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Archive for November, 2013

Today’s recipe is another great slow cooker recipe from The Southern Slow Cooker cookbook by Kendra Bailey Morris.  This dish doesn’t need much of an introduction because the flavor speaks for itself.  I made it on a cool and rainy Sunday and it was perfect comfort food!  This and a pan of cornbread is all you need for a hearty and healthy meal.

Aunt Barbara's Beef Stew

1 cup coarsely chopped onion

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch slices

2 large potatoes, peeled & cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/2 pounds boneless beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. olive oil

3 1/2 cups beef broth, low sodium

15 oz. can no salt added diced tomatoes

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tbsp. Worcestshire sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

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Spray the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick spray.  Layer the onions, carrots, and potatoes in the cooker.  In a large zip top bag, combine the stew meat, flour, salt and pepper. Shake to coat the meat then discard the excess flour.

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Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil and stew meat to the pan.  Brown the meat well on all sides, then transfer the meat to the slow cooker. 

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Add the beef broth to the hot skillet and scrape all of the leftover bits from the bottom of the pan.  Pour this over the meat and vegetables in the slow cooker. 

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, sugar and Italian seasoning.  Stir everything together.  Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, until the meat is tender and the stew is thick. 

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Uncover, remove the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to your taste.  This is great served with hot cornbread or even garlic bread.

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Thanksgiving Tuesday

I decided to try something a little different this year.  I know I like to search blogs for holiday ideas and I think most of my readers do as well.  This post is a grouping of my recipes that would be perfect for a tasty Thanksgiving meal.  The only thing you won’t find here is a turkey recipe since I am severely allergic so it is always ham for me at holidays. 

Speaking of ham, here are three different ham recipes that I have tried and enjoyed:

Brown sugar honey glazed ham:

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Slow cooker maple ham:

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Citrus slow cooker ham:

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Now that we have a main course, we need a few side dishes:

This sweet potato casserole is my absolute favorite:

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Cornbread dressing:

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Scalloped pineapple:

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Butter roasted potatoes:

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And last, but not least, Italian pasta salad:

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Next, we need some quick and easy dinner rolls and you can’t go wrong with these mayonnaise rolls:

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If you have any room left, it’s time for the dessert course. Yum!  There are so many options, but here are a few of my favorites.

Italian cream cake:

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Apple cinnamon swirl Bundt cake:

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Pineapple upside down cake:

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Perfect pecan pie:

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Turtle cake:

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Orange fluff salad:

Orange Fluff Salad

Watergate salad:

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And, finally, sunshine salad:

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I hope this post gives you a little foodie inspiration for the holidays.  I know I am getting hungry!

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Good Monday morning! Sorry I had to skip out on last week, but I just didn’t know what our schedule would be so I really couldn’t plan too much.  This week’s menu will be a little short since Thanksgiving is Thursday.  What?!?!?  Really???  Oh, well, I will have a special post tomorrow with some of my favorite holiday recipes from this here little blog so please come back and check it out. 

Happy happy Thanksgiving to all of my dear readers!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends plus lots of tasty food!

Shredded pork bbq with curly fries

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven baked fries

Pizza night

Chili with grilled cheese sandwiches

Plain Chicken’s Chuckwagon Stew (new)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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This recipe got rave reviews from my family when I fixed it for Sunday supper a few weeks ago.  It will definitely be a repeat performer because not only is it delicious, it is a slow cooker main dish which is perfect for a lazy Sunday.  The flavor was out of this world and the meat was so tender I almost couldn’t get it out of the cooker without it falling apart. YUM!

Thanks, Awkward Girl Gets Fit, for this great recipe.

BeefTacoRoast

I still can’t photograph meat worth a diddly.  Oh, well, I am still learning.

1 large beef roast

1/2 tsp. ground red pepper

1 tsp. salt (I used kosher.)

Ground black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

4 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 1/2 cups beef broth

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Season the roast with salt and pepper.  Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside.

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Put the roast in a slow cooker and pour the stock mixture over it.  Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours until the roast is tender and almost falling apart.  You can sear the roast before putting it in the cooker if you have time, but I didn’t.  I was running late to get ready for church that morning.  It was still mighty tasty even without searing it.

