Day 5: Beef Stew

For our dinner tonight, I tried out two new recipes. I made Beef Stew and buttermilk biscuits.

(from chindeep.com)

(from Simply So Good)

Ok, so I didn't take these pictures. Trust me, my food looked every bit as delicious, but was not photographing well in my dark kitchen at night. So I thought I'd let you see the yummy pictures that got me to try these recipes in the first place. That, and my sister Julie makes these biscuits so they must be good.

I was really excited to try this crock pot Beef Stew recipe. Mckay is not a big fan of soups and I'm mostly ok with that. But sometimes, on a cold, winter night, you just need to cozy up with a hot bowl of something and a delicious bread. I figured Mckay might like Beef Stew because it's essentially pot roast, with carrots and potatoes and gravy. What's not to love?! It's "manly" soup. The stew did not disappoint. The broth is rich and flavorful, the meat was tender and falling apart. Mckay said it's a winner that can enter the regular dinner line-up for winter. High praise.

The biscuits were fluffy and tall. Mine are usually flat and dense, so this one's a keeper too.

I am grateful for new recipes. I'm glad that I like to try new things. I'm glad I'm capable in the kitchen so that I feel confident to attempt new recipes.

I'm grateful for food bloggers who share their tasty recipes with me. I'm grateful for the chefs/cooks out there, whether trained professionally or on the "job," who experiment and test recipes so that I can enjoy the finished product.

I'm grateful for my Crockpot. We somehow never got a Crockpot as a wedding gift, so Mckay's parents gave us an old one that they didn't use anymore. This crock pot has got to be 20 years old. The crock does not remove from the heating base which makes it a pain to clean, and it takes a little longer to cook things in it. I keep hoping that something will happen to it so I can justify buying a new one, but this darn, wonderful crockpot just keeps on working.