On a mission...

For years, I have longed to make stew.  I have never been (and given the disaster at my Thanksgiving with the stuffing) and never will be a slow cooker person.  Slow cookers equal disasters and inedible food.  Period.  End of Myrtle's slow cooker story.

I think, to me, someone who can cook is someone who can make bread and someone who can make stew.  Those are my standards.  Long ago, I was the one who made all the bread for our family.  I readily admit, though, that my attempts at yeast recipes in the last decade or so were consummate failures.  But I have never attempted a stew.  In my mind, stew is connected to being able to make a gravy.  Having learned the béchamel sauce and succeeded at my first gravy, I now feel confident about things akin to a roux.

Of course, the only reason I can accomplish such a thing is that I am an owner of an original Ekco nylon cooking fork.  In fact, given how old mine is, I recently tracked down a spare since I am trying to become more of a cook.  

The cooking forks are so perfect it boggles my mind they are not still available.  The curve of them fits the edges of sauce pans, but the flat bottom allows for the perfect contact for the gravy/sauce/roux making process.  They are stiff and yet flexible.  If you ever come across one in a garage sale, snatch it up immediately!

I also now own a cast iron pot.

Back when I was off to the mission field, I divided up all my belonging amongst families at my church for storage.  I find it sort of interesting that three of the four items I never got back had to do with cooking:  my grandmother's metal Sunbeam stand mixer, toaster oven, and enameled cast iron dutch oven.  [The other item was my very small album collection, including my Beatle's albums.]

That cast iron pot was so incredibly heavy, but I now understand its value.  I have had in my Amazon shopping cart for over a year now.  The other day, the price dipped $110, so I cashed in points and bought it ... especially since it was actually the set that came with a bottle of cleaner and a matching cast iron trivet.

Guilt ensued regarding the choice to use points on another piece of cookware.

I did just use points for a replacement HVAC HEPA filter, refrigerator water filter, and refrigerator air filter.  Those came on Tuesday, so I spent my Christmas doing a bit of home maintenance.  I also set about on a mission to solve the problems of the toilet paper holder in the half bath (it kept coming apart) and the back door original dead bolt lock (it had become too stiff for me to use).

For the former problem, I discovered that there was an allen wrench screw that had come loose, allowing the holder part to separate from the base part.  I am the sort of person who has a collection of allen wrenches from every single home improvement purchase she has ever made.  Knowing I just had to still have the Moen wrench, I went searching through my collection for one that fit the holder.  Mission accomplished.  Repair completed.

For the back door, I very carefully took apart the vintage deadbolt and doused the parts with WD 40. Then I installed the lock back into the door.  Mission accomplished.  Repair completed.

My other mission was to figure out a way to better use the space in my freezer.  Primarily this is because I discovered that the two places where I would want a chest freezer both have GFIC outlets.  If you are hankering for a chest freezer and read copious amounts of information regarding chest freezers, you will learn that you cannot plug a chest freezer into a GFIC outlet.  So, were I to pursue the acquisition of a chest freezer (I have floated the idea of doing some work for barter), I would also have to pursue the installation of a regular grounded outlet in my location of choice.

The last time I worked with someone on organizing, I talked about how vertical space is usually the place where expansion can occur.  That is where I concentrated my efforts.  I also rearranged all my ice packs into two shelves, instead of three.  It makes more work accessing them, rotating the melted ones to one side as I work my way through the rows, but it gave me an extra shelf.  With all that stock I made, space really is key, now that it looks like I will have someone living in the basement for a short while and cannot stick things in that freezer.

The top shelf is where I had the most vertical space to gain, since it was formerly an icepack shelf.  I used one of the few dish rags that I kept in all my donation runs to line the horizontal rows of stock I stacked up at the back of the shelf.  In front, I put my lentils and lone black eyed pea mason jar.  [I am wanting to make more of those.]  I was able to stack eleven stock bottles and one bottle of cream (I decided to start freezing half my containers as a way to keep the cream fresher) in the back of the shelf.

