Goat Stew

In an effort to eat what's in my freezer, I'm slowly working my way through the various meats I've been hoarding from my CSA meat share last year. In this post, I'll share my experience making goat stew. Yep, that's right - GOAT! Poor little goat... If you've ever been to see the goats at Simmons Farm in Middletown, RI, then you may have met my dinner. I don't know how they decide which goats to slaughter, but I'm sure it's not an easy choice. Anyway...before I get too far off topic... I had about a pound of "goat for stewing" from Simmons Farm, and I had no idea what to do with it. I looked at several recipes and decided on this one for goat stew.

Mmmmm..."goat for stewing!!!"

The directions say to make a "marinade" of carrots, onions, garlic, celery, jalapeño (since I didn't have the other fancy pepper), salt, and pepper and allow the meat to sit in this "marinade" in the fridge over night. As a couple of comments stated, I've never heard of such a "marinade." Although it was pretty and smelled wonderful, I don't really know how much the flavors actually integrated or how much was absorbed by the meat. If I ever make this again, I will rub the meat with spices and allow THAT to marinate over night! Those little packets of Indian spices are perfect for recipes like this. I was actually surprised by the lack of spices, and unfortunately the dish was pretty bland (except for the heat from the jalapeño).

Ho hum...just another bland "marinade."

After much deliberation, I decided to try making the stew in my slow cooker, as the author notes at the end of the recipe that this is a viable option. As always, this was a learning experience. It turned out ok, but I have ideas about how to make it much better. Read on!

All set in the slow cooker!

So, the choice to use vegetable stock or wine was given (really? is that even a contest?), and I chose wine. What's the point in vegetable stock, anyway? Unfortunately, I come from the school of Cathryn Tibbett, which says that "if a little is good, a lot is better!" I measured the one cup of wine, poured it over the meat and veggies, and decided that didn't seem like enough liquid. I poured another healthy "gluck" of wine in and had a sinking feeling that was probably too much. While it didn't do any damage to the dish, it didn't really help anything, either. The stew ended up with a bit more liquid than I think it should've, but no big deal.

The other thing I learned had to do with the part of the recipe that called for the meat to be browned in oil then simmered. Since I chose to use the slow cooker, I wasn't sure if I should brown the meat first or just toss everything in. I decided that browning wasn't necessary (although people do this with things like pot roast...I guess it helps seal in the juice or something?), but I wasn't sure if I should still add the oil to the slow cooker. I decided to try it, and what I learned was that I don't think that was necessary. So, if I ever make this again I will either put no oil or just 1/2 the amount of oil into the slow cooker. I don't think it served any real purpose in the recipe other than to facilitate the browning of the meat, which is unnecessary using the slow cooker. I suppose I could've browned it in oil before putting it in the slow cooker, but why dirty another pan?!?!

The finished stew, over rice.

 So, I made some brown rice to compliment the stew. It was good but not great. It was pretty bland except for the heat, and it really could've used some real spices. The meat was very tender though, and that is a definite plus for using the slow cooker. I would make this again, with some modifications.

Cabbage Kielbasa (Organic Turkey Sausage) Supper

Ok, so I said I got a head of cabbage with my CSA drop this week, and what better way to eat it than with Kielbasa? I found an easy slow cooker recipe for cabbage Kielbasa supper, so I'm giving it a try. Believe it or not, I've never cooked with cabbage before. Growing up, I associated it with things like sauerkraut and horseradish, and I didn't want to have anything to do with it if I could help it. Funny thing - I love coleslaw, but I didn't know it was made of cabbage when I was younger! As an adult, I never thought you could do much with cabbage other than coleslaw, and that always sounded like a lot of work!

A few weeks ago, I had cabbage and Kielbasa soup for the first time. Tentatively, I dug in, and before you could say "cabbage and Kielbasa," my bowl was empty! I loved it, and it was the first thing I thought of when I chose my head of cabbage on Thursday. Add the bonus of finding a slow cooker recipe, and I'm one very happy girl!

I wasn't about to ruin the organic amazingness of my locally grown cabbage with some random, pre-cooked conventional cow/pork parts ground up and shoved into casings...oh NO! Instead of Kielbasa, I got organic turkey sausage. :) AND...instead of frying it on the stove, I GRILLED it! Since cabbage and potatoes are pretty bland, I figured grilling it would add a really nice taste dimension to the dish (take that, Gordon Ramsay!).

