Welcome Home Stew! (or Welcome Home, Stew! [or Welcome Home, Jen!])

Tonight Jen got in late from her work trip to Dallas. After a week that I imagine must have been filled with copious amounts of messy barbecue, and fat, red-faced men in ten gallon hats talking about pork bellies while sipping on bourbon, I made the bet she was ready for some home cookin', New York City style!



For the salad I used the mixed greens with some sliced carrot, feta cheese, fresh pomegranate juice and pomegranate and a little olive oil.



With the nice amount of root vegetables we had I realized we had a good amount of ingredients to make one of Jen's favorite dishes: beef stew. Not pictured is the rutabaga from the supermarket. I think he was a little too shy to mingle with the vegetables from the farm. The onion was also from the supermarket but onions are typically one of the more gregarious vegetables. It's true. It's in the Food Lover's Companion. Look it up.



We got these great potatoes from the farm that have this red spotted interior. I think it's because they're some sort of heirloom variety. That or they have some sort of incurable potato virus.



I started off with leeks, onion, carrots, garlic, rutabaga, butternut squash, and potato. The start of the dish would have greatly piqued the interest of my various vegetarian and vegan in-laws. It was a beautiful medley of veggies from the farm . . .



. . . that went great with some seared beef chuck meat! I dredged the cubed meat in some flour, seared it in the pan, then deglazed the pan with some cabernet and a little tomato paste. Then I added the vegetables to the pan with some mushrooms and stewed the meat for two hours or so.



I served the stew over some buttered egg noodles, Jen's preferred accompaniment to a beef stew. Egg noodles and crusty bread, that is. Jen had been craving beef stew recently so I thought it would be a nice thing to welcome her home. If the outside temperature had been about twenty degrees colder the stew would have been a little more fitting but at least it was miserable and rainy. Possibly she is so used to Texas weather by now that she will be chilled to the bone by this 56 degree night we're having in New York.



For dessert, some vanilla ice cream with melted ganache, caramel sauce, and apple slices. Old, older, and oldest mixed together for something new, but still pretty old.

Also, it's worth noting that this is our 100th post! Yay for sticking with a blog!