Food Friday: Veggie Orzo Beef Stew

GUYS!  I made soup and it is SO GOOD!  I had a bunch of old/leftover veggies, so I kinda started with that and decided I wanted to use some random ground beef and some pasta.

I'm labeling this a stew because I figure I could eat it with a fork if I wanted.  That's my soup/stew line.  Eat with a fork & sop up the juice with bread = stew.  Spoon required = soup.

 

So much goodness all in one bowl.  I love it when things work out better than I expect.  Below is what I used, but feel free to substitute for what you have on hand.  The great thing about stew is that it thickens while it stands too.  You can add water each time you reheat to make the stew stretch a bit further.  This was also obscenely cheap.  It cost somewhere around $7 for the whole pot.

Here's the printable, which opens a print dialogue box in a new window.

Veggie Orzo Beef Stew

Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground beef, cooked and drained

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)

1 medium onion, small dice ~1/4"

1 potato, small dice

8 celery stalks, chopped to 1/4"

8 oz baby carrots, chopped to 1/4"

1 can of peas

1 can of corn

6 cups water

6 teaspoons beef bullion granules (or 6 cubes)

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon red pepper

1/2 teaspoon white pepper (can omit if it's not in your pantry)

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf 

2 cups orzo pasta

2 more cups water

3 teaspoons corn starch

  

Directions:
In a large stock pot, combine everything except the corn starch, the second amount of water, and the orzo pasta.  Bring the pot to a boil.  Once boiled, turn down to a simmer.  Cook for 45 minutes.  Add the orzo pasta and the second amount of water if needed.  Simmer for 15 minutes more.  Stir in the corn starch at the very end.  You may want to mix the corn starch with a bit of water before adding it to the pot.  That will prevent lumps.  I did not do this, but I also didn't have consistency issues when I tossed the corn starch in the pot and stirred.  YMMV.  That's it!

This is a fairly low-maintenance recipe once the chopping, ground beef browning, and boiling is done.  You just kind of set it and forget it.  Stir it a couple times an hour or whatever and you can leave it on low heat all day.  I cooked the soup long enough for the onions to basically disappear.

Freezer Friday: Blueberry Froyo

 It's been a while since I posted an ice cream recipe.  Might have something to do with winter?  We had a winter here in Florida by the way.  We had a snowpacolypse complete with ice cover for days.  DAYS PEOPLE.  We were housebound the day after the storm.  The DOT put sand on all the bridges to help melt the ice.  Yes I know you are supposed to use salt, but we don't exactly keep stores of that around.  Now that we are back to sunny/rainy days here in Florida, it's time for a cold, sweet treat.

 Blueberry Froyo

 

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (I don't love blueberries, so I used less)

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups vanilla yogurt (I used Chobani)

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Preparation:

Add blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice to a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.  While the blueberries are reducing, mix yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl.  Once the blueberries are reduced enough, strain the blueberry syrup into the yogurt mixture and stir to combine.  Put the strained blueberries and the separate froyo mixture in the refrigerator to cool for a minimum of three hours.  Once the froyo base is cold again, cream it up in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.  When there is about 5 minutes of churn time remaining, add in the cooked blueberries.  If you add the berries too early, they tend to sink to the bottom of the bowl.  We want even berry goodness throughout the froyo.  You can choose to eat this soft-serve, or let it firm up in the freezer for a few hours before diving in.  Enjoy! 

 

(Aside:  I like chunks in my ice cream and froyo, so I added the cooked fruit back during the process.  You can throw away the berries if you want smooth froyo.  If that's the case, you might want to reduce the blueberries even more and make a sort of sauce instead.)

