Saint Patrick's Day

Beef and Irish Stout (Beer) Stew

This stew is great for St. Patrick's Day. The mixture of the beef and Guinness (or Terrapin) is awesome! I usually add more beer than the recipe calls for. Serve with mashed potatoes. This recipe serves six.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds lean beef stew meat
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups Irish stout beer (e.g., Guinness or Terrapin) – the more the merrier
2 cups chopped carrot
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Toss the beef cubes with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Dredge the beef in this to coat.
Heat the remaining oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef, and brown on all sides. Add the onions, and garlic. Stir the tomato paste into a small amount of water to dilute; pour into the pan and stir to blend. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 5 minutes.
Pour 1/2 cup of the beer into the pan, and as it begins to boil, scrape any bits of food from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This adds a lot of flavor to the broth. Pour in the rest of the beer, and add the carrots and thyme. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Irish eyes will all be shining. Don't forget Scott & Kelly's party!

Milt

Computer Bargains

Abigail is the proud owner of a new laptop computer (Compaq). After calling her grandfather for help (that's me), we began watching all the ads for a cheap (meaning not as expensive as normal or under $500) computer. Abigail had a savings account balance that has been burning a hole in her pocket, so rather than spending it on new games for her Wii, Gina offered a matching program for new computational power.

As we waded through ads, we discorvered the dreaded (offer limited to available stock) notice - usually in very fine print. To play this game, we had to get the first edition of the Sunday newspaper and be ready to pounce. After a few misses, we struck gold (bam) at Circuit City. Best Buy was cheaper but Gina had a bad taste in her mouth from a previous experience with them.

Abby's only disappointment was that the laptop was NOT available in pink! I explained that there are sleeves (covers) for laptops so a solution may be just around the corner. Keep your eyes open.

By the way, Gina has sprained her back and is currently taking some really superior pain medications. It may be your best chance to ask for any favor that you need from her. It couldn't hurt (bad pun).

So much for the report from Lake Wobegone...

Milt

PS - Taylor has landed his first professional (meaning paid) photo assignment. More to follow.

Mustache Madness

Hmmmmn. So pensive. What could I be pondering? My future winnings, probably.





Mein Schnurrbart schaukelt die Erde!!



Here's a winning pose.


OK, for those who didn't already know, we had a mustache growing competition at Terrapin. The competition started as a show of solidarity against the State government holding up our license to brew beer in the new brewery. Good times were had by all and I ended up winning the competition. So, here are some photos of the progression of my award-winning mustache. It turned green on the day of the judging. Lucky for me, because I think that helped me win. Let me know if there are any questions or anyone wants any tips in mustache-growingness as I am now a professional (just like my Dad, awww) lip sweater wearer.

Hello

Hi. No real news to report from the Hayes family (Connecticut branch) -just some plain old every day updates. Last weekend of duck season was good with limits both days (ducks traveled well to home and will make delicious gumbo). Katie continues to do amazing new things every day, to which most of you would say "whatever". The temptation to believe she is the only child ever born is overwhelming. I have to really enjoy the time while she still thinks Dad is cool and finds watching Pooh cuddled up next to Dad the perfect way to wrap a day before headed to bath. I am working on sourdough strarter 2.0. It's coming along nicely but slowly, which as I do more research I am learning is common in colder climates. Good bread is on the horizon... somewhwere. If this weekend is not too busy, I may make a run at making Melissa's silken chicken tikka masala, having already created my own garam masala spice mix from scratch. Of course I'm going to have to make the naan that goes with it (not a diet food). We are finalizing arrangements to have a no-kid weekend in NYC, so Christy and I can remember all the things we did before Katie became the center of the universe. Of course, we'll probably end up spending the entire weekend eating, sleeping, and talking about Katie. Such is life. Either way, we have committed that we will do this before we get going on adoption process #2, which is right around the corner. Hope all is well. Hope to hear some news (or boring updates like this one) from everyone else some time soon.

Thank you!

Hello!

You all should be very sorry that you have not been more active on this blog. Our prize came today and it is awesome!

Melissa, thank you so much! Rob isn't home from work yet, but I know he'll love it.

Christy

Blog tricked me!

Okay, I'm not as smart as I thought I was. I've been checking this thing for new posts, and just realized that all the new stuff is in the "comments" links! Sheesh!

Melissa, you crack me up!

Christy

Snow In Georgia

We have had measurable amount of snow twice in the last week down south here in sunny (droughty) Georgia. Aric and grandma (Judy) actually built a snowman (person?) in the front yard on Saturday. Judy's birthday was Sunday and if you didn't call or send a card you may be on her list (naughty).

The writer's strike in Hollywood has caused us to dream of "I Love Lucy" and "Get Smart" reruns in desparation. After telling everyone that she really doesn't watch much TV, Judy has taken to reading (books). Who would have thought it?

Scott has joined a church basketball league but no word on how he's doing. The Leavell's are in training for a family run in Jacksonville. Apparently only 25% of the family is preparing for this undertaking but all are participating. Probably no trophy this year!

