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It was a pleasure to burn stew

Keeping a blog is hard! Actually let me clarify: keeping a blog is hard when you are lazy and very skilled at procrastination. It has been a while since a post has been made but in my defense even though we have been cooking, hilarity has not ensued.

I'm feeling pretty sick today. I went snowboarding up on Mt Orford yesterday so I can only assume that being outside all day is how I caught this annoying cold. I figured because I should not be allowed anywhere near any edibles today (for fear of gross germ spread) I would write about food instead. I apologize in advance because this post is not going be funny. Not even a little bit witty. I think that maybe my cold is blocking my humor receptors. I just feel whiney instead of giggly. Whaaaaaaaa (that is the sound of me complaining).

A few weeks ago Madeline and I decided we finally wanted to christen our slow cooker. My mom (HI MOM!) bought me the crock-pot some time during the last school year but we never did get around to using it. I often daydreamed about coming home to slow cooked chili con carne, pasta sauce or chicken potpie. (SIDE BAR: I just realized, after a quick google search that half of the internet thinks chili the food is spelled like Chile the country. Silly people!) Unfortunately in order to have the pleasure of coming home to one of these delicious meals, someone would need to prepare them that morning. If you know anything about me, you should be aware that a) I am not a morning person and b) I am very forgetful. These two traits combined are clearly a problem if I wanted crock-pot food.

"But Becky," you might say, "Why can't your roommate Madeline prepare the slow cooker food for the both of you?” Well dear reader, you clearly do not know Madeline very well either because a) she also appreciates the gift of sleep far too much to be a morning person and b) has better things to do then remember to cook food before class.

I assumed for a long time that Class Mansion would not ever get around to using the crock-pot. It would be doomed forever to collect dust inside of the awkward cabinet beside the fridge. In a turn of events that was as much as surprise to me as likely to you, dear reader, in a fit of over confidence Madeline and I committed to finally actually maybe probably using the slow cooker. (SIDEBAR: we had once tried to cook a whole squash in the crock pot but realized our chosen gourd was too large to even fit through the mouth of the crock pot. See attached diagram 1.)

Diagram 1

One of my favourite meals that my mother makes (HI MOM!) is simple homemade stew. Seeing as the days were getting colder stew was now, more than ever, the perfect meal. Mad and I flipped through our slow cooker cookbook (The Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook!!!!) and selected the simple beef stew to make. We then invited over our favourite dinner couple, Kate & Beansie, with the promise of savory stew and gooey dumplings. I have to admit that in my opinion if the stew doesn't have dumplings IT AINT A STEW! You can ask my mom, I always whine and complain if she forgets to make dumplings. I'm glad that I am not my own child.

We bought stewing beef (pre-chunked) potatoes, carrots and onions in preparation for the stew. While Madeline chopped up the potatoes, carrots and onions I set about preparing the beef. I really need to give Madeline credit here. I cannot, and I mean CANNOT chop onions to save my soul. I cry like a little baby while my eyes burn like the fiery bowels of hell. Even wearing swim goggles is no longer efficient. I have to wrap a tea towel around my mouth like a half-balaclava and hope for the best. To be predictably dramatic, I think at this point if I were offered the choice of a super power I would choose the ability to cook with onions over invisibility. But I digress, because of my little onion problem Mad always has to do the onion preparations. Until the day we cooked stew both Madeline and I assumed her eyes were like impenetrable walls of titanium. On this day however I came into the room to see tears streaming down her big blue eyes (trust me, a rare sight). We figured out that it wasn't Madeline's eyes that were impermeable, it was her contact lenses. Because she has starting wearing glasses again it appears as though both of us might be wearing swim goggles for our next cuisine misadventure.

After the vegetables were prepared I phoned home with a quick question for my mom. She wasn't home so instead I redirected the question at my father. Now let me say, I love my father (HI DAD!) but when you ask him a question be prepared to receive more knowledge than you know what to do with. Case in point, I phone to ask how much water to put in the bottom of the crock-pot and hung up with a page long list of directions on how to braise the beef in a light white wine sauce, and how to caramelize the onions. I guess all I can say is, thanks dad?

