Prize winning Burgundy Mushroom Beef Stew

Since the wind is whipping 80 miles an hour and they were predicting possible snow flurries yesterday. Which became reality!! SERIOUSLY...when is Spring going to arrive?! It's Stew weather in April!

A few months ago I was gushing over my friend Ree's Burgundy Mushrooms, and another good friend mentioned she aways wondered what those catastrophically delicious mushrooms would be like if they were in a stew.

Ree I love you, but if I had to choose between you and your mushrooms...well um er rHmmm...lets just say it would be hard to pick.

So I salivated all over my keyboard for a little while thinking about how I might make the Burgundy Mushroom recipe into a Beef Stew recipe. Then I decided to consult Hyacinth since she started the whole thing! She is trouble that one! We went back and forth on the details of the recipe.....carrots or no carrots, the order in which to cook the meat...yadayadayada.

As luck would have it my church was doing a Stew and Soup Cook Off! Hot-diggity-dog I had an audience!!!! Thankfully God has blessed me with a church full of foodies.

It looks like a fair amount of ingredients to gather up, but most likely you have it all in your pantry. Nothing too fancy here. But oh it tastes fancy!

If you prefer you can buy Stew Meat already cut up for you or if you'd rather you can buy 4-5 pounds of Top Round Roast and cut it into bite sized pieces, about and 1 1/2 inches each..

I cut the roast up put it in a Zip-loc bag, doused (1 teaspoon) it with Lawry's Season Salt and set it aside while I cleaned the mushrooms. You could do this step a day ahead of time.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 6-8quart dutch oven. Dredge the meat in flour, brown in oil.

This step will need to be done in shifts, don't over crowd the pan. Brown then remove to a dish as you add more meat. Add more oil as needed. Turning pieces with a fork or tongs to get all sides nice and brown.

Continue until all the meat has been browned. The meat doesn't have to be completely cooked.

All the meat is browned and set aside and now you have all these beautiful bits of flavor left in your pan. LEAVE THEM THERE. Do not wash the pan or wipe it out or anything crazy like that.

Skip to the wine...I mean skip ahead to the wine in the recipe...you don't need to skip to go get your bottle of wine although I do on occasion. Now that you have your bottle of red wine opened, any dry red wine will do, pour yourself a little sip. Taste. Now proceed with your cooking.

Add the cleaned mushrooms, bag of onions, butter, and the whole bottle of red wine (minus a sip or two) to the pot. Turn up the heat to medium and bring it to a boil.

I had a helper. She unwrapped to pesky bouillon cubes for me. Those little foil wrappers are like nails on a chalk board for me....I know I have some weird hang ups. I could tell you I'm working on them, but I'm not. So get used to it.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the roasted taters, and the browned meat.

Cook on stove top for 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

It's extremely hard to get an appetizing picture of half cooked meat.

Add the browned meat back into the pot. Give it a stir so it can get friendly with all those luscious mushrooms. I think they became more than friends actually.......

Now cover your pan and pop it in the 300 degree preheated oven and go watch West Side Story or Fiddler on the Roof, a movie that will make you sing. Or how about Mama Mia? That will make you dance too, which you might want, so you can burn off the calories from this stew. Bake for 2-3 hours, leave it alone, you don't need to check it or stir it, just go relax.

After your movie is done, then you can roast your potatoes. 5-6 Idaho potatoes or Redskin Potatoes would be good too. Preheat oven to 425. Clean and cut potatoes into chunks, lay on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper. You can use a heavier hand with the pepper if you like, but be careful with the salt you wouldn't want your Stew to be too salty.

Roast potatoes for 30 minutes, using a spatula to turn once or twice. So they become browned on all sides.

When you remove your stew from the oven, remove the lid and add the roasted potatoes. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread to sop up the gravy. This is comfort food at its finest.

I did just so happen to win the prize for Best Stew! My prize was a ladle with a ribbon....I will cherish for all my life.

