Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I have always wanted to try to make Beef Stew. I don't know why I haven't. I guess I've always thought it seemed difficult. I was soooo wrong. I found a recipe for a slow cooker version on Pinterest. It was very easy and tasty. (I think I might skip the Bay leaf next time.) The link to the original post is in the recipe title.

Beef Stew

• 1 1/2 lbs stew meat, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cups low sodium beef broth
• 5 red potatoes, cut into 1″ cubes
• 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 packet beef stew seasoning

1.  Put beef in crockpot.  Sprinkle the flour in and stir to coat the meat.

2.  Add all other ingredients.  Stir to combine.

3.  Cook on low for 6 hours.  Remove bay leaf and serve!

Asiago Chicken Pasta

This Asiago cream sauce is delicious! It tastes very much like Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce. It wouldn't take much to kick it up to that.

It really is fantastic the way it is, but you could tweak it some to suit your tastes. I forgot to add the pepper and Parsley in mine, but it was still yummy.

I joked on my Facebook page that this might just have to be added to our weekly menu, along w/ triple bypasses. :D

I posted the link to the blog (Carrie's Experimental Kitchen) where I found the recipe below.

Asiago Cream Sauce

1 tbsp. Butter
1 tbsp. All-Purpose Flour
3 c. Heavy Cream
3/4 c. Asiago Cheese, shredded
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Parsley, garnish

 

Melt butter in a medium saucepan then add flour, forming a roux. Gradually whisk in the heavy cream until the roux dissolved, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and whisk in the cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper until the cheese has melted. Let simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, approximately 5 minutes. Add the sauce to the cooked pasta and mix well. Garnish with parsley. Serves 8.  

 Enjoy!!

 

Skylanders Party - It's Go Time!

The party was a great success. For once the ideas I had in my head actually carried through pretty well. Here are some photos of the big day.

Practice Cake #2

My husband decided that the cake would look better if I piped the sides instead of smoothing them on. So here is attempt #2 with piping. I also got black food coloring this time. I like the color very much. :)

The first pic is just straight line piping. The next two pics I added a few vertical lines on the sides to try to give it the look of stone blocks. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I wanted to compare them. The icing looks "runny" because I didn't refrigerate it while I was working on it. I used it right out of the bowl after mixing and I took a while working on it. I think I may have over mixed it too. I also forgot to do white icing on top of the cake for the inside of the portal. Oops. :)

Cake trial run

I decided that I might want to practice making the centerpiece of the Skylanders party before the big day. Today was the first attempt. It turned out to be a little easier than I was expecting, but I still have my work cut out for me. I didn't have the right food coloring so I just had to go with blue. I think it will help a lot when it's the right color. I also think that adding some white emblems to the sides will be relatively easy. At least I know which direction to go now. :)  *I forgot to take the pics before I cut it, so that didn't help the overall look).

Why did it have to be Skylanders?

My little man has recently fallen prey to the lure of the Skylanders hype. He loves the characters. I am pretty sure he would be happy just to use them as action figures, but he plays the game too. So, needless to say, when picking out his birthday party theme this year he decided to bless me with the difficult task of scouring the world over for Skylanders party supplies. I've come to learn that Activision is kind of stingy with it's licensing and there really aren't any party supplies on the market. You can get cupcake rings and some stickers, but other than that you are looking at spending a small fortune for hand-made or pricey licensed stuff. Since I truly enjoy making all that I can for his parties I am in luck with this one!!

I've found lots of cute ideas on Pinterest. Some are more practical than others. I've seen a few great games that I might try to incorporate if I can make them. One game that he likes is bean bag toss. I think he likes it more for the materials than the actual game. For his Mario party last year I made a boo ghost toss that was a huge hit. Making it a Skylanders affair is a particular challenge.

One of the things that Colson loves to do in the video game is find the little sheep wandering around. You can abuse them in all kinds of funny ways (setting them on fire, knocking them around, static shocking them, and smashing them). I knew I wanted to find a way to put the sheep into the game play and I decided that making sheep bean bags would be a fun way to do that. Now my only problem is finding something to throw them in to. Since they get hit, throwing isn't really their thing. Colson had an interesting idea tonight. He wanted to know if I was going to make a Stump Smash to toss them onto. Perhaps I can build a hammer type box thing.....? This could get hairy. :)

Here are my (smashed) sheep bean bags.

 

 

Easy Biscuits

EASY BISCUITS

Printed from COOKS.COM

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2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
2/3 - 3/4 c. milk

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter. Mix in milk. Mix well with hands. Place on board and roll out. Cut. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes, watching carefully.

Original post: Easy Biscuits