and some step by step images.  I love beef stew and enjoy making and eating this fabulous, hearty dish on cold days.  Today is a perfect day for stew.  We are expected to get about 3 inches of snow on top of the snow that fell last week.  I think I made too much and plan on inviting my favorite in-laws over.  I do hope they come and save me from over eating.  Plus, I love their company!
The stuff you need from the store and your pantry!

• 2 lbs of Beef Chuck
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 onion
• 2 cubes of beef broth
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 2.5 quarts of water
• 1 bag of frozen veggies mix (peas, carrots and corn)
• a handful of fresh green beans
• a bag of egg noodles

An UPDATE: Today is Wed.  I started this post on Tuesday and thought I would finish it Tuesday Night!  I had really good intentions.  I planned on taking pictures of the finished stew atop a heaping bed of egg noodles.  But Ya know what?  I FORGOT!  I was soooo overwhelmed by the smell and was tooooo dang excited to eat it!  ooooooh, the things that excite me these days, Red Wigglers, the pH value, recycling cans, peanut butter, food and gin and tonics!

My favorite in-laws came for dinner, including Yvettskies visiting from La La Land.  It was a bunch of fun, and Max serenaded us with some Christmas music on the piano.  By the way, the stew was AWESOME!  and as you can see, I still need write a full foodie post!  Till next time…..