What Shall We Make Today?

Food 1 Minute

So, you did the elaborate turkey dinner thing and you deserve a break from cooking, but leftovers are all gone?  Today’s offering is here to the rescue (and no, I don’t mean Ron to the rescue…LOL) It’s crock pot beef stew.  It’s great for a Sunday watching football kind of day.  Add a loaf of Rhodes fresh baked bread and this meal is awesome!!

Crock Pot Beef Stew

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed

6 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch lengths

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

3 celery ribs, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1-1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) beef broth

1 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon browning sauce, optional

Minced fresh thyme

Directions

Layer the potatoes, carrots, onion and celery in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Place flour in a large shallow dish. Add stew meat; turn to coat evenly. In a large skillet, brown meat in oil in batches. Place over vegetables.

In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, broth, mustard, salt, pepper, thyme and, if desired, browning sauce. Pour over beef. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or until the meat and vegetables are tender. If desired, sprinkle with fresh thyme before serving.

ENJOY!

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Published by pat frederick

Published

178 thoughts on “What Shall We Make Today?”

    2. Pat, look at this!

      Entire Article: “HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Officials in a northeastern Pennsylvania county where paper shortages caused Election Day ballot problems deadlocked Monday on whether to report official vote tallies to the state, effectively preventing their certification of the results.

      Two Democratic members of the Luzerne County Board of Elections and Voter Registration voted to certify, both Republicans voted “no” and the fifth member, Democrat Daniel Schramm, abstained. Schramm said in a phone interview several hours later that after the meeting he received assurances that few if any voters were unable to cast ballots and that all provisional ballots had been counted. He said he planned to vote in favor of certifying the results at a board meeting set for Wednesday.

      “I wanted to research to see exactly how many people were just not allowed to vote. I couldn’t find any,” Schramm said. He said elections officials contacted 125 judges of elections from the county’s 187 precincts “and they reported nobody being turned away.” A judge extended voting in Luzerne by two hours, to 10 p.m., during the Nov. 8 election after the supplies ran short at some polling places.

      Monday is the deadline for counties to certify general election results to the state. In a statement, the Department of State said it was contacting Luzerne officials “to inquire about the board’s decision and their intended next steps.”

      During public comment before the vote on Monday, people attending the elections board meeting in Wilkes-Barre called the election “rife with disenfranchisement,” requested the election be redone and called on county election officials to resign. Alyssa Fusaro, a Republican Luzerne election board member, said she could not vouch that the election had been conducted freely and fairly. Fusaro said voters were turned away from the polls, machines jammed and ran out of paper and normal privacy safeguards for voters were not in place.

      The board’s lawyer, Paula Radick, said failure to certify could bring litigation against the county from the state or from candidates. Luzerne District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce, a Republican who at the election board’s request is investigating why paper ran out at polling places, said in a text Monday that “the investigation is progressing as expected.”

      Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania is an area that has been trending Republicans in recent years. Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro narrowly won Luzerne, while Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect John Fetterman lost the county by some 10,000 votes.

      In Pittsburgh, Allegheny County’s Board of Elections voted Monday to certify the election results at 1,311 polling places but did not vote to certify results from 12 polling places where recount petitions have been filed.

      A statement from county government said its lawyer was seeking to have those challenges dismissed in the coming days because the people who sought the recounts failed to also post $50 bonds for each ballot box to be recounted. The Department of State says only “legally valid and properly filed” recount petitions can prompt a county to withhold certification for the office targeted by the recount effort. “We will review what Allegheny submits to the department and then decide next steps,” the Department of State said in an emailed statement.

      After three counties refused to record mail-in votes from the May primary, holding up state certification of the overall results, a judge ordered that they be counted.”

      https://www.whec.com/national-world/pennsylvania-county-deadlocks-on-certifying-election-results/

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Here’s a seasonal recipe – Star/Snowflake Coffee Cake.

    https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cinnamon-star-bread-recipe

    Dough
    • 2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup dried potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes)
    • 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
    • 3/4 cup + 2 to 4 tablespoons lukewarm water, enough to make a soft, smooth dough
    • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
    • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    Filling
    • 1 large egg, beaten
    • 1/2 cup granulated sugar*
    • 1 tablespoon cinnamon or 2 teaspoons Vietnamese cinnamon*

    Instructions
    Measure flour by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.

    Next, sift the flour, potato flour, and dry milk through a strainer; this is an important step to prevent lumps in the dough. (If you’re using instant mashed potatoes rather than potato flour you can skip this sifting step.)

    Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft, smooth dough.

    Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 60 minutes, until it’s nearly doubled in bulk.

    To shape the loaf: Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, cover the balls, and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.

    On a lightly greased or floured work surface, roll one piece of dough into a 10″ circle.

    Place the circle on a piece of parchment, brush a thin coat of beaten egg on the surface, then evenly sprinkle with 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar, leaving 1/4″ of bare dough around the perimeter.

    Place a 2 1/2″ to 3″ round cutter in the center of the dough circle as a guide. With a bench knife or sharp knife, cut the circle into 16 equal strips, from the cutter to the edge, through all the layers.

    Using two hands, pick up two adjacent strips and twist them away from each other twice so that the top side is facing up again. Repeat with the remaining strips of dough so that you end up with eight pairs of strips.

    Pinch the pairs of strips together to create a star-like shape with eight points. Remove the cutter.

    Transfer the star on the parchment to a baking sheet. Cover the star and let it rise until it becomes noticeably puffy, about 45 minutes.

    While the star is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.

    Brush the star with a thin coat of the beaten egg.

    Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until it’s nicely golden with dark brown cinnamon streaks; the center should register 200°F on a digital thermometer.

    Remove the loaf from the oven (brush with melted butter to keep crust tender) and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. wow GA…this is gorgeous!!!!
      I saved this recipe!!
      one question: you roll each ball of dough into the same 10″ circle and layer them (with the butter and sugar/cinnamon mixture) on top of each other before you cut, correct?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I havent made it yet – and when looked at the recipe more carefully – It seems to me that they left out this sentence: “Roll the other circles, sprinkle all but one of them and then stack them on top of each other.” Then go on to do the cutting and twisting.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Morning!
          thanks!!! I thought so from looking at the picture of the dough being twisted–it looks like 4 layers…
          this is simply gorgeous!!!! i can’t wait to try this!!

          Liked by 1 person

      2. Revised instructions – On a lightly greased or floured work surface, roll one piece of dough into a 10” circle on a piece of parchment.

        Brush a thin coat of beaten egg on the surface, then evenly sprinkle 3 of the circles with 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar, leaving 1/4″ of bare dough around the perimeter.

        Leave one circle plain to go on top.

        Then go on to the cutting and twisting.

        Hope this is clear enough.

        Liked by 1 person

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