Cast of Characters:  Blueberries, vanilla yogurt, lemon juice, milk, vanilla extract, and sugar (suprisingly absent from the photo)

Put blueberries, 1/4c sugar, and 1t lemon juice in a medium saucepan and reduce for about 20

minutes

 

This is what you will end up with after 20 minutes--just a slightly thicker consistency, but definitely not syrup (yet.  Besides, you would first bring water/sugar/fruit mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes on a low heat in order to get a good syrup. /tangent)

 

Combine 2 cups vanilla yogurt and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl

Add 2t vanilla extract and 1/2 cup milk

Strain liquid from berries into the yogurt mixture

Stir and marvel at the tie dye fancy

 

Tie dye effect is mixed away.  Be sad for a minute and then remember you will have tasty noms later!  Be happy again! 

Add berries back when you have about five minutes of churn time left

C'est fini!

Hope you get a chance to relax and have something delicious this weekend!
~elle

Freezer Friday: Happy Ending Ice Cream (Chocolate Stout)

 I finally made the chocolate stout ice cream!  I made mine with Sweetwater Happy Ending, an imperial stout with notes of cocoa, roasted malt, and vanilla.  The beer pours heavy with a medium body.  It has a creamy mouthfeel and is highly drinkable in spite of the high alcohol content.  This is one of my favorite beers.  It's a seasonal, available sometime around January.  Sweetwater has been a bit ahead lately, so maybe I'll get to restock this beer in November.  I'm down to one now, which might need to be another batch of ice cream.  This stuff (the beer and the ice cream) is so good!

 Happy Ending Ice Cream

 

(I forgot to take a cast of characters photo, so just follow along.  As usual, I will post the recipe towards the bottom of the post.)  Whisk 4 egg yolks together in a small bowl.

  

Heat 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  It is warm enough when bubbles being forming around the edge of the pot/pan.

 

In a medium-sized bowl, melt 1.25 cups chocolate chips.  I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao bittersweet chips.  You want to use the best chocolate you can find (within reason, of course).

 

Here they are all melted.  It took about 90 seconds in the microwave, but I whisked the chips down every 30 seconds to keep the chocolate from burning.

 

 Whisk the warm milk and sugar into the egg yolks until thoroughly combined.

 

Strain the milk/egg mixture into the melted chocolate.  Straining is important!  You don't want egg chunks in your ice cream.  Straining is gaining.  Or braining.  Or something.

 

Whisk in 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla.

 

And now for something completely different...add in beer!  You only need 3/4 cup, which is exactly half your bottle.  That means you have to take one for the team and drink the other half of the beer.  I know.  It's amazing, right?  Obviously I'm singing praises to the beer gods for bringing me Happy Ending, but don't feel like you can't make this ice cream  if you don't live in the southeast like me.  You can use Guinness (blah), Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, New Belgium 1554, and countless others I'm too lazy to think up right now. 

 

The carbonation in the beer will make your ice cream base magical fizzy.  Please allow the base to chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight.  Once it's properly cold, churn the base in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.  Scoop.  Eat.  Sigh with pleasure.  Tell your friends.  Eat the rest of the ice cream without sharing.  That last one's just me?  Well. . .

 

I thought photographing the ice cream in a Sweetwater pint glass was appropriate.  Don't you agree?  I need to share this on the Sweetwater blog.  I think they'll like that.

 

See those amazing flecks of chocolate?  It's a nice bonus when you shove a spoonful in your mouth. It's kinda like the coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup at the fancy coffee places, but in a good way.  Not in the "crap, the filter fell down AGAIN" way.  And the chocolate melts.  Bad example?  Here's another picture to distract you from my nonsense:

 

This pint glass is from the 420 festival last year.  420 is Sweetwater's flagship brew.  It's a pale ale, but it has more hop than Bud Light or Miller Light do.  OHGAWD.  I can't believe I just wrote those words down.  Ick ick.  Why people drink that stuff I just don't understand.  Sweetwater 420 is much better and it's only $1 more a six-pack.  

 

Ice cream.  I ate a bunch already.  I need to control myself.

 

So..."Don't Float the Mainstream" and make yourself some Happy Ending Ice Cream!