Burgundy Mushroom Beef Stew with Roasted Potatoes

Serves 10-12

printable recipe

4 1/2 pounds Top Round Roast or Stew Meat, cut into bite sized pieces

1 cup Flour

4 tablespoons Olive Oil

48 ounces White Button Mushrooms, cleaned, and if large cut in half

1 pound bag frozen White Pearl Onions

2 sticks of Butter

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 bottle Burgundy Wine, Zinfandel or a Merlot will work also.

1 teaspoon ground Pepper

4 Chicken Bouillon cubes

4 Beef bouillon cubes

1 tablespoon, heaping of fresh Dill chopped fine or you can use the freeze dried dill

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

2 cups boiling Water

5 or 6 Idaho Potatoes, cleaned, cut into 1 inch cubes + salt, pepper, and olive oil for roasting.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1. Cut roast into bite sized cubes of meat.

2. Clean mushrooms and cut large mushrooms in half.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in large pot (6-8 quart), dredge meat in flour and brown meat in oil. do not over crowd pan with meat while browning. You will have to do this in shifts removing meat to a dish as it browns. Add more oil to pan as needed.

4. After all meat is browned and removed from pan ad mushrooms and remaining ingredients to pan except potatoes or the browned meat. Do not clean pan, leave all the browned goodness from the meat. Bring to a boil, and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add meat back into the pan. cover pan with lid and put in preheated oven for 2-3 hours. Checking and stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees to roast potatoes.

5. wash potatoes, cut into chunks, spread on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, bake in oven for 30 minutes. Turning occasionally with a spatula so potatoes brown on all sides.

6. Remove Stew from oven and add hot roasted potatoes to the stew, fold them in.

Serve with a Crusty Loaf!

I hope where ever you are you can't see your breath outside and the wind is not whipping your car door open and slamming it into the car parked next to you. Mostly I hope it's not snowing.

Hope you enjoy this Stew as much as my church family did....they ate it so fast I couldn't get a end picture of it. If you are a visual person, sorry you will have to use your imagination, or make it for yourself and send me a photo!

Enjoy!

meal fit for a King: Boursin Steak

This is one of Kenny's favorite meals. It's a mans meal. Not that a woman couldn't love a good steak slathered with Boursin Cheese, and then smothered in caramelized onions and mushrooms.

Uh-huh....that's what I'm talkin about.

Definitely the way to a mans heart is through his stomach, and if you are wanting to show your man some love, this one is a cinch. Add a potato and garlic bread, maybe some roasted asparagus. And VOILA! Your honey is gonna be singing your praises!!!

This is so easy I don't think I even need to add a printable. (I hope you don't mind.) It really is that easy!!

New York Strip Steaks or Delmonico's, are a good place to start, however many will feed your crew. Give them a good douse with Lawry's Season Salt. Front and Back. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour or so before grilling. A room temperature steak will grill more evenly, than a cold steak.

Fill a 12 inch saute' pan with sliced mushrooms, a medium sweet onion sliced,

and as much butter as your diet will allow...this is about 4 tablespoons.

Give this a nice sprinkle of Lawry's.

Cook on stove top for 15-20 minutes over medium heat, until mushrooms cook down and onions caramelize.

Boursin Cheese makes me smile.

I would recommend spreading 1 tablespoon of Boursin on your hot of grilled steak...it will get all melty and creamy. But by all means if you want slather more on there. GO FOR THE GUSTO! That's my motto!

Now for a heaping serving of mushrooms and onions right on top.

I'm telling you... your man ain't gonna know what hit him!

He's going to be...like huh...what?! "Is it my Birthday...Fathers Day, what did I do to deserve this meal?"

And you can say, " it's because I love ya baby." Just because I luv Ya! (wink)

If you have leftovers, here's a great way to use them. Slice up the steak in thin slices, warm it up in a pan with the left over mushrooms and onions, drizzle some Honey Mustard Dressing in the pan, toss it around until it's heated through. Place that mixture on top of a bed of Baby Spinach and top it with crumbled Blue Cheese.