Up until this point everything has been going according to plan. That means, of course, I was about the screw something up. The stew was taking too long to thicken even though I had added the Bisto ten minutes prior. I assumed that this was because the crock-pot wasn't getting hot enough. I made the executive decision to transfer all of the contents to a large saucepan and turn the heat up to high. For a while this seemed to be working. The gravy thickened nicely. Then I forgot about the pot and went about cleaning the kitchen up. Unfortunately by the time I remembered the stew it has begun smoking quietly. In short I had burned the bottom of the stew and evaporated most of the liquid.

The beef and vegetables were fine, and tasted great. Even the dumplings were perfect. The only problem was that there was not a single drop of gravy left. I remedied this by stirring up more Bisto and water to put back into the burned bottom of the pot. Luckily gravy did form. It looked great and smelled fine. The only problem was when I gave it a test I could only describe the taste as 'smokey' (and that was being nice). In the end we ate the stew any ways. It wasn't really that bad. I actually enjoyed it slightly. At least we learned a lesson out of this whole debacle. Patience is a virtue, seriously.

I would like to make a point of saying that even though we (Ahem, I) sometimes ruin whatever it is we are cooking, usually we do a very good job. In fact just this last week Madeline and I made two of the recipes out of the new cookbook I received for Christmas. Both turned out fabulous! The cookbook in question is called, 'Frame by Frame, Quick and Easy'. A family friend, and (I think) avid reader of this blog, Moira bought it for me after realizing how interested in cooking I had become (HI MOIRA!).

The first recipe we tried was for a homemade macaroni and cheese. We invited over our friends Sarah (the girl who graciously supplied this blog with her recipe for a sweet potato-maple casserole), Anna and Hilary. I'm pretty sure the dish was a hit and would make it/recommend it to anyone.

Ingredients:
225g dried macaroni
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 tbsp whole grain mustard
3 tbsp snipped fresh chives
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
scant 1 cup chopped/drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil
butter for greasing
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

1. Preheat broiler to high. Cook pasta for 10-12 min until tender but still firm to bite
2. Mix chives, ricotta and mustard together in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in macaroni and sun-dried tomatoes
3. Grease a 7 1/2 cup shallow ovenproof dish. Spoon in the macaroni, spreading evenly
4. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over macaroni and cook under the preheated broiler for 4-5 min until golden and bubbling.
5. Serve to the delight of 2 girls from Halifax, and 1 Torontonian.
:)

The second thing we tried out of the cookbook was also a vegetarian dish. A friend who goes to school in Toronto informed me that a similar recipe was part of the LCBO wine and food magazine this month. Apparently chickpea tacos are for January. I liked them because even though there was no meat involved, I didn't miss it.

Ingredients:
2 firm, ripe avocados
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tomato, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion sliced
400g canned chickpeas
1 tbsp chili powder
8 romaine lettuce leaves
8 tacos
2/3 cup sour cream
salt and pepper

1. Halve, pit, peel and dice the avocado and toss with lime juice
2. Stir in the tomato and season with salt and pepper
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions for 3-4 min until golden brown
4. Mash the chickpeas with a fork and stir into the pan with chili powder. Heat gently while stirring for 2 min
5. Divide the lettuce among the tacos, spoon avocado/tomato into the tacos
6. Add a spoonful of sour cream into each
7. Add chickpea mixture into each taco
8. Serve to the delight of New Yorker and Calgarian couple (Kate and Beansie).

Wasn't that a long post! See I make up for quality (and regularity) with quantity! Try out those recipes because they are seriously great. I'm going to make myself some tea, take an Advil Cold and Sinus, and lie down to watch a Disney movie. Keep on cooking.

XOXO Class Mansion

PS. Here's a photo of Potter and turkey