Hearty Beef Stew

We regularly meet with friends and eat together.

I made beef stew for community group last week. 

Cooking one of my favorite ways to serve others.

A little wine for the stew, a little wine for Eryka.

Two hours to kill. 

Catching Fire.

Some kitty attention.

Some kitty play time.

Annoy-the-kitties time.

Hurray! Stew is done. It filled the entire house with a rustic aroma. You dig in with a large spoon, for quality control of course.

And bundle it up to take to community group dinner. 

HEARTY BEEF STEW

1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp season salt

2 lbs roast, cut up into small chunks

3 tbsps olive oil

3 cubes beef boullion

1-2 cubes chicken boullion

4 cups water

1 cup red wine

1 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp Worcestershire

1 tbsp A-1 steak sauce

1 tbsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried Italian spices

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

3 large russett potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

4-5 carrots cut into 1 inch pieces

3-4 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, diced

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp cold water

1) Add beef, flour, garlic powder and salt to a large sealable bag and shake until beef is completely covered.

2) In a dutch oven or a large cooking pot, cook beef in olive oil until all sides are brown. Dissolve boullion in water and add water and wine to the pot, scraping sides of the pot to release pan scraping flavors. Stir in ketchup Worcestershire, A-1, rosemary, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer for 1 hour. 

3) Stir in potatoes, carrots, celery, and ion into the pot. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water until there are no lumps, then stir into the pot. Cook and simmer 1 hour more. 

Yields 10 generous servings

Do you have any good recipes you use to feed a crowd? DO SHARE!

XOXO!

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Leftovers Leftovers

Clean the fridge night resulted in this.

You're looking at a grilled sweet potato, a salmon burger on a cabbage bun, and stir-fried veggie leftovers with shrimp.

I grew that little squash!

And a little red wine to balance everything out!

What's in your fridge you need to use up?

XOXO!

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Definition of a Perfect Day

 Do you ever have a Saturday that follows your plan perfectly?

 Today went perfectly for me. Perfect days seem like one in a million lately. Something seems either to go wrong, or my energy is low, or I somehow find myself wearing grumpy pants, or the cats destroy something, or _________. (insert another reason here.)

But not today. It was perfect. In every way.

I woke up at 9 a.m. making the amount of sleep I got 10 hours. I didn't intend for that to happen, but without an alarm, that's when I woke up. I guess I needed it!

Breakfast was our usual Saturday spread. We do eggs, bacon and toast. I passed on toast and had a grapefruit. And the grapefruit was a beautiful mix of tart and sweet. 

Mark headed out to Starbucks to study for his midterm for his masters in business class so I decided to bake, cook, workout and clean.

I started with prepping the appetizers I was making for a bachelor party that Mark is invited to that is later this evening. It took ten minutes, and then I moved on to a bit of cleaning that led to workout clothes and a run along the beach.

 This is the trail I run on. It curves around the peninsula to Alki Beach and down the strip a ways. I waved at Mark as I ran by Starbucks and clocked 3.5 miles for the day. I decided to run pretty fast because my lungs were handling it great and my legs were rested and fresh. I ran 3.5 miles in 32 minutes.

 On my cool-down I walked through the neighborhood and took a few cool shots with Mark's camera.

 This is the court we live in.

 Pretty bamboo plants in my neighbor's yard.

 

And me, after my run, and after 40 squats, 40 lunges, 50 dead lifts, 60 situps and 40 reverse curls.

I spent the rest of my day doing my most favorite things: cooking, rocking out to Pandora music, baking, and cuddling with the kitties. After cleanup I enjoyed some dark chocolate and a glass of red wine on the couch in my sweatpants.  I also snuck a big bowl of pumpkin pie filling. 

See? What did I tell ya. A perfect day. 

What's your perfect day?

XOXO!

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Two Tricks or Treats to Save Me $$

I'm keeping this one short and sweet, but here two things I discovered to make my resources go a little farther.

Since our first frost hit this week, and I knew it was coming, I uprooted all my tomato plants. I only had three plants, but each one was bushing out of control and overload with green tomatoes.

I had heard from another gardener that she uproots her plants and hangs them in her garage.

I don't have a garage.

But I have a kitchen! And no plans to entertain large groups of people in the near future. So I snipped away the big foliage and hung all the tomatoes all over my kitchen using clothespins. And I'm proud to say, those little buggers are ripening nicely.

