Good Old Steak and Guinness Pie

Good Old Steak and Guinness Pie (serves 6)

1.5 lb stewing beef, diced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heaping Tbsp flour
olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
4 sticks of celery, washed and roughly chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
1 handful of fresh mixed herbs (rosemary, thyme and bay)
2.5 cups Guinness or other stout
2- 14 oz cans of tomatoes
1- 1lb 2oz package of puff pastry (thawed)
1 egg, beaten

Season your beef generously with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the flour and toss around until coated. Heat 2 or 3 glugs of olive oil in a large casserole-type pan and fry your meat, in 2 batches if need be, until golden brown. Add the onion and fry for 1 more minute, then add the carrot, celery, parsnips and herbs. Fry for a further 4 minutes then pour in your Guinness. Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil. Stir around, then simmer for around 2 hours or until the meat is really tender. The sauce should be nice and thinck with an intensely tasty flavor. Season. At this point you could serve it as a stew with mashed potatoes, or it will keep really well for a good 5 days in the fridge (while improving in flavor at the same time).

To make the pies, preheat the oven to 375F. Put your meat filling into an appropriately sized baking dish or dishes. You can make small individual pies- any high-sided reound oven proof bowls are fine - or you can put in a large casserole dish. Roul out pastry, dusting with flour, until 1/4 inch thick. If making individual pies, cut out circles about 1/2 inch bigger than the tops of bowls. Brush the rims of the bowls with beaten egg, then polace the pastry circles on top, squashing the excess pastry down the outside of the bowls to secure. Lightly score the top of the pastry in a criss-cross fashion and brush with more of the beaten egg. If using a casserole dish, brush rim with egg, place rectangle of pastry on top, score top, and brush with beaten egg. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 45min until golden and bubbling.

**Missy's note: in my opinion you can use any variety of root veggies: carrots, potatoes, parsnips, rutabaga...

House Pic

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while (too busy posting for the cafe)...but here is a house picture from last night that I just had to share (at a fundraiser for Groundwork Lawrence).

Trees!

We've been dreaming about trees lately...so we went to look at some and fell in love with some very nicely priced fruit trees: granny smith apple, cherry, peach, and plum...so we bought them, brought them home, and planted them :-)...and we LOVE them!

It's spring! time for yardwork

We do live in an urban area, but have found a few patches of dirt to call our own yard (even though we don't quite own it all)

I cleaned up our little area with flowers next to the front steps:And in the little grass area next to the house austin put some grass seed down (it's a long story, but last summer the church next door got re-roofed and the roofers just threw down all the slate ito the side yard killing a lot of the grass and a lot of our little garden) we hope this year we can actually fill it back in with grass and then next summer austin has a few more plans involving hedges and trees... :-)

Compost Tumbler

We haven't composted in a while because our bin was broken by the roofers next door and also we just were not maintaining it well. I've had my thoughts on the tumbling kind of bins for a while where you just give it a little twirl and everything gets mixed up. But, the tumbers range in price from about $200 to $300, so austin and I figured we could make one...so we did...and here it is :-) we had to buy a trash barrel, but already had a lot of wood we'd gotten on freecycle, so I think the total cost was about $30

Sprouts!

I've recently been experimenting with lentil sprouts. The lentils have been sprouting at my kitchen sink in an old honey jar :-)Here's the full jar of sprouts after about a week.

Cooking in Season: Baked Potatoes

I just couldn't help but make some baked potatoes this week since we got a 50# bag of potatoes from Maine (in a local farm store) for $12. Part of the great part about cooking in season is that things are usually very affordable! So here's my meal this Monday:

Baked Potatoes with yummy toppings:

Ingredients:
-1 medium/large potato per person
-sour cream
-chives or green onions
-cheddar cheese
-Ingredients for chili to top potatoes:
-2 cans kidney beans
-1 lb ground beef from Twist of fate farm
-2 cans diced tomatoes (I would have used my frozen ones, but I've used them all up already!)
-chili seasoning mix
-1 small onion

Directions:
Bake Potatoes in oven: I covered them in foil and baked at 375 for 1hr 20 min. Make chili: saute the onion, add ground beef until browned, add chili seasoning, beans, and diced tomatoes and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes or more. When potatoes are done, cut open on a plate and cover with all your favorite toppings.

...total cost for feeding 6 adults and one preschooler: $13.10 or $1.87 per person (potats $1.50, sour cream $2, beef $4, beans $1, tomatoes $1.50, onion $.10, green onions $1, cheese $2)