French Beef Stew with Red Wine and Garlicky Mash Potatoes

By On · In Kitchen Cupboard · 2 Comments

We don’t cook a lot of meat here but recently had access to quality beef without hormones or antibiotics so I bought quite a bit to put in my freezer. Amongst my beef packages was some stew beef. This recipe isn’t considered conventional to some of my friends but it turned out quite wonderfully. It was so delicious served over garlicky mash potatoes. If you make this recipe, think ahead so you can marinate your meat the day before you cook it!

I’m really disappointed that my access to that beef is gone and it will likely be a long time before I get to make this meal again!

French Beef Stew with Red Wine

French Beef Stew with Red Wine 

  • 3 lb Stew Beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • Salt and freshly ground Pepper
  • 1 bottle (750-ml) Red Wine (Bordeaux, Cote du Rhone, Vacqueyras, Gigondas, or Minervois are best)
  • 3 sprigs fresh Thyme
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 3 Carrots, cut into 1/2 inch slices
  • 1 Orange, cut into 8 wedges
  • 1 large Onion, cut into rings
  • 2 cloves Garlic, minced
  • Olive Oil
  • 1 6-oz can Tomato Paste
  • 4 1/2 cups Water
  1. Season meat with salt and pepper on all sides. Place meat in a ziplock bag with wine, thyme, bay leaves, carrots, orange, onion, and garlic. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 12 hours, and preferably 24 hours.
  2. Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a large stockpot. Remove the meat from the marinade and brown the pieces in the oil on all sides. Pour the marinade over the meat and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface.
  3. Lower the heat to a simmer. Stir in the tomato paste and water. Cover, and let stew on low heat for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.
  4. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or pasta.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

  • 6 Russet Potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • Salt
  • 8 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
  1. Place cubed potatoes in a large saucepan.
  2. Cover with cold water, salt liberally, and bring to a boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, skimming starch foam from top occasionally and checking to keep from boiling over. Lower heat if necessary.
  3. Drain potatoes and set aside.
  4. Return saucepan to low heat and add garlic and heavy cream.  Heat until garlic is fragrant and cream begins to simmer.
  5. Use an immersion blender or regular blender or even just a masher to blend potatoes and garlicky cream together until it becomes a smooth puree. Add water or skim milk as necessary to even out texture.

French Beef Stew with Red Wine

Freezing My Butt Off At Thirty Four

By On · In Random Musings · 6 Comments

Monday was my birthday! I’m thirty four this year! Monday was also the day the National Energy Board was back in town for the ongoing Joint Review Panel to talk about piping dirty tar sands oil to the coast to be put on tankers for Asia. I spoke at the JRP last May when they were here last.

I was so impressed with how many people came out for the rally because it was a miserable, rainy, cold weekday! It was a really wet kind of rain. If you weren’t in a rain jacket and rain pants, you were getting wet. I came home cold and wet having neglected to wear my rain pants! I need to find some sort of hand warmer I can still manoeuvre my camera with. My fingers were frozen by the time I got home.

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There were a lot of signs supporting the islands erased in Enbridge’s promotional video. An 1000 square kms of shoreline has been erased making the the proposed tanker route a much easier prospect than it really is.

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This day, Jen Rice presented Enbridge with a petition with an incredible 45,000 names on it asking Enbridge to remove this misleading video from their website.

A number of people spoke at the rally with inspiring words, stories about visiting one or more of the islands in an effort to reassure us that they do exist or more serious stories about the significance of those islands to the first nations people who live near by. The speakers were Jen Rice, Art Sherritt, Joe Daniels, Joy Thorkelsson and a number of people were interviewed by the media that came out this day.

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After the rally, the kids went with Cam to get a hot chocolate while I mingled with friends. That night my family got all dressed up, and told me I had to do the same, and took me out to a fancy restaurant for supper where I was given hand made cards and delicately embroidered crafts. I felt pretty lucky.

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I should probably add a recent photo of myself to this post about my birthday but the only one I have is one Leif snapped of me after letting me take some pictures of him! I’ve dropped the ball on making the time for self portraits. I really need to get back on this project. It made me feel so good to dedicate a little time to honouring myself when I took them. So here I am saying hello to you, dear reader. A little dishevelled and mostly in focus.

One of me by Leify

Little Yogis

By On · In Health · Add Comment

The fall yoga season has come to an end and Lily and Leif’s teacher is home to India for December. The kids are eager to start again in January. I took a few pictures at the last class.

Yoga studio

I think it’s worth taking a minute here to explain why the pictures look so strangely yellow! I was struggling with setting my white balance this day and in large part thanks to those tall lights! They aren’t very yellow in real life. Ideally, I would have liked to have all the images turn out with the same yellowness as each other, even if they were wrong but I played around with different things and so they aren’t consistant. Regardless, I really liked these moments and so I’m sharing! Live and learn, right?

Chatting before class.

This is such a wonderful class! I think one of the little girls in the class was right when she remarked that she liked that the kids actually wanted to be there. It’s very true. This little girl had opted to switch to yoga after another activity taking place at the same time was filled with kids forced to be there. The kids so enjoy this yoga class.

