Kitchen Nook- Irish Beef Stew

It has gotten much chillier around here than I like lately.  I'm much more of a summer girl than...well anything else.  If it's below 75 degrees I'm usually chilly or cold.  So with the temperature dropping around here it started making me think of some fall type meals.  Fall and Winter foods are about the only good thing I find in the changing of seasons.

So this weekend I decided to make, what I thought, was a pretty awesome meal for this chilly weather!  Irish Beef Stew, Mashed Potatoes and Beer Bread.  It was amazing if I do say so myself.  So I thought I would share some of this awesome-ness with you all!

Irish Beef Stew!

Here is "The How To" in picture.  Also, please forgive my lack of camera skill!

First do your prep work.  

Chop up your carrots and dice your onion.

Mince 2 cloves of garlic.

My stew meat came cut up, but if your meat isn't you
should cut it into bite sized pieces now.

Next...

Brown the meat in Olive Oil.

Add Carrots, Onion and Garlic and spices.

Deglaze with beef broth.

Transfer to crock pot and let it go for 2-4 hrs!

 When you are ready to eat mix butter and flour together and add to the stew to get the broth more gravy like.  Also at this point add frozen peas!  I love peas.  So I added more than called for.

This meal was so simple!  I would really suggest it the next time you want to make some comfort food this fall or winter.  We ate ours over mashed potatoes and it was wonderful.  I'm sure you could dice up some potatoes and actually put it in the stew if you'd like.

Ingredients
Serves 4-6

2TBS olive oil
1lb stew meat
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't put any in mine and didn't miss it)
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
2 cup beef broth
2TBS butter
2TBS flour
heaping 1/3 cup frozen peas

 In large pot or deep skillet, brown meat in olive oil (4min).  Pour in onion, carrots, garlic and spices.  Cook for another 5 min.  Deglaze with beef broth.  At this point transfer to crock pot and let it go on high for 2-4 hours.
When you are ready to eat mix soften butter and flour until smooth.  Stir mixture into stew with frozen peas.  When gravy thickens slightly it's done!  Enjoy!

Up next :  Beer Bread

Miss Mittens

I have always had a pet in the house.  When I was born my parents had the sweetest dog and when I got older (okay I was in kindergarten) I got 2 cats.  As a kid we ended up having 3 other dogs, we had bunnies and gerbils and mice (yes, mice) and a snake.

When Brett and I got married I naturally started to bug him about having a pet.  It just felt so weird not to have one.  So, on our first Christmas together as a married couple I came home from work on Christmas Eve to find a very large, noisy box sitting under our tree.  Brett had found me a cat!

A man from his work found this poor cat wondering the streets in his neighborhood.  And when asked if anyone wanted a cat Brett said we did!  She wasn't a small kitten, but she was still very young.  It took her a little while to warm up to us.

We named her Mittens since she was almost all gray except for her white paws.  For the most part we loved having her around.  Except in the morning.  She would sit outside of our bedroom door and cry until one of us got up.  We tried the "squirt your cat with water" method, but that didn't work.  We were losing sleep from this cat!

And this girl loves her sleep!

Eventually we had enough and listed her on Craigslist.  A lady agreed to take her if we could meet half way (about an hour away for us).  So we did.  It was really hard.  I won't lie I cried the majority of the time.  So we waited...and waited...and waited...for about an hour we waited.

This freaking lady NEVER showed up!

Needless to say we took it as a sign and Mittens came back home with us for good.  She has since gotten much better at the morning thing.  Honestly, I think she just wants to sleep in our bed...

Kitchen Nook- Brownie Strawberry Trifle

I am by no means a pro in the kitchen.  I get freaked out when I see more than 5 or 6 ingredients go into a dish.  I like to keep it simple.  I've never been very experimental either.  When it comes to cooking I usually go by the book.  I just never knew what to experiment with.  I don't understand what herbs and spices go better with what.  Stuff like that.

Ever since I was a little girl though I have always LOVED to bake.  I find it calming (usually).  I still don't know the science of it all, but I do know I love mixing it all together, tasting the dough (or whatever), smelling it as it bakes and eating it fresh out of the oven.  What could be better?

So I thought I would start sharing some of the things we like to eat here at our place every once in a while.  Simple, but yummy things!

So first up I would like to share with you the Brownie Strawberry Trifle.  It's quick.  It's simple.  And most importantly it tastes amazing!

Here is what you will need.