My bread shelf is a mess.  Partly, this is because I currently have some seasonal bagels.  Thomas made some pumpkin bagels that are unbelievably tasty.  I bought one bag ... and then went back for two more.  I need to figure out a better way to organize that shelf, but one I work my way through the bags, I won't have as much. However, if I do learn to make rolls or something, I need a bread space plan.

The other main change had to do with my sweets shelf.  It is on the lighted shelf, so has less space.  But I had been using the same container my grandmother used for her frozen baked goods.  It is a vintage decorative tin made by Hostess for a fruit cake.

I really liked using it the way she did, the way I have much of my life, but I really needed a better option.

After thinking about the best way to gain space here, I went searching for flat containers I could stack. I wanted glass ones and ones with snap lids like my others.  I found these at Wal-Mart and bought them out of my household budget.  What I like best (having measured many in several stores), is that these containers are nearly the exact length for the space I had and were able to fit three vertically, rather than two.  Since I have enjoyed my tasty baking culinary victories, but eat through them slowly, I need the containers.  In case you are interested, one has Double Chocolate Dr Pepper Cake, one has Peanut Butter Nutella Cheesecake Bars, and one has pumpkin cookies.  When I was packing them, I finished off the last of my Piro Lemon Squares so things fit better.  Sometimes organization requires personal sacrifice.

The best thing about the new containers is that I have a row of space next to them.  Currently, it has the three mason jars of stew I made tonight.  At the back, beneath the light, is where I keep the frozen chicken cordon bleus I buy for an easy protein snack.  They bake in 30 minutes and are really rather moist.

The fruit (strawberries for my smoothies) and vegetables (Trader Joe's corn) shelf could also use a better system.  However, it currently is where I stashed one of the bags of pumpkin bagels.  One really cannot achieve organization greatness all at once.  Progress is key.

I also learned that I could freeze refried black beans.  So, from now on, I am going to freeze half (there's a container in there now), instead of eating them all up at once (burritos and chalupas).  That really is the point of all of this.  I want to be able to better vary what I eat but also to eat a bit more homemade food ... apart from grilled chicken and salads.

The meat drawer I packed and repacked a half dozen times before I figured out how to maximize what's in there.  Amos stood and stared at me the whole time.  I think I confused him with all my mutterings.

Right now, the freezer is full.  I would like to figure out a way to work in some black eyed peas mason jars.  I would like to do this, because right now the freezer represents trying to have food for the month (as I usually shop just once a month), but have that food to be primarily homemade food.  I would like to have three options in the mason jars. Right now, I have two.  Well, I have two mostly.  There is that one last jar from my first batch of Myrtle's Medley Black Eyed Peas.

Back to the guilty points purchase.

One of the reasons I wanted a cast iron dutch oven are all the recipes I have found for bread that require one.  The other reason was the desire for having a dish that can go from stove to oven, including higher temperatures.  I have vacillated between regular cast iron and enameled cast iron for months on end.  Enameled is ever so not economical, but is far, far easier to maintain.

I tried searching for a used, but seasoned regular cast iron dutch oven, but I kept striking out.  I thought maybe I could keep something seasoned if it was one that was very, very, very seasoned.  But I really did prefer the thought of having an easier to clean/keep dutch oven.

When I saw the huge dip in price, I leapt upon the sale.  It is GREEN, of course.  And it arrived today.

Knowing that the pot was arriving, I bought stew making ingredients when I went out for my eye glasses appointment.  And today, despite not being able to drag myself out of bed until nearly six this evening, I texted and emailed a few folk in the hope of getting some tips.  I knew most are still ensconced in family activities, but I hoped for at least some well wishes or prayers.