Happy Ending (Chocolate Stout) Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup Sweetwater Happy Ending (or other stout) 
1.25 cups chocolate chips (the darker, the better)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preparation:
Heat 1 cup whole milk and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until it just begins to bubble on the edge of the pan.  While the milk/sugar mix is heating, whisk egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.  In a medium bowl, melt chocolate chips in the microwave.  This will take about 90 seconds, but stir the chips every 20-30 seconds to keep the chocolate from burning.  Once the milk is bubbly on the edges, whisk it into the egg yolks.  Next, strain the milk/egg mixture into the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly.  Add in the vanilla, heavy cream, and Happy Ending and whisk until combined.  Allow the ice cream base to chill thoroughly before churning it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Enjoy!

Freezer Friday: Strawberry Peanut Butter Froyo

Man, oh man.  This is my shiz.  Thanks to Ryan and Matthew for bringing me into the light with this flavor combo.  I never knew this was even a thing.  This recipe is a bunch of fails that just came together in the end.
First fail:  I couldn't find strawberries and I bought some the day I made the froyo.  I would have preferred to buy strawberries and allow them to sit and partially decay for a few days. That extra sweet works in froyo/ice cream.
Second fail:  I couldn't find peanut flour to make Chocolate Covered Katie's PB chips.  (Love her blog btw.  She has lots of delicious recipes over there.)
Third fail:  my version of peanut butter chips was somehow wrong and they didn't freeze properly.
But look at this photo and try to tell me this is not full of winning.  You can't.  Seriously.  It's just not possible.

Strawberry Peanut Butter Froyo

 

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Chips:

4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4-5 teaspoons agave, more or less to taste

1-3 teaspoons milk (just enough to get the consistency right)

Froyo:

1 quart strawberrries, hulled and sliced

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups vanilla yogurt (I used Chobani)

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Preparation:

(I move around a lot in my kitchen.  Here's my sequence to save time.)

 

Rinse, hull, and slice the strawberries into a medium saucepan.  Add 1/4 sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice to the saucepan and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, more or less depending on how big your slices are.  My strawberries were hella fresh, and I HAD to cook them down to bring out the sugar.  If you are using berries that have been in your fridge for a week, feel free to skip the stovetop step.  Do not, however, skip the sugar and lemon juice.  (and here's the moving...)

 

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the first three ingredients for the peanut butter chips.  Add milk a teaspoon at a time until you get something that resembles the texture of play-doh.  Tamp the peanut butter mixture down into a candy mold and put that into the freezer to chill while you prepare the rest of the froyo.  (I hope you've been checking on your strawberries on the stove during this time, lol!) 

 

When you think your berries have reduced enough, take them off the stove and make them smaller in some way.  You may puree, smash with a potato masher, or whisk them in your kitchenaid like I do.  Either way, make the strawberries as big or small as you prefer.  Next, add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 cups vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.  Once everything is combined, put the froyo in the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours to cool down.  This is mandatory if you cooked your berries.  Once the froyo base is cold again, cream it up in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.  Add the peanut butter chips duing the last five minutes of churn time.  You can eat this right away, though it's way better if it has time to firm up in the freezer for a few hours.  Your choice.

 

Cast of Characters for the PB Chips:  Milk, Peanut Butter, Agave, Vanilla (I ran out of real vanilla long ago.  Oops.)

 

Mix the peanut butter, vanilla, and agave together.  Add milk a little at a time until it reaches this consistency. It's sort of like play-doh, but a little looser.  You will need a touch more milk if you use natural peanut butter.

 

Drop the PB mix on your candy mold.

  

I found the easiest way to get the PB mix in the mold was to finger tamp it down.  I put a lump at the top of the mold and pushed it down.  The excess mix spills over into the next section of the mold.  Totally nonfancy.

 

I didn't quite have enough to fill the whole mold, but I'm okay with that.  Toss the tray into the freezer while you prepare the froyo base.