The other is again, no surprise, but I stumbled on it quite by accident.

Mom snuck this dollar store gadget into my stocking last year. I'm not even sure what its called. A toothpaste squeegee? 

 This past week we were running dangerously low on toothpaste. And I mean we're talkin', I-can't-manually-squeeze-any-more-out-of this-without-getting-out-Mark's-toolbox kinda low. And  to top it off I was late for work. Not brushing was NOT an option.

I remembered this toothpaste gadget and dug it out of the bottom of the miscellaneous drawer we have for all the hotel soaps and hair ties and put it to use immediately.

I'm proud to say we got four more days worth of toothpaste out of that tube!

What little tricks do you have around your house?

XOXO!

This post is linked up with Your Green Resource at The Greenbacks Gal, Sorta Crunchy, and Live Renewed.

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Pesto Chicken

As I plan my meals each week, I play a little game with myself. 

I try to see how many of the half used ingredients in the fridge I can incorporate and use up. Sometimes it is pasta sauce, or cream cheese, or even humus or the last bit of ketchup.

You see, my favorite thing before doing a big trip to the grocery store is to see an empty fridge and know I didn't have to waste anything by throwing it away.

This week:  1/3 leftover pesto.

My favorite concoction with lots of extra pesto is Pesto Chicken.

Super simple.

Easy cleanup.

What more could a busy girl ask for?

I cut my chicken breasts into halfs and then I cut them down the middle, kind of like a hamburger bun. 

To prevent chicken goop contamination, I put about 1/3 of a cup of pesto in a small bowl with a spatula, and put any remaining pesto back in the fridge.

Then using the spatula, I smear pesto in between the chicken breasts and on top of the chicken breasts. I cover with foil and place them in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until thoroughly cooked. 

The pesto really keeps the chicken super moist! The finished product is pesto smeared chicken and most of the oil has dripped off, so you don't actually eat all the fat calories of the pesto. BONUS!

Mark had two chicken breast halves, sun-dried tomato and Romano pasta, and a few brocolini sprigs.

It looked mighty delicious.

Sticking with a more Paleo diet, I opted to use up the half of an eggplant that was still hanging out in the crisper, so I grilled the eggplant for 15 minutes on the pizza stone in the oven while the chicken cooked, and then I quickly topped each round with the same sun-dried tomato pesto and a little mozzarella and Romano cheese.  I gave it 5 more minutes in the oven before devouring every last bite.

I think this is my new favorite way to eat eggplant! Sooo good and because the eggplant was "grilled" first, it wasn't soggy or slimy. I hate soggy and slimy.

Do you like eggplant?

Have you ever cooked with pesto?

XOXO!

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Water Taxi Commute

If you live in Seattle, you know how bad traffic was today and what is expected for the rest of the week.

They're calling it "VIADOOM".

Because of the major destruction/reconstruction of the viaduct that runs along the water's edge.

Above is a photo I stole from the West Seattle Blog.This is the demolished end of the viaduct. 

The viaduct is essentially the prime path for anyone in West Seattle, which is my neighborhood, to get anywhere. 

 See for yourself.

I live on Alki in West Seattle. I work in Downtown Seattle. The Alaskan Way Viaduct is closed. Traffic Sucks.

I plan to ride the Alki-Seattle Ferry.

That's a good summary. Let's continue.

My bus traveled this daily.

Mark drove this daily.

So did the other 15+ thousand people who live in West Seattle.

 The local news has been advertising "alternate routes" for getting to downtown or across town all week long. Mark and I decided our best choice was to take the Water Taxi (Alki-Seattle Ferry) which basically cuts across the water from West Seattle to downtown Seattle--a nine minute ride. YES PLEASE!

 This morning as Mark and I stood in the veeeeerrry long ling to get on the water taxi, I snapped this beautiful shot of downtown. Notice the space needle in the far left of the picture.

 My shot of the boat was a little more shaky, but you get the idea. Its a double decker boat. Inside it smells like feet.

 This photo above is a portion of the line of people waiting for the ferry to arrive. Again, I stole this photo from the WSB. 

 I did take this one though. And I like it the best, because of how Seattle is peaking through the barnacle encrusted pier that overlooks the loading dock. 

Home sweet home.

And the final glimpse is from the WSB. I heard every sailing was able to carry 150 people and it was maxed out all morning (as well as people were left behind to wait for the next boat a half hour later). When we were in line, we were number 121 and 122. PHEW!

