A couple of recipes as requested

We are well into December and we have snow actually sticking on the ground here. I had to find my winter driving skills today driving to karate and horseback, some wicked black ice out there.

On Facebook today I mentioned that I was making Guinness Stew and Candy Cane Brownies for dinner tonight and I had a lot of requests for the recipes. Here they are, enjoy!!!!

Guinness Stew (I call it this, but the recipe is actually called Deep Dish Pub Pies, I got it years ago from Homemakers.com)

2 lbs (1 kg) boneless lade, cross-rib or round steak or stewing beef, cubed

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 cups beef broth (I use the VE Beef Bouillon)

1 can of Guinness

1 cup plain tomato sauce (I use V8 for added flavour)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp thyme

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

3/4 cup celery, diced

1 1/2 cups small mushroom, halved

Topping:

1 (about 14 0z/400 g) package frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg lightly beaten

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add beef and shake to coat with flour. Reserve remaining flour. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy saucepan set over medium heat. Brown beef cubes in batches, adding more oil as needed. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add broth, beer, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, stirring well to scrape brown bits from bottom of pan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until meat is nearly tender. Add carrots, potatoes and celery, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then add mushrooms and simmer for 15 minutes longer or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Mix reserved flour mixture with a little cold water until smooth. Stir into beef mixture and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Taste and adjust seasoning. Divide beef mixture between 8 individual casseroles (each about 10 oz/300 mil or 4 inches in diameter) Cover with foil.

Make -Ahead: Beef mixture may be refrigerated before or after filling casseroles, for up to 2 days)

Topping:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Roll out pastry to 1/8 inch (3 cm) thickness and cut into 8 round that are the same diameter as the casserole dishes (pastries will puff up during baking and shrink slightly in diameter) Place on large baking sheet.

Chill until pastry is cold, about 15 minutes. Brush with lightly beaten egg. Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Reserve

Make Ahead: Pastries may be made up to a day ahead. Cover with a tea towel and store at room temperature)

Bake foil-topped casseroles in 400F oven for 15 min or until bubbling hot. Remove foil, top each with reserved puff pastry rounds and return to oven for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

If you like beer, have a can of Guinness while eating the stew/pies.

I normally don't make this into pies, I don't always have the time. I skip the pastry part and just eat the stew part. You can also add dumplings to the stew the last 15 minutes or so of cooking.

I have also made this stew in the slow cooker. Brown the beef and add to the slow cooker. Use the beer and some of the broth in the pan that you browned the beef in, scraping up the bits and add this to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients, mix well and cook on low for about 8-10 hours.

Now for dessert:

Candy Cane Brownies

This recipe is from Canadian Living Holiday Best 2002

2/3 cup butter

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Topping:

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

2/3 cups mini chocolate chips

Line a 13 x 9 inch metal cake pan with parchment paper, set aside.

In saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together butter and semisweet and unsweetened chocolates. Let cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Using wooden spoon, stir in flour and salt. Scrape into prepared pan.

Bake in 350 F oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging, 25 to 30 minutes.

TOPPING: Sprinkle with candy canes, then chocolate chips; return to oven for 30 seconds (do not let topping melt). Let cool in pan on rack. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Makes about 40 bars

I use a whole package of candy canes (i think there are about 12 or so candy canes per pkg). I can't be bothered measuring crushed candy canes. I put the unwrapped candy canes in a large Ziploc baggie, seal the baggie and beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin. It is a great stress reliever. I also just eyeball the chocolate chips on top as well, in my world you can never have too much chocolate.

We also say screw it to refrigerating the bars for 1 hour. After a couple of hours I remove the brownies from the pan, and cut into squares while the chocolate chips are still ooey and gooey and oh so good and you end up with chocolate all over your hands and face. Yummy.

Scrapping Turtle is Having a Spooktacular On-Line Crop

At the Scrapping Turtle Forum, one of the forums I like to hang out at, is having a "Spooktacular On-Line Crop" beginning Nov. 13. There will be challenges and ballots given to win some awesome prizes, don't know what the prizes are, but knowing the Turtle they will be awesome. If you are new to the forum, go and register, tell them I sent you, complete at least 2 of the challenges from the on-line crop (it will be fun, trust me) and you and I will each win some ballots.

Gotta Love Halloween

I love Halloween. I love decorating, getting the costumes figured out, picking out pumpkins and raiding the kids treat bag (my hips and stomach don't appreciate that part though)

It is a yearly tradition in our house that I take a picture of all three kids with their pumpkins after we carved them and are waiting for the pumpkin seeds to finish cooking. Of all the pictures I took that night, I like this one the best, it shows all three of them laughing, shows them as I see them and why I love my three babies (yes Laura, you maybe 14 but you will ALWAYS be my baby). Why are they laughing? That splash of white in the left hand side of the picture is a clue. That would be Dalwhinnie who decided that with me sitting on the floor with a camera sticking out of my face, it would be a good time to jump on me and lick my ear, ewwwwww!! Nothing like dog licks in the ear.