Grilled organic turkey sausage is WAY better than pre-cooked conventional sausage.

Step one: cut the cabbage. Well, um...I figured there's got to be a "best" way of doing this, and thanks to the magic of the interweb, I found this handy tutorial.

I LOVE the step-by-step directions + photos!

Step two: peel and cut the potatoes, chop the onion, and throw everything into the slow cooker!

Um...well...this was JUST the cabbage. See step three.

Step three: take out some of the extra cabbage and replace as the mixture cooks down.

Here is the finished dish - DELICIOUS!

Step four: ENJOY!

April Fool's Food Fest!

I was home sick 3 days this week, and thank goodness I still had a few dinners in my freezer from the cooking/freezing fest M and I had New Year's Weekend! I ate them all though, so it was time for another cooking fest. Fortunately, M told me about this awesome blog called Skinnytaste (Gina's Skinny Recipes). I found four recipes I wanted to try that provide a nice variety, and I'm excited to get going. Actually, I just started the first one, Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili, because it cooks on low in the slow cooker for 10 hours (while I SLEEP!). I also needed to plan my lunches for the week, and since I'm tired of turkey wraps and don't want to have to use the microwave, I decided to make my tried and true raw soup. I found a great recipe for squash soup on the same site, so I decided to make both and take the squash soup with a little side of salad + raw soup "dressing" for my lunches this week. Soooo....that means I've got 6 (that's SIX) things to make!!!

There are several steps in this massive process:

1. clean the kitchen - it's very important to start with a clean slate (note: this also serves as a productive procrastination tool)
2. make a thorough grocery list - it's good to note the exact amounts of the ingredients you'll need, because often a recipe calls for an amount that is different than the amount that comes in a can or package
3. get fresh, local, organic ingredients
4. have supportive, reliable company - because this is gonna take awhile...
5. don't start cooking at 10:00 pm (oops...I forgot to create this list BEFORE I started...)
6. if you feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of cooking 6 pretty involved things, start with the slow cooker recipe! :)

The grocery list for this project was SERIOUS...and double-sided! I was not playing around here, people!!!

My "take no prisoners" grocery list! (step 2)

I had an absolute BLAST arranging all of my ingredients and then doing a photo shoot of them. It all felt so professional!

Start with fresh, local, organic ingredients (step 3)

I was fortunate to have some really supportive help, too:

Supportive company (step 4)

And now...THE FOOD!!!!

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili: This was by far the easiest thing to make, and it is honestly my favorite thing as far as taste and overall enjoyment go. It is good to eat with some Kashi fire roasted veggie crackers. :) I was AMAZED at how much chicken it seems there is once you shred it. And - I learned something very important when cooking this: the reason the chicken in my crock pot recipes sometimes dries out and overcooks so easily is because I cut it into such small pieces (DUH!)! I loved that this recipe has you lay the whole breasts on top during almost the entire cooking process, because that keeps the chicken from drying out. I'm totally using that trick for all my other crock pot recipes that use chicken!

Cooking the chicken breasts on top, whole - GENIUS!

The finished product - SOOO GOOD!

Beef, potato, and quinoa soup: This was one of the more complex recipes, but it still wasn't difficult. The flavor of this soup is PHENOMENAL! The fresh cilantro really adds complexity to the taste. Even after thawing and heating it, this soup still tastes fresh. I've never cooked with quinoa before, and that was really exciting. I did a little research before starting this recipe, and it's a good thing I did, because I found out that uncooked quinoa cooks to 4x its size! That means, 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa bulks up to 2 cups of cooked quinoa - so make sure you're clear about whether the amount of quinoa in your recipe is cooked or uncooked - it will make a BIG difference!!

This is a horrendous picture. The bluish haze is steam.

Tuna noodle casserole: A Midwestern favorite, casseroles of all kinds were a huge part of my childhood. Although tuna noodle wasn't a casserole my mom made often, she made plenty of others like chicken & broccoli and beef & vegetable. This recipe was ok, but it was rather bland. I had some whole wheat penne, so I decided to use that rather than buying noodles. Well, I think the noodles probably make a difference, because this casserole was just a little weird with penne - the taste was fine, but penne needs to be covered in red sauce, not tuna. :) I also didn't want to buy milk just for this recipe, so I used some 1/2 and 1/2 that I already had. I also used more peas than the recipe calls for - because I had a 16 oz. bag and just wanted to use them all. So - my modifications to the recipe may have led to its blandness...but it was still good, and it froze well, too.

