Monday, August 23, 2010

Happiness is a newly mowed lawn, 

some pears from the tree,

and freshly baked Italian bread (@ $ 2.25 a loaf) with a bowl of homemade stew.

But true happiness is sharing these things with you.

* * * 

For the beef stew, I got two kinds of beef; regular stewing steak, already cubed, and the creepily-named finger meat, which is a sort of boneless short rib, I think. I cooked the meat and veg, except the potatoes, for about 5 hours on a low simmer, at which point the finger meat was tastier than the stewing steak. You're going to have to cook it for that long, as it stays chewy and stringy for a long time. 

After five hours, took out all the meat, strained off the broth, put the meat back in with the cut-up potatoes and cooked them till done.

I suppose I should have chopped some carrots or maybe some other root vegetables in too, but after hours of cooking I just wanted to try it.

FOOD COSTS:
Italian bread $ 2.25
Italian Parsley $ 1.49
Celery $ 1.49
Leeks $ 3.99
Onions $1.55
Potatoes $ 2.08
Beef $ 10.59
Beef broth $ 1.34
Carrots $ 2.49
Shallots $ 2.82

Monday total: $ 30.09