This year for Halloween it was just Daniel and Amanda who went Trick or Treating with their friends, Laura opted to stay home and hand out candy, I think she realized it was more work than she expected. Of course I have to take some pictures before they head out. Daniel was walking death, again, and Amanda was an enchantress with a purple and black wig that lasted about 3-5 houses.

When I look at this picture it makes me giggle. Daniel had his toy sword with "blood" (ya gotta love boys) and was swinging it at our Pirate, Mr. Doomsday, who is trying to get out of his grave, except it looks like he is ready to take Amanda down who is smiling sweetly, without a care in the world. She doesn't see her brother who appears ready to slash his sister down into oblivion, but she is an enchantress, she will use her magical powers to deflect him. Daniel has been foiled again. Bwahahaha!!!!

And finally, here is our house with the decorations. My favourite would be the giant spiderweb and spider. And we can't forget Mr. Doomsday. Poor Mr. Doomsday who will be stuck half in and half out of his grave forever......well right now he is in storage in my basement.

A couple of cards

I have been busy making a couple of cards. This first one is to welcome my new niece. We haven't had a chance to actually meet her yet because we have had the flu in the house, she is about a month old already, hopefully we will be able to see her very soon. Kathy, if you see this, you didn't see this, right?

The stamp is Geordie The Giraffe, it was in my loot bag from Crop for the Cure (thanks Tracey) and I colored him in with Copic markers, the words "little one" is a Close to my Heart stamp. Patterned paper is Basic Grey (sprinkles), ribbon I am not sure, got it in a grab bowl at Scrapfest, cardstock is Stampin Up, the Threading Water Stamp from Fiskars was used to give the scalloped edge at the bottom of the pattern paper.

This card I made just because. I will probably give it to one of my girls at some point. Patterned paper is from Stemma, stamped image and wording is Close To My Heart, flower rub ons and bling is from Bazzill and again I used the Threading Water punch from Fiskars.

That is my three posts for today, to make up what I missed posting yesterday and Sunday. We shall see if I can blog everyday this month for National Blog Writing Month. I think if I do I need to treat myself to something scrappy, maybe a Quickutz die, or new Cricut cartridge, or more paper because lord knows I don't have enough paper!!!

Jessica Sprague has a new free class

Just got an e-mail yesterday from Jessica Sprague that she has a free online class and that registration is now open. It is called Holidays In Hand. I have taken one of her classes before and she is a fabulous teacher for adobe and digital scrap booking. And as with all of her classes you get free downloads. Check it out here and register if you can. And the best part is you don't have to "keep up" with the classes. You can work at your own pace, so if you have a crazy busy week and can't get to the lesson right away, you do it 1, 2 or 3 weeks later or even 1 year later.

Double Ginger Crackle Top Cookies

We have had the stomach flu come through this house for about the past week. Daniel started last Wednesday, Dave and Laura kicked in Saturday night. Today, everyone is back to school and work. Woohoo!!!!!!!

We have had a month of at least once a week someone gets sick in this house except for me, I have just kept going, didn't have time to get sick I suppose, having to take care of my bubonics. Also, yesterday my mom fell and broke her wrist so I will have to be zipping out to Woodstock to get her a few groceries and such.

The other day, with Dave and Laura comatose on the couches, Amanda still having her lingering cough and Daniel still complaining of a stomach ache, I decided I had enough. I tried to raise some money for my "Ria is sick and tired of taking care of sick children and Dave and needs a vacation preferably to the Caribbean and/or Hawaii" fund. I didn't get too far. Denise and Marissa and Lisa offered to come with me, they are such good friends that they would be willing to make such a big sacrifice for me. We decided on Hawaii. But the only cash I got was some Canadian Tire money from Lisa, she said I could buy some bungee cords with them. Maybe I could stowaway on a plane and bungee myself out when we are over Hawaii?

I read on one of the blogs that I follow that November is suppose to be National Blog Writing Month and that you are suppose to try and blog everyday. Huh? I am lucky to blog once a month sometimes. It is now November 3, I think I am about two days behind already, what if I post three posts today, would that count?