Debbie's eyes were alight with visions or sugarplums (or giant mice) this weekend. She seems to have figured out a way to get the family to Orlando in the next few weeks. No jogging is reported to be a part of this trip.

Matthew (Brent) has moved back to Covington and is working for his Dad with plans to take Autocad training. Aric has offered to take us all with him to Washington, DC if he wins the poster contest at school. The grand prize is $1,000 and a photo opp with the President (according to Aric). I think he is already packing. I'll keep you posted.

Milt

While Katie naps...

Hey Guys!

It's been gorgeous today. Sunny and warm, and snow on the ground. Don't you wish you were here? No seriously. Wanna' visit? We have sleds!

I'm attaching a picture of Rob's first sourdough attempt. He's been having a blast with this project. I can't wait until we have fresh sourdough in the house.

No news to share here, but in the spirit of the Blog, I'll post a recipe.

White Lasagna

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach

1 pound uncooked ground turkey

1 jar (10 oz) pesto sauce

1 cup frozen chopped onion

1 large egg

1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

cooking spray

2 jars (16 oz each) of four-cheese Alfredo pasta sauce (Classico is a good brand)

1 box of no-boil lasagna sheets (Barilla)

1 pkg (16 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

1. heat spinach in microwave for 6 to 8 minutes. Drain. Let stand until cool. Squeeze out excess liquid.

2. Brown the turkey and drain the fat. Stir pesto and onions into cooked turkey.

3. In medium bowl, beat egg. Stir in ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and spinach until combined.

4. Coat slow cooker with cooking spray. Put a layer of Alfredo sauce into bottom of cooker. Put layer of noodles (break to fit) on top of sauce. Put ricotta cheese mixture on top of noodles. Put layer of turkey on next. Put Mozzarella cheese on top of turkey layer. Put Alfredo sauce on top of Mozzarella cheese, and start layers all over again, twice. You should end up with 3 layers of noodles in the end. Put sauce on top of last noodle layer (no-boil lasagna sheets must be moist to cook).

5. Cover and slow cook on Low for 4 hours (or until top noodles are tender).

6. Turn off slow cooker, sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top before serving. It'll melt.

You can also cook this in the oven, like a normal lasagna dish. Just put it in a big lasagna dish, cover it with foil, and cook it for an hour. Take cover off, top with cheese, and cook for 5 more minutes.

Hope you like this dish. It's pretty good, and actually pretty easy.

Love,

Christy

First Timer

This is my first ever blog post, so be gentle with me.

Speaking of firsts... As some of you may know, I decided recently to attempt to be a baker. In typical fashion, I decided to try something hard first. Sourdough bread. Armed with article from web, flour, water, plastic container, and wooden spoon, I started off on my adventure. After only 2 days of what was supposed to take 4, my "starter" batter was producing gas like Stephen after Thanksgiving and had developed an odor as sour as a college student's car. So I says to myself I says, "Self, you are an overachiever". A couple of days after loving care of my starter, I am prepared to undertake a weekend sourdough bread baking. And it is a multi-day process which I find to be quite enjoyable and zen-like. Only problem is that as I approach the finish line, I find my dough is not rising as much as it should. That's OK. I'm an overachiever. This will work out in the end. Throw it in the oven, and I'm sure it will improve. Many minutes of oven peering later, I pull from the oven my first "loaf" - a rather cheesy smelling brick of a thing. After much sawing with a bread knife, Christy and I took one nibble of the world's best smelling new building material - just to say that we had tasted it. Then into the trash. There are some good photos of its bitter end that hopefully my wife will post. Much research later, I realize that I have likely made a number of errors. The first of which was mistaking the cultivation of a bacteria like that used in making cheese for the cultivation of the wild yeast necessary for making sourdough bread. Bread gods 1, Hubris 0. I shant be daunted. More to come on my efforts to become Yankee Sourdough King. Once it's mastered, perhaps I'll send out packages of lovely sour beer smelling bubbling starters to family and friends so they can make their own loaves from what I am determined will be the best strain of sourdough motherloaf ever to be fermented in Connecticut (that might not be as hard as it sounds).

Anybody actually reading this???

So... with only two comments on the last post and only one vote (Stephen's) on the left hand column for our poll, we're off to a slow start.

But the holidays are over... no more excuses. I want comments. I want videos. I want pictures. I want new posts so we all know what's going on. Invite the kids to play too- send me their email addresses and I'll add them as contributors, otherwise they can still comment without being added. This blog is supposed to be a conversation. A gossip sounding board, if you will.

I issue a challenge. First commenter AND the first new post both get prizes- go ahead and give me your address in the post so I can mail you something. And this doesn't apply to you, Stephen.

And to make this really easy- here are some subject ideas:
- Abigail & Erin got cameras on Christmas- how 'bout a photo?
- Tell me what you did for New Year's.
- Post a recipe (hint, hint: Forgotten Cookies)
- Answer the now-closed poll about your thoughts for next year's Christmas up North.
- And speaking of cameras, I thought Taylor is quite the shutterbug... I'd like proof.
- Sound off on Britney

Anything. Let's talk. Please.
Melissa