Chipotle Beef Stew with Root Veggies

It's a been a while since I posted and lots of things have changed for me.  I have joined the working outside the home world.  My first foray into the working world since becoming a parent was at the flailing JCPenney.  After that got tiresome I started applying to positions that interested me much more.  I got hired on at my local co-op.  I love it there.  I work in the education and outreach department mostly behind the scenes for the cooking classes.

I am learning all kinds of things and getting to rub elbows with fantastic cooks and chefs. Ergo I am more inspired to be in the kitchen.

Tuesdays dinner plan that turned into lunch was a goal to use up some things:  an unlabeled roast with little marbling and a nice fat cap,  local peppers, sweet potatoes and some celeriac.



2lbs roast - I trimmed the fat cap off and cut into cubes
2-3 tbl - local lard
1-2 cups beef broth
1 chipotle in adobe sauce from the freezer - roughly chopped
1 yellow onion cut in to quarters
salt an pepper for the beef

My plan was to pressure cook the beef so it would be tender and juicey for a stew or beef tacos.  I seasoned the beef cubes with salt and pepper and browned them in the pressure cooker in two batches in lard.  Then added them back into the poth with chipolte in adobo sauce and onion the topped the cube off with about 1.5 cups of beef broth cubes that were in the freezer.  Got the pressure cooker to pressure and cooked for 15 minutes and waited for it to cool down naturally.

1 yellow onions  chopped
1 tbl oregano
2 tbl tomato paste
3 peppers both red and green chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
about 1/2 cup celeriac  chopped medium fine
more beef broth to cover the veggies and beef

When the beef was done I prepared the above veggies.  I pulled out my 6 quart enamel dutch oven and sauteed the onions until mostly translucent then added the garlic and oregano then the rest of the veggies and cooked a bit more.  Then added the tomato paste, beef and most of the pressure cooking liquid.  I over salted the beef and the broth was quit rich so I saved back some of it and put it in the freezer and topped off the stew with more beef broth in the pantry. I brought the stew to a simmer and had it for lunch.

I thought is was pretty good even if a bit salty and had a nice smokey flavor and heat from the chipotle.



You could top it with some fresh cilantro like I did for leftovers the next day.

Yarn School Spring 2013 - Part 1

Wow it's been a while since I updated my blog. I've been busy dyeing fiber and spinning.  I'm doing more drop spinning than wheel spinning.  I have plans lots of plans and never enough time.  I got a part-time job and still homeschooling at least one of the kids.  I wanted to share all my goodies from Yarn School this year.  I got to go with a great fiberista friend who has finally figured out I am weird.  It took her a while.

Anyway on to the fiber I dyed at Yarn School this spring.


Lavender Light - Merino
I was going for something a bit darker so I may overdye this after spinning it up.


Neon Mercury - Falkland
Inspired by a photo of Mercury.  This one is handpainted and nuked in the microwave.  The depth of sahde is growing on me but I might try this darker later.


Muted Mercury - Portuguese
I used the same colors I used in Neon Mercury but poured them willy nilly on the fiber in a crockpot in layers.  I added the citric acid at the end.  I'd like to try this again with the acid in the fiber and/or in the dye so it strikes faster and gets less blending.  I do like the more heathered look this has.


Dusty BSG - Wool
The colors I chose for this one were supposed to be inspired by Battlestar Galactica but the depth of shade is off so I plan to give this try but darker.


Indigo Blue - Wool
Dyed in an Indigo Dye Vat.  I have all the supplies for this and want to do more at home.

My plans are to spin up the Indigo Blue, Muted Mercury and Dusty BSG for a sweater.  Lavender Light may be a shawl and Neon Mercury screams baby sweater but I don't know of any babies just yet who need this yarn.

Stay tuned for Part 2 -  This was the funnest Yarn School Evar!