As I mentioned a while back, Abe and Nichole's dog Clyde got loose a few weeks ago and bit a neighbor (where and under what circumstances are up for debate) and so Abe had a court date today. As today's normal A&P lab session was cancelled due to the lab midterm this morning, I was available to serve as driver to get him to this appointment, which worked out well for respective schedules.
I've never seen him quite so dressed up; the contrast was rather startling. Unfortunately, the entire court appearance could be most kindly described as amusing. The office and court consisted of a tiny two room affair in a strip mall, and Abe didn't even get to see a judge - the secretary just had him write "I plead not guilty" and sign his name on a scrap of paper. (No notarization, date, or even delineation as to what charge he was not guilty of!) He was then summarally informed that he would be advised of his trial date within a few weeks and dismissed.
In any case, with that business done, there wasn't much left to do with the day, beyond study for tomorrow's A&P lecture quiz and cook dinner. Yep, I stole the reins again (technically I'd scheduled to take Tuesday before we found out Eden was early - I just maintained the slot), offering up some Red Wine Beef stew and No-Knead bread. Good karma and comments from the home team on this as well. I do quite love the feeling of a well-stroked ego.
Bonus round: If you'd like to make up a batch of the bread or the stew, I've blogged about both in the past - here's a link for the recipe and commentary on the bread and the recipe for the stew is reposted below, as myspace isn't terribly link friendly.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Culinary Effort: Red Wine Beef Stew
Current mood: full
Category: Food and Restaurants
Attempted 12/29/2007
Original Source: Young and Hungry: More Than 100 Recipes for Cooking Fresh and Affordable Food for Everyone Page 48 - "Red Wine Beef Stew with Potatoes and Green Beans"
Ingredients:
2 lbs beef, cubed
Salt
3 tbsp butter
4 carrots, cut into small chunks
3 small onions, diced
4 cups reconstituted chicken stock
2.5 cups Sangria
1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
3 Yukon gold potatoes
1 4 oz package Idahoan "Roasted Garlic" potato flakes
Instruction:
Put half of butter and half of beef in pot and brown at high heat. Remove to external container, repeat with other halves of beef and butter. Return all browned beef to pot, reduce heat to low medium, add all remaining ingredients. Simmer for approximately 1:20.
Variations from original instruction, rationale:
4 cups reconstituted chicken stock instead of 29 oz from cans,
What was on hand, liquid balance
1 4 oz package Idahoan "Roasted Garlic" potato flakes instead of 2 tbsp flour
Liquid balance, flavor, thickening of sauce to gravy consistency
2.5 cups Sangria instead of 2 cups dry red wine
Liquid balance, flavor
1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes instead of 1 cup
Flavor, reduced waste
3 Yukon gold potatoes instead of 2 Yukon gold potatoes
What can I say? I like Yukon golds
None instead of a few handfuls of green beans
None on hand.
1:20 cooking time, at medium low, all ingredients at once, instead of 1:35 cooking time at low, staggered ingredient addition
I prefer flavors to be more melded than distinct in a stew.
Verdict:
Excellent, though a little meat heavy.
Notes for next time:
Perhaps a greater proportion of veggies to meat - 2 lbs is a heck of a lot of beef.
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