Sunday, and still sunny!

I got up at 8:00 AM again! Damn! This puts the whole idea of making my stew early, letting it cool and then running it out to Mom's in jeopardy.

So, I hopped in the shower (still no shave!) and made it a quick breakfast of peanut butter on toast and coffee. Then I started my mise en place for the stew. I peeled and cut up two big russet potatoes into nice, bite-size chunks, peeled and then cut two carrots (on the bias) into one inch bites, thick sliced a whole tray of mushrooms and minced about two tablespoonfuls of garlic. Next I diced two cups of onions (3/4 sweet and 1/4 red onions, BTW) and 1/2 cup of celery. I dug out my big cast iron Dutch oven from the back closet.

Then came the messy part: I took each piece of meat out of the marinade, brushed off the herbs, onions and/or peppercorns and patted it dry with a paper towel. Yuck, and leaning over the sink is trashing my back!

That seemed to take forever, but I finally got it done. Then I put two cups of flour with some salt and pepper in a big baggie and put 5-10 pieces of meat in at a time, shook off the flour and browned them in two tablespoons of canola oil on medium heat. When they were brown, I pulled them out with a slotted spoon and repeated the process, over and over... and over...

When they were finally all browned, I put in the onions and celery for about 5 minutes, then 1 1/2 tablespoons of the garlic for another minute or so. I deglazed the pan with a cup of burgundy wine. Then I reintroduced the beef, added homemade beef stock, the potatoes, the carrots and my removable bundle of herbs (the "bouquet garnis" if you're French). I stirred everything and brought it to a boil, then turned it down to simmer for 2 hours (it's now 11:30 AM, BTW).

At 1:30, I checked the seasoning, and it was almost perfect. I added just a tad of kosher salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. I removed the herb bundle. Then I added the rest of the garlic, the mushrooms, 1/4 cup of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley and the peas. I am letting all that get happy for a bit, and then I'll make the dumplings.

Meanwhile, I am running the electric sweeper over all the floors to get up that damn Caley's hair. This hurts my back even more, so I quit cleaning after that. It's almost 3:00 PM and I am gonna try and take a nap to see if lying down for a while helps my back. I never got to sleep, but did get up at 4:00 and my back seemed a little better. We'll see.

I called my Mother to see how she's doing (still regretting not getting out there this weekend.). One of her hearing aids messed up, so she's probably having a bit of trouble listening to phone conversations. But, all in all, she seems fine. She said she was looking at a Gurney's Seed Catalog and just waiting for spring! Two days of sunshine is making all of us Michigander's hope for spring (I even checked to see if my crocus were coming yet... they are not!)

After I hung up from Mom, I made the dumpling dough, brought the stew back up to boiling and plopped them in (a heaping soup spoonful, about the size of an extra large golf ball, BTW). I'll cook them on simmer for 10 minutes uncovered and then 10 minutes, covered.

So, at 5:30 PM, I ate lunch/dinner. Very, very good. Nice dumpling consistency. Taste of the stew was excellent. I sometimes doubt if going through all the work is really worth it during the process. But it always seems like it is when I eat it.

So, I clean up the rest of the kitchen (its not that bad as I have been cleaning up all along). I get my book and read on the couch until about 7:45 PM, when I switch over to TV and my shows. I am a little annoyed that my one show was replaced tonight with the Oscar's, but that's the way it goes, sometimes, I guess. I went to sleep exactly at 11:00 PM.