Heaven..... I'm in heaven...

and my stomach groans so I can hardly speeeeak...

and I seem to find the happiness I seeeeeek,

but after eating all this...

I will have to diet for a weeek.

Eat your heart out Sinatra!

Sorry lost my mind for a minute there....

Have a great week end and don't forget to check out all the other amazing recipes submitted to Kim's Saturday Swap at Quit Eating Out!

Luv Ya,

Chili

It's a snot freezer out there again today! Hokey Smokes. The weatherman said the temperatures was going to "warm" up to a whopping 27 degrees today. I'm not complaining, if the leaves are off the trees and it's going to be cold out, I would much rather have snow on the ground as apposed to brown and cold. In Michigan, in the winter months, the snow is our sun. It brightens things up!

I twitted last week, "that it was colder than a well diggers auger". Somebody said they had never heard it put that way....I was afraid to ask how they had heard it put.

We are blessed to live on some land so the kids can pull each other behind the quad on sleds. Because these things ain't gonna get used for a while.......

Hibernating. I feel like all I want to do is climb in my bed under the heating blanket and watch the Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, and When Harry Met Sally over and over and over. I'm a sucker for a love story, on a cold winter night.

It seems like there are hundreds of things to do outside when the weather is warmer, but until the warmer days come we are stuck inside, left to our own imaginations. I have tried to be more creative this winter. Tried to think of ways we can keep our bodies and minds moving. I bought Michael Jackson Experience Game for the Wii. My littlest, Cece, ROCKS at it. She out boogies me every time! We play more games. Bogle, Apples to Apples, and Skip-Bo are a few of our favorites.

One thing I have found about Winter is it seems easier to gather around the dinner table together more often. I am a staunch advocate for family meals. At least three times a week if not more. We all are at the dinner table together, eating the same food, looking each other in the eye, and sharing our day. It's not always picture perfect, but it's important. One thing that we all love is Chili. Chili is not something that I ever make in the warmer months. It is reserved for cold Winter or cool Fall days. My chili recipe has Mole in it. Mole gives this chili a sweet spicy richness. If you can't find mole in your grocery store. You can substitute cocoa powder and it will give you a similar taste effect.

Chili

printable recipe

2 pounds lean ground beef

1 red pepper sliced

1 green pepper diced

1 medium onion diced

2-3 minced garlic cloves

2 16 0z cans of chili beans (mild or hot depending on your tolerance for spice)

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2 cups V-8 vegetable juice (I like to use the hot or spicy V-8)

1 9.5 oz box of ready to serve Dona Maria Mole

1 heaping tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

You can cook this on your stove top or you can do step one on the stove top then transfer meat and vegi's to crock pot and add remaining ingredients.

1. Brown ground beef. Add onion, peppers, and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Let cook for 10-15 minutes until vegi's are soft and starting to brown. (Transfer to crock pot if you prefer using a crock pot.)

2. Add beans, mixing into meat mixture and smashing some of the beans in the process, this makes the chili thicker.

3. Add remaining ingredients in order. Cook at a low temperature on stove top for 1 hour. Stirring on occasion. If chili is thicker than you like feel free to add more V-8 juice to thin it down.

NOTE: If you can't find the ready to use Mole, then substitute 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

We love to eat our chili generously topped with Monterrey Jack cheese and a dollop of sour cream, served with tortilla chips or Cheesy Toast,

Hope you can get your family around the table to enjoy a meal this week!

LUV Ya,

Sunday Dinner~Beef Stew

What could be more comforting on a cold winter day in the great white north than stew? Beef Stew. I have a long list of comfort foods, and Beef Stew is for sure in the top ten. Hearty, rich, full of flavor. We like ours a little spicy. Beef Stew always brings smiles to our dinner table. This recipe makes enough for an army. Make this stew, and invite someone over after church on Sunday. Make some dinner rolls and an Apple Pie and they will think they died and went to heaven!