Their teacher, Dinesh, brings the kid’s energy levels up with stretching and strength building yoga, interspersed with moments of peaceful and quiet meditation. It’s quite incredible to watch- especially the mediation part.

Up and... Out

This is the little sister of a couple of the kids in class. She’s a bit too shy to join but throughout the fall has moved a little closer to joining the class.

A little shy

Most of the kids were interested in having a turn balancing on the rest of the class’s feet!

Ellie's turn! Sophie's turn!

Leify's turn!

At the end of the class, the group shares how it’s grateful.

Grateful at the end of class

Fall, Family and Fishing

By On · In Travelling · 7 Comments

Away

Old news now. This is from an earlier trip but I still wanted to blog with these images of time with my family at our cabin. We have to pass by that river above to get to our cabin. I don’t stop as often as I want because we’re usually eager to get where we are going. That fog made me stop though. I walked across the long one car wide, metal grate bridge to take a few pictures. I almost got lost in the view as I held my camera under my open raincoat. I remembered my waiting family and hustled back.

Ah. Fall is here. Checkers

What a beautiful corner of the country we live in! I already miss these fall colours we get to see inland from where we live on the coast. The weather was fine for us this trip. I think it’s been a lot dryer than usual this year.

The View

Look! Everywhere you look you can see something amazing, or simply beautiful. The kids were looking for bear and moose from the picnic table. I found a rock with a hole in it. When Cam was young his aunt would give any kid who found one of these and brought it back to her, a chocolate bar.

Looking for stuff

Fishing at the point For a candy bar

Fishing. Cam and the kids fished a lot. I was more content to take pictures of the fishing. Cam was eager to show the kids the best spots to be putting the line. Lily was interested and enjoyed herself but could be distracted away from the fishing when she saw a teeny frog to catch or when the dog brought a stick to throw. Leif had the real patience for fishing. He’d stand there as if in mediation, casting and reeling in slowly and casting again.

Fishing with Dad

This place is one of our favourite places to be. I took more photos than you see here. Just click on any to see them bigger or more of them.

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Creek Giving the porch a good sweep

Cairn

Heart. Can you see it in the picture below?

Love*Cam*River*Fall

Fish on!

Fish on!!

Dark. Out here at night it’s dark. Away from power lines by tens of kilometers and when the sky is cloudy there’s little to see. We had a bonfire one night. It was a good thing we were outside. Just as the dark was falling on us we saw a raft floating down river towards our cabins. We said “HELLO!” and got a hello back, along with a question about how far to their destination and what can they expect along the way. We yelled back that they should take out here and we’ll drive them the rest of the way. It wasn’t far where they were going but it wasn’t close enough for the light and the river was low. Best not take any chances in the dark and the cold. We have to stick together out here and lend a hand occasionally.

It sure felt darker when Cam left to give them a ride. The dark felt alive all of a sudden. Ready to swallow me up! The kids didn’t seem to notice but I was glad when Cam returned.

Evening bon fire

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Quinoa Cookies

By On · In Kitchen Cupboard, Vegetarian · 3 Comments

This recipe comes from the cookbook Quinoa 365 and quite tasty. A treat without being too sweet.

Make sure you use good quality peanut butter! The kind that needs to be refrigerated and is nothing more than ground peanuts with or without salt added. These days I’m using coconut palm sugar in place of demerara sugar, which is harder for me to find in good quality. For the chocolate chunks, I roughly chop of chocolate from the brick of Bernard Callebaut dark chocolate that I find in the bulk section of my local Overwaitea. It’s much better tasting chocolate and not too sweet like I find typical chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Quinoa Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Quinoa Cookies

  • 2 cups Quinoa Flour (or 1 cup quinoa flour and 1 cup all purpose flour)
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup Butter
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Demerara Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
  • 1/2- 1 cup Chocolate Chunks (or chips) (optional)
  1. Preheat oven to 375’F.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
  3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until smooth.
  4. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add peanut butter and mix well. 
  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients, blending well. Fold in chocolate chunks. 
  6. Chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or more.
  7. Roll into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with a fork.
  8. Bake for 8- 10 minutes or until the bottoms are golden. Cool on a cookie sheet.

 

The Countdown Begins

By On · In Everyday Living · 4 Comments

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It’s December 1st today! My kids were sure to remind me as soon as my eyes opened this morning so that we could hang up our Solstice countdown calendar. Leif is going to add to the calendar on the odd days and Lily on the even. Do you think I’ll ever finish my calendar? I still want to put some permanent background pieces on it.

Funny Faces

I’ve been snapping pictures like crazy these days. I’ve been preoccupied with my photography skills. Learning and pushing. Pushing and learning. Hopefully I’ll grow a great deal in the next few weeks and I’ll blog more about it. For now I’ll share some of my recent attempts.

Lily

I’m also happy to announce that Claire is the winner of one of Coral’s beautiful spice packet postcards. I’ll email you, Claire and let you know.

Jen Rice

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