 

Cast of Characters for the froyo:  Milk, sugar, vanilla yogurt, strawberries, lemon juice, vanilla

  

My berries were very fresh and I wanted to break them down a little.  You can skip this step if you are using old berries.  Hull and slice one quart/one pound of strawberries.  Add  one teaspoon of lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar.  Allow to cook on medium heat, stirring every now and then.  I let my strawberries cook for about 20 minutes.  Like I said, this is optional.  Cooking the strawberries in sugar brings out more sugar.  Go figure.

 

 Further break the strawberries down by mashing or pureeing them.  I use put kitchenaid and the wire whisk and beat them up for about five minutes that way.  Leave the berries as chunky as you prefer!

 

Add 2 cups yogurt, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup sugar.  Mix well.  From this point, refrigerate the froyo base for several hours.  This is mandatory if you cooked the berries!

 

After the cooling time, churn the froyo according to your ice cream maker's directions.  Add the peanut butter chips in the last 5 minutes of churn time.

 

 

This is just SO FRACKING GOOD.  You put it in your mouth.  Then it's all strawberry, strawberry, chunk of strawberry, BAM POW! peanut butter.  All up in your face hole.  Yummmmm.

Enjoy!

Freezer Friday: Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

I love making food stuffs and I especially love feeding my friends.  I haven't made any ice cream in a while, and I didn't have anything I was craving, so I asked Ryan what his favorite flavor of ice cream was.  He responded with "Froyo!"  Uh...Ryan...that's not a flavor.  I poked some more and he finally said, "peanut butter and/or strawberry."  I found out from one of my Harry Potter fan friends that peanut butter strawberry ice cream is a thing.  Something about being the thing when they went to Diagon Alley.  I made peanut butter this time, but I think I will try a strawberry froyo with peanut butter chips in the future.  I could get behind something like that.  Let's get to the recipe:

Peanut Butter Froyo

 

Ingredients:

2 cups vanilla yogurt (I used chobani)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons agave (more or less to taste)

a scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, mix all the things together until thoroughly combined.  Pour into an ice cream maker and allow to mix for approximately 15 minutes.  Put the now soft-serve froyo into the freezer and allow it to firm up for a few more hours.  You can also put the mixture straight into the freezer, it just won't turn out as creamy.  If you are doing the straight to freezer method, fork fluff the mixture about every 30 minutes as you would for a granita.  This will help with the texture and keep the ice crystals at bay.

For a fun variation, add a few handfuls of chocolate chips for "Peanut Butter Cup Froyo."  It is so good!

Here's my play-by-play in pictures:

 

 

Cast of Characters:  Milk, vanilla yogurt, salt, agave, vanilla, peanut butter

 

Whisk milk and yogurt together

 

Add in the vanilla

 

Add the scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt (I'm salt sensitive and I err on the side of less)

 

This is real peanut butter.  I hate that someone decided to mess with something perfectly good and add a bunch of crap to it.  Why would you need sugar in peanut butter?  What are they hiding? 

 

The salt is questionable, but this is what I want to see.  The label is probably required to say the salt because of possible cross-contamination or something.

 

 Peanut butter oily goodness.

 

Dump the 1/2 cup into the yogurt mixture

 

Whisk it really well until it's smooth

 

Add to your ice cream maker and allow it to mix for approximately 15 minutes.  It wasn't quite ready in this picture, but I lowered the bowl to take the picture anyway.  No regrets.

 

Froyo, or how you know your ice cream bowl is really really cold.  I couldn't scrape it up fast enough.

 

Remember those chocolate chips I was talking about?  Yup.  So good.

 

My friends enjoyed this froyo very much.  Ryan even dug into the peanut butter cup version, which he insisted was me trying to ruin perfectly good froyo.  Next up on the ice cream list is going to be a chocolate stout ice cream.  That was the first thing I wanted to make with my ice cream maker attachment and it still hasn't happened after 4 months!

I still want to know what your favorite flavor is.  Leave me a comment and let me know.  

~elle