Noodles, penne...whatever!

Another mini ingredients shoot...

This doesn't do it justice - it was pretty!

Spinach lasagna rolls: If these were people, they'd be super popular! Not only are they absolutely gorgeous, but they were a TON of fun to make! (NOTE: If you enjoy using your hands to cook, then you will consider this fun, but if you do not like doing things such as kneading bread or hand-rolling cookies, then this would probably not be fun for you.) These also froze well, and my only suggestion is to have some extra tomato sauce on hand when you thaw and heat them, as the amount of sauce used in the recipe ends up being rather sparse. (NOTE: My definition of "sparse" may be a little skewed, because I could drink tomato sauce by the glass, so keep that in mind!) Also, my cheese/spinach mixture seems rather bland, so next time I will add more salt/garlic salt. These are very tasty, and two rolls with a nice salad makes a tasty and healthy dinner.

It was so much fun to mix the cheese filling!

Pardon me while I execute an "artistic" shot...

The filling spread really well onto the lasagna noodles.

A lasagna roll ready to be bathed in sauce.

The final product - which was AMAZING!

Raw soup: Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e., my blender being a total piece of $#!^@*%), I was unable to actually make the raw soup. This was a complete and utter shame, because then most of those ingredients went to waste (which makes me ill to even think about).

Squash soup: Since this soup also depended upon use of the blender, it also went unmade, and I'm ashamed to say that the beautiful squash I bought also went to waste. And, to quote the cashier at Clements', "that's the biggest butternut squash I've ever seen!" On a positive note, I put the blade through the dishwasher a couple of weeks after my cook fest, and the blender started working again. The blade had been getting stuck and not turning, so it must've gotten cleaned and loosened in the dishwasher. I'm still getting a Blendtec though... :)

The prize-winning butternut squash that never got to be soup... :'(

For dinner the night of the cook fest: lasagna roll, chicken chili, and tuna noodle casserole - YUM!

New Year's Cooking / Freezing Fest

M and I spent the first weekend of 2011 together celebrating and cooking dinners that we divided up to freeze and eat over the next few weeks. This was a pretty big production...choosing recipes, going to the grocery store, cooking, dividing, freezing...it took all day, but it was totally worth it! M even used pictures to document my freezer filling up as we cooked more and more.

M made something in the crock pot that was basically like the insides of a chicken pot pie without the crust. Served with warm biscuits - what's not to love about that?!

I was a chopping ninja for the sweet potato soup I made.

This picture isn't great...but the food was! This was coconut soup with Indonesian chicken (chicken rubbed with a bunch of amazing spices).

Ever the organizer, M kept us on track...

I had to start the sweet potato soup in a skillet, then I finished it in a pot.

My freezer the way I love to see it - nice and FULL!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I've been craving vegetable soup. I ended up making chili a couple of weeks ago, and it was good, but that didn't satisfy the craving. This afternoon, I decided I want to try beef stew, so I looked up "easy beef stew recipes" and found this one. I'm super excited b/c it's a crock pot recipe, and you know how much I love those! I'm building up quite a repertoire of slow cooker recipes! Pics and review of the beef stew coming in the next couple of days...

UPDATE: Ok, so I made a grocery list and found my way to the store. I managed to get all the ingredients for the beef stew including the onion soup mix, which is something I've never purchased before. This recipe was super easy, and like all good crock pot recipes, you simply layer the ingredients in the order they're listed. I documented the process because I think it's so cool. :)

Oh, and I'm a firm believer in using good ingredients. This potato was happy to be a part of my stew, as evidenced by the little smile he gave me while I was peeling him. :)

CARROTS:

BEEF:

POTATOES:

VEGGIES:

ONION:

COOKING:

It is important to note that this recipe must be for a GIANT crock pot, because I was only able to fit in 7 potatoes (the recipe calls for 12) and half the veggies (one can of green beans, peas, and corn versus two of each). Also, I used vegetable stock instead of water as the liquid. The recipe says to cook it on high for one hour and then cook it on medium for 4 to 5 hours. My crock pot doesn't have a "medium" or a timer, so I'm going to cook it on low for 4 hours and set my alarm to wake up and unplug it at 2:00 am. :)

ALL DONE! YUM!

Oh, and I accidentally put too much liquid in, and it overflowed once it got hot...so now I need to clean up... :(