Saint Patrick's Day Feast!

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day and as an excuse to make an Irish dish, I invite the guys over for dinner on Wednesday night for some Beef and Guinnness Stew. I took the recipe from Cooking Light (I know, healthy, right!) and adapted it a little.

The original recipe required roughly 3 hours of cooking time, starting with the browning of the beef, and then simmering with some ingredients, and then adding more stuff, and then some more cooking time. But hey, it's busy season and I quite frankly don't have time to stand around cooking for 3 hours on a week night. So instead, I did it in 8+ hours.

I got up a 5 am on Wednesday morning to get my stew in the crockpot before heading to the office. Although the recipe didn't say it, I am a student of Julia and I dried each piece of beef prior to browning it, and brown nicely it certainly did! Then I chopped and dropped the rest of the ingredients and threw it all in the crockpot. I realized as I was browning meat that there was no way it would all fit in one crockpot, even in the Resident Taste Tester's large one. So I split it all in half and we played dueling crockpots, which worked out very nicely.

My dueling crockpots, prior to cooking.

You can find the recipe from Cooking Light by clicking here. A few things to note though:

• I made mine in the crockpot by browning the meat and then throwing everything in on low for roughly 9ish hours.
• The recipe calls for both parsnip and turnip, but I could only find one at the grocery store and I can't remember which one it was. It was white, if that's any help. I bought about 5 or 6 red potatoes as a substitute and because the RTT loves potatoes.
• There are raisins in this stew. I know, crazy Irish. Raisins that have cooked for 8 hours are kinda like soggy grapes. I don't know that I would put them in again, put you should try it once anyways.
• FYI: If you're like me and you aren't an avid Guinness drinker, please be advised that they put something in the bottle, I guess to make it foam or something. If you're making this at 5 am and you aren't aware of this, it's ok. Don't panic. There's supposed to be something in there. And hey, it was 5 am and I didn't have my coffee yet. Don't judge me.

Wine Sunday: Pulled Pork Happiness

Note: Yes, I realize this is posted late again. Oh well. It's busy season.

Yes friends, it's Wine Sunday again. That means that tomorrow's Monday and that we're one week closing to crazy filing deadlines that we were last Sunday. Tomorrow's the filing deadline for all calendar year corporations, so I sent out a whole mess of extensions yesterday. They'll get done sooner or later, right?

Enough work. Let's talk dinner. Pulled pork. Baked Beans. Salad (healthy, right?).

For tonight's meal, I invited/was guilted into inviting my Quantity Control Expert and her boyfriend, as well as our friend T. over for dinner, since they have not yet been to a dinner and were feeling a little left out. My Resident Taste Tester will also be home, and D. is coming too. Mental math isn't my strong point, but that's 6 people to feed! I'm starting to get better at cooking for more than just me and the RTT. I've learned that the more people that come, the simpler my menu should be. And this pulled pork is by far the easiest thing I can do!

I failed yet again with photos. I come from a family that hardly ever took photos. No one ever had their camera with them or ready. Yet again, mid-way through dinner, I realized that I had not taken a single photo of any part of it. You'll just have to use your imagination; it looked fantastic!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
3 pounds bone-in pork shoulder butt
1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce (my crowd likes it saucy, so I use more than this)

1. Pour can of beef broth into slow cooker, and add pork. Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours. Leave the meat in the slow cooker and reserve a ladleful or two of the beef broth. Use the lid to drain the rest of the beef broth and remove the pork bone. Use two forks to shred the pork.

2. Stir barbeque sauce into shredded pork. Let heat on low until warmed through. Serve on toasted buns.

Roommates and Brownies

Here's a little peak into my process for deciding what to make:

Me: I have to pick something for Monika's birthday thing tonight. Do you have any requests, or suggestions?

The Resident Taste Tester: No, pick whatever you want.

Me: Ok, how about lemon poppy seed cookies?

RTT: No, I don't like that.

Me: Ok, what do you want?

RTT: {flips through cookie photos for 10 minutes} I want brownies.

Me: Ok, here are 4 choices of brownies. Which one do you want?

RTT: The trufle brownies.

Me: Ok, I'll make trufle brownies. Here's a photo.

RTT: I don't want those. They look like cake.

Me: Really. Ok, what do you want?

RTT: Peanut butter swirl brownies.

Me: Ok, I'll make those, but I'll use this other recipe so I can make a larger sheet of brownies and just add peanut butter to it.

Two hours and a sheet of baked brownies later...

RTT: Those look too cakey.

I'm currently in the market for a new roommate. One who likes cakey brownies.

So I'm going to a friend's birthday potluck game night tonight, so no Wine Sunday menu this week. Be prepared for something amazing next Sunday, as I was harassed for not inviting the Quanity Control Expert and another mutual friend over previously.

My brownie/cake batter, pre-baking

The brownies turned out cakey but tasty, per the RTT. The picture that she had picked out only made a small amount of non-cakey brownies, so I went with another recipe for Buttermilk Brownies that made more, apparently cakey brownies. I'll have to make her the original ones sometime, or I'll never hear the end of it.

My two recipe sources, held open by a wine bottle. Hey, it's Sunday.

I followed the buttermilk brownie recipe precisely, except that I added the peanut butter swirl from the other recipe. FYI, the swirl is a tasty mix of peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla, all things I love. The RTT, who never licks bowls or batter, was all over the swirl bowl and disappeared with the spoon from it.

The RTT, checking the quality of the peanut butter swirl. I think it passed.

My Quantity Control Expert was at the birthday party and was the first to pick up a brownie and taste it. Her immediate response: "This is cake." And then she proceded to ask everyone eating them if they were cake or brownies. The overwhelming response was cake.

Apparently I failed at making brownies this time around, although everyone said they tasted good regardless of if they were cake or brownies. I'll redeem myself next time with a fabulous fudgy, not cakey, brownie. Be prepared.