Ingredients
Box of Brownie Mix (and everything the box says you need to make brownies)
Chocolate Pudding
Whipped Cream
Strawberries

First step is to make the brownies according to the box.
While the brownies are baking go ahead and make the pudding and slice up the strawberries.
Let both the brownies and pudding cool.
Once cooled you will start the layering process.
Break the brownie up into bite size pieces.
Layer the bottom of your bowl with some brownie.
Spoon half your pudding mix over the brownie bites and half the whipped cream over that.
Stick some strawberries around the side.
REPEAT!
This time after you place the whipped cream over the pudding decorate the top with more strawberries and brownie crumbs.  You could drizzle some chocolate syrup on top.  Whatever you heart desires!

Here is what it will look like from the side. (Please excuse the messy background)

And there you have it!  This dish fed 13 people dessert one night!  Everyone really seemed to like it.  And the great thing was it took me no time at all!

The Debate

Last night my husband, part of his family and I drove about an hour away to hear a debate between an Atheist and a Christian.  Following the debate one of the hubs favorite authors, Ravi Zacharias, spoke.  This was the first debate (other than the silly ones we would have in class) that I've ever been to.  I was actually pretty excited.  I was interested in hearing their arguments.

Sadly, I was not impressed with the two men debating.  I mean the debate was short and they didn't have a lot of time to form their arguments, but I didn't think either argued their side well.  Thankfully Ravi Zacharias turned that all around during his time on the stage.

He made some really good arguments and gave great examples of how we can KNOW God exists.  Ravi was once an atheist himself, so he knows what it's like to be on the other side.  To really try and deny God.  But even though he tried to live life not believing anything, he eventually came to the conclusion that there is more.  God is real.  There is a Creator.  There is a Savior.

If anything I walked away from last night wanting to know more and wanting to do my part in making my relationship with God stronger.  What if I was asked some of the questions those men were asked?  Would I be able to defend my God?  Would I have the knowledge?  There is always room to grow, right?

Anyways...

After the Debate we stood in line for a good half hour or more so Brett and his brother, Chris, could get their books signed by Ravi.  It was fun to watch them as we inched closer and closer.  They were like children in line to meet Santa Clause or something.  They were so excited!

And just in case you need proof...

Jelly Beans

I know.  I know.  A little out of season right?

BUT!

A few weeks ago I was at a women's event at our church and we played a game with jelly beans.  We each had a cup full of them and had to suck each jelly bean, one by one with a straw, into different cups to separate the colors.  I felt ridiculous doing this and once I learned that we could keep the jelly beans that were left in our cup... I secretly (okay, obviously) started to do a really bad job!  I wanted those jelly beans for myself!

I don't think any of them made it home that night.  They are like chips.  You can't just eat one!

Well the lady who brought said jelly beans had a large amount left over and last night gave my hubby and I the rest of the bag!  I tell you what.  The girl knows how to make this couple happy!  In one night we've gobbled up most of them.  I even brought in a few butter popcorn and grapefruit flavored beans in for a late breakfast snack today.

I think I can feel cavities forming in my teeth already.

Anyone else love a good jelly bean or two??  What's your favorite kind?

The BIG move

When we returned from Uganda back in April I was still working full time at a bank that was super slow!  I mean so slow the only way I survived the day was by watching TV.  But more on the job thing later.  I would also look at houses for sale on Trulia.com.  We weren't planning on house hunting for another year, but I found a cute little place and showed it to Brett.  I figured he would just say “Oh, that’s nice” and ignore it as usual.  But he actually liked it!  He even looked through the pictures!

So, I called my dad, asked him what our next step would be and he hooked us up with a great Realtor!  Turns out the house I saw would not be the one for us, but our Realtor stuck it out with us and in 2 months we made an offer on the one that we live in now!

Ignore the awning.  We hate it.  And ignore the flower beds.  I don’t know much about gardening, but they are way over grown and I plan on fixing it next summer.

Anyways…Packing and moving out did not take as long as I thought it would.  We had an army of people helping us out!

And moving in didn't take long either!  

We thankfully don’t have many “big” projects to tackle.  Just some painting (which is not shown in above picture) and ripping up the carpet and deep cleaning.  These people were…hairy.  I find their hair everywhere!  Ew.

The bathtub still freaks me out too.  Any cleaners you suggest us using?  I would appreciate the help!  We've scrubbed it and used bleached on it, but I still am not pleased with it.  Help?

We are so excited to have our own space with a yard to mow and neighbors that talk to us and walls we can hang things on!  Beyond blessed is what we are!