Snow in Mason, again? You gotta be kidding me! We don't see snow for years and then we get snow 3 times in one winter. Unbelievable! Well at least we finally got an early release and a late start out of it. Today, since I got home so early I decided to make a great slow cooked stew and even a dessert for the family. They love it when I make desserts. Sadly, I gave up sweets for Lent. Lydia gave up cookies, but not sweets entirely. She didn't think she could do it. So her banana pudding was sans Nilla Wafers. She tried to argue that a wafer and a cookie were not the same thing but she didn't win that argument!
Red Wine Beef Stew
Ingredients
2 1/2-3 pounds tenderized round steak
8 large carrots, peeled and sliced thick diagonally
1/2 stalk celery with tops, cleaned and sliced thinly
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cups good red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
3 cubes beef bullion, dissolved in 3 cups warm water
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup flour
salt and pepper
2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Vegetable oil
1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1 small can hominy
Cut the steak in 1-2 inch pieces, not bite size but a little larger. Combine flour and some salt & pepper to taste. Dredge the meat in the flour and set aside. In a large stockpot put enough oil just to cover the bottom and heat on medium heat. Brown the meat on both sides lightly in batches, just a couple minutes on each side. Remove to a plate until it is all done, adding oil as needed. Once the meat is all browned, add a little oil if you need to, there should be a lot drippings in the bottom of the pot, just leave it there. Saute the chopped onion until translucent. Add the red wine and stir until the pan frond (drippings) come loose from the bottom of the pot. Add the tomatoes, thyme and the cayenne pepper, then the water dissolved with the beef bullion. Add the carrots, celery. Then add the meat in and stir a little. Let it come to a boil and then turn heat down to very low and simmer. Stirring occasionally to make sure it isn't sticking on the bottom of the pot. After it has simmered for at least 30 minutes, add the hominy and the olives and let it simmer for about another 20-30 minutes. (I had to move my pot to my small burner to keep it from sticking too bad.)
Cook's Note: You may also need to add a little water. I think I added about one extra cup of water when I added the hominy. I wanted some good juice to soak up with my yummy French bread!
Rating:
Tommy 5 stars *****
Lydia 4.5 stars ****^
Spencer 4 stars ****
Whitt 2.5 stars **^
Banana Pudding
2 small pkgs Jell-O French Vanilla instant pudding
4 cups cold milk
1 container Cool Whip
1 pkg Nilla Wafers (Don't use the cheap ones!)
4-5 bananas
Mix the instant pudding packages with the 4 cups cold milk with a whisk very thoroughly so there are no lumps. Sit in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes. Put the Cool Whip in the microwave on defrost for about 60-70 seconds. Stir and make sure there aren't any frozen lumps. Fold the Cool Whip into the pudding. In some decorative glasses put 5-6 slices of banana, then put 4 Nilla wafers around the edges, then spoon in some pudding. Then do another layer of sliced bananas, wafers, and pudding. Garnish with another wafer and a couple slices of banana on top! Chill until ready to serve.
My grandmother, Mimi loves banana pudding and every time we would have her come over for supper, the kids always wanted her to bring her banana pudding. I'm not sure what her recipe is but the kids say this one is pretty close!
Ratings:
Tommy 3 stars *** (Because I used store bought Cool Whip rather than homemade whip cream - he just can't give anything with store bought cool whip more than 3 stars.)
Spencer 10 stars **********
Lydia 7 stars ******* (because she didn't get any wafers)
Whitt (not available for rating, because he went to bed)
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