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Please join me over at Rose City Reader for this week’s Book Beginnings party.  My book today is “The Fiery Cross” by Diana Gabaldon which is the fifth book in the Outlander series.  Here are the first lines:

Mount Helicon

The Royal Colony of North Carolina

Late October, 1770

I woke to the patter of rain on canvas, with the feel of my first husband’s kiss on my lips.  I blinked, disoriented, and by reflex put my fingers to my mouth.  To keep the feeling, or to hide it? I wondered, even as I did so.

Poor Claire!  To be a time traveler with a deceased husband in the future and a very much alive husband in the past which is where she is right now.  Ms. Gabaldon weaves such intricate and detailed stories that makes it so easy to get sucked in to her books and not want to climb out.  I could read for hours at a time!

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Non-Menu Plan Monday

Good Monday morning!  Sorry, but I am skipping out on my menu plan this week.  C & I have a few things going on and I am not sure what evenings we will be at home for supper.  Don’t worry though, I should be back on schedule next week.  Have a wonderful and blessed week, my dear readers!

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This is the last week of the Fall Nurture Photography Challenge and the theme is…there really is no theme.  We are just supposed to use some of our favorite shots from this fall.  Last weekend was beautiful here in South Central Kentucky, so I took a few new photos with my iPhone while C & I were walking the dogs.  The light this time of year is just amazing!

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Nurture Photography Challenge - Fall 2013 Edition

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Welcome to the November edition of the Lady Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge where we are using pears and maple as our spotlight ingredients.  Since I made muffins last month, I decided to stay on the handheld dessert theme and make cupcakes this time.  These are so moist and flavorful!  The texture is more like a muffin than a cupcake, but the maple buttercream just puts it over the edge from snack/breakfast food to a true dessert!  I started with this cupcake recipe from Sugar Hero and this frosting recipe from Chow and tweaked it as you see below.  This is definitely a keeper!

Five Spice Pear Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

For the cupcakes:

1 1/8 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Chinese five spice

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups finely diced pears

1/2 cup chopped & toasted pecans

For the frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  This is a perfect time to toast the pecan pieces.  Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.   Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & Chinese 5 spice. 

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Then add the egg and vanilla.  Slowly add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in the pears and pecans gently by hand.

Fill the cupcake liners no more than 2/3 full because the cupcake will spread instead of rise and you don’t want ugly cupcakes. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with few or no crumbs.  Cool completely and frost with the maple buttercream.

For the frosting, beat the butter, salt, and maple syrup together with an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Don’t worry if it still looks separated because the sugar will make it come together.  Add the sugar about 1/2 cup at a time and mix thoroughly.  You may need to adjust the sugar amount to make it the consistency that you want.

I decided to use a 2D piping tip to frost the cupcakes.  It almost looks like a rose when you are done.  This recipe makes 12- 14 cupcakes.

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Five Spice Pear Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

 


Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge

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More Olloclip macro fall fun:

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Happy Veterans Day, everyone!  Take a few minutes out of your busy day to say a prayer for all of the brave men and women defending our freedom here and abroad.  I am so thankful for their desire and diligence because I know I sure could not do what they do. 

Have you been enjoying some beautiful fall weather where you live?  We sure have but I am afraid it may be coming to an end.  There is even a chance of snow flurries in the next day or two.  Say it ain’t so!!!!  Hopefully that won’t last too long because C & I have some big Christmas decorating plans to put into effect.  I am not going to go into detail yet, but there will definitely be photos coming later.  I can’t wait!!!!

I have three, count ‘em, three new recipes this week and they are definitely comfort food.  The rest are old favorites or maybe even a little take-out one night.  Have a great and blessed week, everyone!

Chunky beef chili with maple cornbread muffins (both new)

Tacos with salad

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven fries and salad (2 nights)

Pizza night

Pioneer Woman’s drip beef sandwiches (new) with curly fries

Please join me for Menu Plan Monday at I’m An Organizing Junkie.

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