bugaboo, mini, mr & me

I've got a tasty dinner recipe that will warm you up - perfect for this time of year!  PLUS I'm going to share some delicious cupcakes that I pinned on pinterest that are really easy to make.  Just a little plug here, if you're looking for more recipe ideas, you can follow my pinterest board "To EAT".  A lot of the recipes I share on my blog are from that board.

Alright, enough talk.  Let's show you the goods.

How about some warm and hearty beef stew?  That's what I thought.  Perfect.  Unless you live in Wisconsin, where it has decided that snowing is unnecessary.  This is honestly the first December since I was BORN (and maybe before) that it has NOT SNOWED.  Not an inch.  No accumulation.  This winter, it has snowed once.  And it melted the next day.  And it was before Thanksgiving.  If I don't have a white Christmas this year, I won't know what to do with myself.  What was I talking about?  Oh, yeah.  Stew.  See, I'm stewing... har, har.

Anyway, I used the same stew recipe I've tried before, and I couldn't find my camera, so I had to use my phone.  Fortunately, these pictures are better than the first post about stew.  What the heck is wrong with those photos??

My stew ended up a little thicker than I prefer, like you could eat it with a fork.  BUT, it was tasty.  I found another stew recipe that I am totally going to try next time - you can see it here.  Yum.  But for now, here's the recipe I've used for the past 2 ish years.

Beef Stew (food.com)

2 lbs stew meat

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons oil

4 cups water

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons garlic

3/4 teaspoon pepper

2 bay leaves

4 carrots

2 stalks celery

4 medium red potatoes

3 small onions

3 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons water

Place beef and flour in a plastic baggie, Shake.  Pour oil into a large dutch oven, heat.  Add beef cook until brown, stirring occasionally.  Add water and next 4 ingredients.  Bring to a boil.  Cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beef is tender.  Discard bay leaves.  Cut carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, and bell pepper, add to stew.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until tender.  Combine water and flour, stirring well.  Pour into stew.  Boil, stirring constantly till thick and bubbly.

I omit the celery because mr and I hate celery.  Although he did admit to me this time that he doesn't mind celery in stews and soups.  Huh.  You think you know someone...

Now, I know this next item doesn't SEEM like a side.  And you're right.  It's really not.  If you think it's odd that there are two desserts with this meal, well, you don't know me very well.

I saw these on Apple Rings on pinterest this fall and couldn't resist trying them out.  I didn't have a tiny circle cookie cutter, but I did have a small star circle cutter, and I have to admit, making apple rings with star shaped centers was pretty fun.  

I think I might do that more often for snack, my kids thought it was so cool.  It was also kind of hard.  I kept breaking my apple slices trying to get the cookie cutter back out of the apple.  Apparently I needed to slice them much thinner...  I'd give it a try, though.  They were fun and tasty and not overly sweet.  This will take you right to How To: Simplify and the apple ring recipe.  

And this will take you right to my caramel sauce recipe and tips.  Wait, no.  Not MINE.  The one I always use so it kind of feels like mine, but actually it's Simply Recipe's.

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, those yummy cupcakes that are actually easy to make.  Wait for it...

Those aren't your ordinary cupcakes.  They are Boston Cream Cupcakes.  Mmmmmm.... too bad they're all gone.  I want one right now....

Ok.  You'll find them pinned here.


The only thing I changed from the recipe thought up over on My Ocean of Notions was that I used yellow cake mix instead of white.  I use yellow for the actual boston cream pies I make, so I thought why not for this too?

 So.  In summation, if you're cold try the stew.  It'll warm you up.  I'll let you know how that other stew is as soon as we make it.  Next, make the apples if you want some fun, but definitely use some kind of crazy awesome cookie cutter with a handle or something or you'll want to throw in the towel.  Or slice your apples paper thin.  And finally, definitely make the Boston Cream Cupcakes.  They are easy and tasty.  You can't beat that.

And, yes, I will be posting something Christmas-y tomorrow.  Glad you asked.

*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!