Cooking with Dani

So I’ve decided to start cooking on a regular basis. I bake quite a bit and am pretty decent at it, but my savory skills leave something to be desired. So I started with something simple enough; crock pot beef stew. I used a recipe from somewhere on the internet that I’ve lost already and can’t seem to relocate for the life of me. It was good though and fairly easy. As a matter of fact I can rewrite the recipe from memory.

Easy Beef Stew

Cooked in a crock pot.

Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 lbs stew meat (I actually used boneless short ribs that I cut up into chunks.)
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 cup of onion (I used approximately half a large red onion)
• 4-5 medium potatoes, diced
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 cups apple cider
• 1bay leaf
• 1 tbl spndried rosemary
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tbl spns flour
• 2 tbl spns cold water

Cut meat up into bite sized cubes and dice onions. Brown meat and onions together in a large pan. Put carrots, potatoes and celery in crock pot. Put browned meat/onions in crock pot. Add beef broth, apple cider and spices. Let simmer on low heat for 7-9 hours. About 15 minutes before you’re ready to serve it mix flour and water together and add to stew to thicken and cook 15 minutes on high heat.

The only changes I made are noted above and I added a splash of Sherry about half way through the cooking process and also added 1 tbl spn of oregeno. I also turned the heat up for about an hour at the end because the potatoes were pretty hard but everything else was cooked. Ours needed a little more flour to thicken properly and probably could have used to have some more spices and salt, but otherwise was very tasty, simple and a good classic beef stew. Ours simmered for about 7 hours and cooked on high heat for an hour more.

I also made home made cinnamon rolls for dessert/breakfast today. That recipe came from www.SmittenKitchen.com, and you can find it here. These were absolutely delicious!

Fresh from the oven last night, still in the pan. Relatively easy to make too! The hardest part was waiting for the dough to rise but thankfully it only took a few hours sitting on the cable box and it rose beautifully.

And here is breakfast from this morning.

A cinnamon roll complete with home made cream cheese frosting and a hot cup of coffee. PERFECTION. The only changes I will make to this recipe in the future is to make sure I add enough cinnamon to the roll before rolling it up, I thought it looked like enough but I had a bunch of the mix left over. I suppose if I trusted the recipe I wouldn’t have had this problem. So note to all cinnamon roll makers: trust the recipe. I didn’t change the recipe in any other way though, followed it too a ‘t’, except adding a pinch of nutmeg to the filling because I love cinnamon/nutmeg together.

Just for fun; here’s what the kitchen looks like while I cook/bake.

This wasn’t even that bad, when I make biscotti the whole kitchen is covered in flour.   This picture does make me feel for the wonderful cook at SmittenKitchen though, she lives in NYC with a tiny kitchen and no counter space and up until recently no dishwasher. I have 2 ovens, a 5 burner stovetop, a microwave, toaster oven, stainless steel sinks and that counter you’re looking at? That’s the island. There are also two full counter tops as well. Were I able I would send the lovely lady at Smitten Kitchen some of my counter space. And maybe an oven. Maybe, those double ovens really come in handy at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I also finally finished the sock design sample sock. I have decided to call it the Polaris Sock (which is the name of the ‘North Star’ or the big star at the tip of the Big Dipper on the Alaska State Flag.)

The pattern is written up, pictures have been taken (thanks to my new mannequin leg that came in the mail yesterday!) and everything is ready to go. Mike will be turning this bad boy into a PDF shortly and it will be available for sale at www.buydanido.com and my Ravelry downloads. I must say thank you to Teri one of my fabulous test knitters who managed to get her pair (PAIR!) knit in less than 2 weeks and gave me a BUNCH of feedback on the pattern. She’s also in my sock club and has been one of my biggest supporters from the very beginning of my dyeing, designing and what-not. Thank you SO much Teri I don’t know how you have the time with 7 beautiful children and a husband to take care of! You’re AWESOME. Also, Mary Catherine is knitting up these socks for me too and helped me work through some tricky spots as well. Her socks are being knit up in this beautiful yellow color and I can’t wait to see the finished project. Ladies, you are wonderful and I know you’re both crazy busy and I really appreciate your help.

As soon as this pattern is available for sale I will let everyone know. I have another sock pattern in the works as well, I’ve decided that despite all the work that goes into them I really like designing socks! Now the question becomes: should the new design by toe up as well (Polaris is toe up) or top down? Preferences from the peanut gallery? Leave a comment and let me know which direction you prefer to knit socks.

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