The list of ingredients may seem long, but really this recipe is quite simple. A little bit of cooking on the stove, then pop it in the oven for a couple hours. It will make your house smell fabulous. Make things easy on yourself by, giving the ingredient list a read through and get all your vegi's and meat prepped before you turn your stove top on. Ready, Setty, Go!

Beef Stew

printable recipe~ Tasty Kitchen

4 pounds beef stew meat or round steak cut into one inch cubes

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon season salt ( I love Morton's Natures's Seasonings)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 whole sweet onion sliced thin

12 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped in half if large

1/2 red pepper diced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 cup dry red wine (Cabernet, Burgundy, Merlot all good choices)

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

10 whole carrots peeled and chopped into chunks

32 ounces beef broth

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (NOTE: I highly recommend you get yourself some SMOKED paprika, it adds an amazing flavor to stews and sauces! It's one of my favorite spices, polka dot period)

2 heaping tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, feel free to add more if you like spice

1 cup of water.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Start out by trimming the fat and grisle off 4 pounds of round steak.

Cut trimmed streak into one inch cubes. Or you can simply buy 4 pounds of stew meat from your butcher.

Mix 2 cups of flour in bowl with 1 teaspoon season salt, set aside and heat 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil together in a large dutch oven on stove top. . Dredge beef chunks in flour.

Drop them in pan to brown.

Be careful not to crowd meat pieces, while browning, you will most likely have to do this in two batches.

Remove browned meat, and continue to add meat until it is all browned. If pan starts to get dry add an additional tablespoon of butter and or olive oil. Adjust heat as needed you want to brown meat but not burn bottom of pan. Remove all browned meat from pan and set aside.

Slice one medium sweet onion, clean 12 ounce package of white button mushrooms, dice 1/2 of a red pepper, mince 3 cloves of garlic (more if your husband is not a vampire and can tolerate garlic better than mine).

This is good, this is very good, this browned, on the verge of burned goodness will give your stew flavor...don't even think of scrapin' any of that goodness out of there in less of course you are going to have a taste....then by all means scrape baby scrape.

Toss in pepper, onion, mushrooms, and garlic sautee' on medium heat. The moisture from the vegi's will loosen up all the brown crusty goodness from the bottom of the pan. Sautee until onions are starting to caramelize and mushrooms are browning, about 8 minutes.

Now for the good stuff. One glass Merlot or Burgundy wine. FIRST you must take a sip of the wine. Heaven for bid you pour nasty wine in your beef stew! Take another sip....are you sure it's good enough?

OK, pour it on in with the caramelizing vegi's. Kick up the heat get the party started, take a spatula and scrape all the goodness from the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing.

Bring the browned beef chunks back to the party.

Carrots...aren't they purdy? Yes carrots come in all shapes and sizes and colors. They are not all uniform and bite sized and sealed tight in plastic. Do you have a peeler? Use it!

Confession: Cloned Carrots scare me.

Sorry, sometimes I don't know what happens to me, I get all bossy and sassy. Feel free to use the cloned type of carrots, what ever floats your boat.

Toss in your carrot chunks. Add cans of tomatoes, and the remaining ingredients.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place covered pan in oven for 2-4 hours. I if you are going to be baking this stew on the longer end of the cooking time, be sure to check it and add water if stew appears to be cooking down too much.

We eat our stew over noodles. If you prefer potatoes, you could make yourself some mashed taters and ladle stew over them. OR you could cut up chunks of potatoes and add them into the stew, add extra water if you are going to add potatoes. I love peas in my stew, but my kiddos think peas will kill them, so I leave them out. The sacrifices I make...let me tell ya!

Now don't ya wish you had smell-o-vision? MMmmm-MMMmmm Good!

Enjoy!

Many Blessings!