I'm glad we made it to work on time, and with time to spare. All in all, we left about 20 minutes earlier than normal. I enjoyed my 20 minute walk up the hills to work, and I count the there and back as a bit of low intensity cardio for my week. Double SCORE!

I hope life is good for all of you! Tell me about your Monday.

XOXO!

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CSA Veggies from our Kitchen

Two things happened. 

1) Mark got a new camera lens and 

2) Mark WON a box full of organic veggies from a local CSA, Full Circle.

It might as well be Christmas.

 Mark's new lens is a Canon 20mm 2.8 USM. 

It takes really wide photos.

Welcome to my tiny kitchen that now looks HUGE through Mark's new camera lens.

 Winning veggies was seriously Christmas, and Easter, and my birthday all in October. It was such an adventure just opening up the box and seeing everything that was layered inside.

 Among many things, I found a leek, white carrots, an eggplant, kale, banana peppers, bok choy, chinese cabbage, romaine lettuce, gala apples, plouts, pears, and more.

I love the idea of supporting local growers AND having veggies delivered to my doorstep.

 Happier than a preschooler on Christmas Day in Disney Land.

 A few photos from around the kitchen. This is our breakfast nook, and our wine glass shelf.

 A few artistic photos from the living room.

 I love this red poppy painting that pulls the whole living room together.

Am I the only one who gets giddy over organic veggies?

No doubt, I'm weird.

This post is linked up with Sorta Crunchy and The Greenbacks Gal for Your Green Resource Linkup! 

XOXO!

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Kitties and Veggies

Here are a few updates around our home.

Miss Ella and her sniffer.

Achilles doing a little sunbathing.

I love his green eyes.

The last bountiful picking of the tomatoes before a cold fall night.

The garden did me good. It was easier than I expected, super exciting to watch as it expanded, grew, and took over, and saved us some mulah in the tomato and squash, and onion department.

I'm still enjoying broccoli, carrots, spinach, green onions, and some celery that is still in the garden and should keep as it continues to get colder.

I planted more kale, chard, arugula, spinach, and endive that should come up during the fall and keep into the winter months with the greenhouse cover.

If you haven't heard already, I love veggies. Yep. Love THEM.
Stay tuned for exciting news regarding veggies, tomorrow! 

Do you like veggies? 

What's your favorite?

What's not your favorite?

XOXO!

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E.T. Phone Home

Sometimes I dream about pizza.

And sometimes I eat it!

This past Friday, 15 of my favorite friends gathered to have a gigantic make-your-own-pizza party and movie night.

We aim to get together about once a month for movie night and we do potluck food themed around the movie.

This month: E.T

Hence the pizza!

(Reece's Pieces were part of dessert.)

It was seriously a blast. I made all the pizza dough a few days before Friday, and Mark and I arrived a little early to pre-cook the pizzas. 

In the meantime, Casey decided we were all going to run off and start our own circus. Through discussion and laughter, Mark was designated our ring master. I'm apparently a tiger trainer. We also had a traipse artist, an elephant rider, a circus freak, a motorcycle in a cage driver, someone shot out of a canon, I think there was a clown, and probably more.

This whole thing remained theoretical, of course. As many of our silly nights do. But it was hilarious watching Casey come up with all kinds of roles for us to play in her imaginary world. I tell ya, conversation is never dull with Miss Casey.

Sorry for the yellow photos, again. We're working on getting better lighting.

Before every dug in, we set out all the ingredients and nibbled a few pepperoni!

Everyone had a blast decorating, and I'm pretty sure every person in that room was stuffed to the GILLS with homemade tasty pizza.

 

A little more silliness ensued before we headed downstairs to the TV room, cuddled up with blankets and Reece's Pieces cupcakes and UFO cookies, and relived a childhood memory. 

It's kinda crazy to go back and watch a movie you remember only from childhood.

So many adult jokes, hidden meaning, grown up scenarios. 

I didn't realize Elliot's mom was going through a divorce in the movie, or that Elliot got drunk on beer via E.T, or that the mom was CLUELESS to E.T living in her home under her nose until the very end of the movie when the boys actually show her E.T. 

Check out those hair ribbons though!  I miss those.  Oh, precious Drew Barrymore.

 

Re-watching old movies from childhood with friends: Most excellent entertainment. 

I highly recommend it.

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