I slept in until 6:30 a.m. this morning, which isn’t surprising, considering I was up until after midnight doodling about with who knows what. Where does the time go! I seem to be getting lazy, if you can call sleeping into 6:30 a
The air was close but comfortably cool, when I carried my morning coffee out the back porch. And it was quiet, the construction crews had not yet arrived at the new rental unit complex. The flowers are blooming, sun yellow Heliopsis, bright red Scarlet Runner Beans, yellow Giant Marigolds, orange Marigolds, purple Clematis, purple Echinacea, and white/pink/red Cosmos.
In the weeds that function as “grass” in our yard, a pecking Grackle was led here and there by wily insects, a Blue Jay sat on the back of a lawn chair, a chickadee rested on the fence above the lemon balm, and a robin hopped about on the neighbour’s yard behind us.
Time passed, birds came and went, sometimes singing. A breeze came up, died away, and came up again. I love early mornings.
It is stinking hot out there this afternoon, and will be hotter and stickier tomorrow and Monday. Attila manages to work in such heat, but I can only stay active for about five minutes before feeling ill. I don’t bother trying to be active on days such as this, as five minutes isn’t long enough to tackle anything much.
So, in this lovely little house with a thermostat, where the temperature does not waver far from 23C, I decided to bake and cook. I baked Pumpkin Muffins in the Nesco on the back porch, and a Beef Stew in the Instant Pot in the kitchen for my dinner. Attila barbecued chicken on the charcoal grill for himself.
The Beef Stew is my own recipe. I have some vintage organic, grass-fed stewing beef, that I had taken out of the freezer. After tossing around various ideas, I settled on the idea of a stew. There are no potatoes in the house, so I made the stew with cabbage instead. I cut the meat into very small pieces, sautéed it until it was cooked through, added chopped onions, vintage frozen celery, a half cabbage, chopped, a can of tomatoes, niblets corn, some herbs and macaroni. This was an experiment! The beef was cooked through during the sauté session, so I used the time required the pasta to cook the whole stew. The results were pleasing, so it was a relative success. The pasta was a little overdone, but not terribly so. I ate two bowls of the stew for dinner, it was the consistency of soup. This is a recipe worth working on, so I’ll be trying it again to tweak it. When I run out of vintage stewing beef I will make it with ground beef instead.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
HEAT WARNING
27°C
Date: 6:00 PM EDT Saturday 4 August 2018
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.9°C
Dew point: 22.1°C
Humidity: 74%
Wind: SSW 21 km/h
Humidex: 36
Visibility: 19 km
Quote
This comment was made in response to a 98-year-old woman’s video, demonstrating a main dish she prepared and served during the Great Depression.
“Imagine in the future when all the tattooed millennials are old and teaching ppl how to make unicorn cupcakes.”
You got me thinking about my Instant Pot which got me thinking about when I made French onion soup and now I want to make French onion soup but that will require a trip to the grocery store. Now I am thinking if I really want it that bad.
LOL, Birdie, your process sounds familiar to me! So many good things to eat… so little time!
I made beef stew once in my IP and it was fabulous. I cooked it for 60 minutes because I love the meat to melt in my mouth, without even having to chew it up! It came out perfect. I used some seasonings and some “Au Jus” in a jar mixture, and potatoes, onions, and carrots… the usual. I should make another one of those. I just had some steaks in the freezer that I chopped up into small pieces. My steaks never turn out great when I cook them as steaks anyway.
Bex, 60 minutes would turn the pasta to mush… but the description of your stew has inspired a few thoughts! I think I will cook pasta in the instant pot, enough to put in the refrigerator as an ingredient to add at the end of cooking, to dishes like stews and soups! I too like melt in your mouth meat.