Now for the recipe. With people's stomach acting up, I decided to make some Double Ginger Crackle Top Cookies. Boy did my house smell amazing last night. It is a recipe I use from Epicure and it calls for their Crystallized Ginger. I love their Crystallized Ginger. Usually the grocery store kind of crystallized ginger tends to be pale in colour and small, and when you read the ingredients they add some other stuff besides ginger and sugar, to prolong the shelf life. Last year I got my first can of VE Crystallized Ginger, opened it up and the smell was AMAZING!!!! The ginger was a nice dark color, moist and chewy and I was able to eat it right out of the container with no funny aftertaste. I read the ingredients which are as follows: ginger, sugar. THAT IS IT!!! Pure ginger with sugar, and the container I opened last year is still good, almost gone, but still good. This crystallized ginger is fabulous dipped in melted dark chocolate.

DOUBLE GINGER CRACKLE TOP COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp VE Ginger

1/2 tsp VE Cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup finely chopped VE Crystallized Ginger

3/4 cup shortening (I use butter to eliminate the trans fats which are a lot worse than saturated fats for your heart)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar, reserve 1/2 cup for rolling

1 egg

2 tbsp Molasses

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Whisk together first 6 ingredients and set aside

3. Cream shortening (butter), brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in egg, molasses, and lemon zest.

5. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating well after each addition.

6. Place 1/4 cup white sugar in a shallow bowl. Form dough into 1" balls, roll in white sugar and place on a parchment line baking sheet 2" apart (I just used my pampered chef stone ware, greased)

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until "crackled" on top. Cool before storing.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Catching up and a recipe

I admit it , I am a terrible blogger. I see it has been over a month since I lost posted. Yikes!!!!

For the last three weeks we have had a flu bug in this house. I have been lucky in that it didn't strike me down, but it got everybody else here. According to the Board of Health, if you have the flu, chances are it is H1N1, so I assume that is what we had. We ended up spending Thanksgiving here at home and missed out on seeing our brand new niece, but we are planning to go down to Sarnia this Sunday and meet Brianna. I am so excited, charging my camera batteries right now.

I have used this morning so far to catch up on my internet world. Went over to Two Peas and watched their weekly Video Warehouse Walk. I so want to work there, I think it would be fun if Denise, Marissa and myself had jobs in their warehouse, Dave thinks nothing would get done if we were there. I wonder why he would think that?!?!?! I also watched their Finally Friday Video with Kristian Werner. She showed how to make the cutest card using Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry paper line and stamps. Love it. You should check it out.

Today is a cloudy, cold, and rainy day so I am dressed in comfy sweatpants and sweater, sitting here in my craft room and hope to get some scrap booking done. I have to make a card for my niece to welcome her to this fabulous world and finish the mystery kit I picked up at the Scrapping Turtle for this month. Hopefully I will get around to posting pics later of those projects.

Last weekend Marissa and I held an Epicure open house here at my home. We had a fabulous turnout and everything we made was given two thumbs up. We had Spinach Dip, Crab Dip, layered Nacho Cheese Dip. Shortbread with dark chocolate for dipping, vanilla spritz cookies, chai and Christmas Tea with an amazing gingerbread syrup, baked brie with Red Pepper Jelly and Pinoit Noir Wine Jelly. We also made a fabulous gingerbread cake using the new Gingerbread Spice blend and served it with Vanilla Creme Anglaise. Here is the recipe. I would post pictures, but we ate all and it was delicious.

Enjoy!!!!!

OLD FASHIONED GINGERBREAD CAKE

3 eggs beaten

1 cup white Sugar

1 cup molasses

3/4 melted butter

1 tbsp VE Gingerbread Spices

2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp hot water

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)

2. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" (23 cm x 33 cm) baking pan. Lightly dust with flour, tapping out the excess. Set aside.

3. Beat eggs, sugar, molasses, butter and VE Gingerbread Spices in a mixing bowl.

4. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Stir into egg mixture.

5. Stir flour into mixture until batter is smooth.

6. Add boiling water and mix well. Pour into prepared pan.

7. Bake for 45 minutes.

Marissa and I found this cake reminds us of Koek, which is a Dutch cake we used to eat growing up. Adding some chopped apple and/or raisins would also be a nice addition to this cake.

VANILLA CREME ANGLAISE

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 VE Vanilla Bean

2 large egg yolks

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1. Place whipping cream, milk, and VE Vanilla Bean in top of double boiler over medium heat. Stir frequently for approximately 3 minutes, or until mixture begins to heat and small bubbles form at edge of bowl.

2. Remove VE Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise with a small knife and scrape out seeds. Add seeds to mixture. Rinse pod and set aside to be reused.

3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl. Slowly add heated milk mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly.

4. Return mixture to the top of the double boiler. With heat at a slow simmer, stir with a spatula for approximately 3-4 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly.

Serve with warm gingerbread cake. Yummy!!! Especially for a day like today.