This was truly my most nervous of recipe hunting.  I had found this article on the common errors folk make with stew a while ago and wanted to avoid those pitfalls.  But I decided that instead of hunting and trying to sift through and judge a class of recipes I know nothing about I would start with one I saw on the Pioneer Woman's website.  My gut choice was confirmed when I saw she had one that used beer.  I have strong thoughts about the possibilities of cooking with beer, even though the loathe the stuff personally.

I actually shopped before finding a recipe and so had the fresh herbs.  But I have become slightly free about making changes to recipes and planned to add them in anyway.  I also changed up a few of the spices and switched to brown sugar.  My Beef Stew with Beer recipe turned out rather fantastic, in my opinion.  However, the process was fraught with fear and trepidation and a rather large amount of anxiety.

This is my cooking beer ... the beer I chose when I set out to buy a six pack.  Knowing nothing about beer, I was looking for something that might have a bit of flavor ... something not Coors or Michelob or Budwiser.  I am very open to input for the next time I need to purchase beer for cooking.  Just looking at the bottle makes me all giddy about black eyed peas.  It worked well with the stew.  Another beer goal I have is a chile con queso with beer.  Mmmmmmmm.......  I've never made a queso either, though.

This is the package of fresh herbs I bought.  Frankly, I would not market those as "poultry" herbs.  But what do I know about cooking??  I know little about fresh herbs.  I used to have this rather magnificent rosemary bush, so I stripped those leaves and minced them.  I had to actually Google images of sage and thyme to see which was which.  In the end, I removed the stems from both (stripping the thyme leaves as I did with the rosemary).  Then I used my beloved Henckels santoku knife to mince and mix them.

When I braised the beef (I don't think I did a good job with that), lots of stuff seemed plastered to the bottom of the pan.  Panic set it and I worried about that throughout my stew making.  When I was browning the minced onions and garlic, I rubbed on the plastered brown bits to try and loosen them.  And whenever I stirred the pan, I did the same.  I am rather happy to report that by the time I was done, the bottom was completely "clean" of all things plastered.  Cleanup was a breeze!

The great panic came at the 90 minute mark and there was nothing "stewish" about my liquid.  It was far, far, far more "soupish" in nature.  I tried to calm myself with the knowledge that I was about to dump in potatoes, the starch of which should thicken my stew.  However, when the 30 minutes of vegetable cooking passed, I was still "soupish."  HELP!

Why is it that my cooking never really matches the photos of the recipes I am following????

So, I deliberately embarked on one of those seven errors of stew making:  thicken the stew.  First, I pulled out about a cup of the vegetables (a bit more potatoes than carrot), puréed them, and them stirred them back into my stew.  Then, I made a roux.  [Yes, pride sort of swept over me once it was finished, knowing that I am now officially a roux maker.]   Once done, I stirred the roux back into the pot and finished cooking my stew.

Oh, my!  

I have spent my whole life spitting things out of stew that I do not like to eat, primarily celery and/or mushrooms and most certainly chunks of onions.  I have also spent my whole life wanting more beef in my stew.  Now, I have a stew that is tailored to what I like.  I have a thick, hearty, meaty, savory, sweet stew that has the potatoes I like and the size of carrot bites I like and went really, really, really well with the crusty bread I used to sop up all my tastiness. Plus, there was nothing to pick or spit out!!

A serving for the morrow and six more in the freezer.   Yep!  I am a stewmaker!!   Mission accomplished.

Amos is very, very happy about my stewmaker status.  He got to pre-clean my bowl, the spoon rest, the ladle, and the funnel.  Amos is most definitely a fan of stew.  We really are a great pair.

He's been busy of late.

Lounging on the kitchen rug...

Snuggling with his new baby...

Keeping my lap warm.

And pre-cleaning my dishes, of course.  Actually, I have been so very exhausted, he's spent most of his time curled up against me in bed.  Such a good gift Amos is and has been to me!

Maybe tonight we'll both dream of large bowls of tasty stew....


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!