Irish Pot Roast

So its been a while since I got the opportunity to post. I got a job (seasonal) but still its a job, I enjoy it so far, hopefully it lasts me through the season. But after working this weekend I wanted something good and hearty to eat. I found a recipe for Irish Pot Roast on allrecipes.com. I did the typical Suzie tweak on it and the result is a recipe that will stay in my recipe book from now on. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I myself and my family did. I appreciate any feedback may it be good or bad I would love to have it.

Irish Pot Roast


2 (12floz) can or bottle of Irish Stout Beer (such as Guinness)
1 (10.75 oz) can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (1oz) package dry onion soup mix (such as Lipton or Korrs)
1 small onion chopped
4 cloves garlic minced (or what you like)
1 boneless beef chuck roast
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 bag baby carrots
1 package baby red potatoes, quartered
3 stalks celery cut into 3 inch pieces

1) Mix beer, cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, onion and garlic together in slow cooker. Season beef roast with salt and pepper and place in the slow cooker. Arrange the carrots and potatoes around the meat.

2)  Cook on low for 6 hours, then add celery. Continue cooking until the roast falls apart easily and the potatoes are softened about 2 more hours. Serve meat and vegetables with the remaining gravy on top.

Gravy (its the gravy that I made so its a little different)

A couple of ladels full of remaining "juice"
1-2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1) place the juice in a bowl and then add one at a time the flour in the tablespoons, and whisk together, obviously using a whisk.

Pour over meat and vegetables and enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls w/ Butterscotch Candy Corn icing.

So it is the fall season. I'm in the mood for baking, cooking and hot cocoa. I've been busy in the kitchen and finally catching up on all my blogging. Yet again I don't have my camera still. I will find it soon though. Also I don't have a stand mixer so all the mixing that goes into my doughs and my mixtures are all mixed by hand so. Anyways so I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls below. I don't get to make a lot of pies but I do love pumpkin pie. So I decided that I would make my own pumpkin cinnamon rolls and they turned out awesome! I made some butterscotch candy corn icing to go with it and will include the recipe for that as well.

Ingredients:

2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can add more if you like)
4 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar


1) In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. After yeast is dissolved add in can of pumpkin, mix together.

2) Combine the flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture, stir until soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 20 times. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together butter and brown sugar and cinnamon.

3) After dough has rested roll dough out into a large rectangle. Spread the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture over the dough. Roll dough up into log and pinch seam to seal. Slice into 1 inch pieces and place cut side up in a lightly greased 10x15 baking pan. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

4) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned.

Butterscotch Candy Corn Icing:

1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 - 1 cup candy corn
1 tsp water
2 tbspn shortening

1) Place items in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds at a time stirring between each cycle.

2) Once mixture reaches consitancy that you like, spread over pumpkin cinnamon rolls fresh from oven.

Serve pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

So I had never had chicken pot pie before. I decided that it might be interesting to try making and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it, my son enjoyed it and my husband enjoyed it. I have adapted this recipe from a "vampire" cook book that I picked up called "Love at First Bite" the book is amazing and I can't wait to make more things from it! The name of the recipe in the book is "Chicken Vamp Pie". They call for mini pies to be made but I have no oven proof cups so I made a large one.

Ingredients:

1 package frozen or refrigerated pie dough
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk
1 leek, diced *(white and light green parts only, discard dark green part)
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 medium potato
2 cups cubed chicken
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out pie dough and cover a pie dish bottom with one of the rolled out pie dough. Bake in preheated oven until pie crust is prepared.

2) Cook chicken. When chicken is done cooking cube up and set aside.

3) Saute onion, celery, leek, and carrots in butter until onion, celery and leek are translucent. Dust with flour; stir and cook for a few moments. Add chicken broth, then add potatoes and cubed chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes or until vegetables are cooked and liquid is thickened.

4) Stir in frozen peas and cream and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into the prepared pie crust, top with un-baked pie crust and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes or until pie crust is done.

Halloween Surprise Cookies

Well, I finally have a spare moment. I don't have any idea where my camera so I can't post any pictures of this but I guarantee that these are DELICIOUS! My 3 year old son loved them and I had to put them out of his reach. He also helped make them so he enjoyed that. I cheated this time and used pre-made sugar cookie mix from Betty Crocker but I should have some next time that are all from scratch.

Halloween Surprise Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2-1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 bag candy corn
2 teaspoons of water (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

1) Empty contents of cookie mix into bowl. Mix in cinnamon then prepare the cookie mix according to instructions on the bag. Mix in the water if you need to use it.

2) Use a spoon and scoop mixture onto a cookie sheet, then press butterscotch chips and candy corn into the mixture.


3) Bake cookies in oven until slightly browned on the bottom, or for about 10 minutes.

4) Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

I'll try to get pictures soon. I have a few more recipes to add.

Shrimp Lo-Mein

So have you ever gotten that craving for Chinese food that won't go away? I have, and believe me, with Chinese "fast food" restaurants around here just about every block and in every mall its hard to find one that you like, then remember the name of the dish you like and then remember which restaurant it came from. So I was looking around on the internet and came across this one recipe for Lo-Mein. It sounded good and I happen to like Lo-Mein, and my husband and I both like Chinese food so I decided to give it a try. This has been adapted from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe on Yahoo's recipes. This recipe turned out great and it also gave you a BIG dose of veggies.

Shrimp Lo-Mein

1 pound fresh or frozen medium/large shrimp (I opted for frozen)
1/3 cup water
3 Tablespoon Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch (if no cornstarch you can use 1 1/2 TEASPOON of white flour)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 Medium onion, chopped
2 cups cabbage, shredded
2 cups fresh or frozen pea pods (I opted for frozen baby sugar snap peas)
2 medium carrots, shredded (use a peeler for this goes quicker)
4 oz wheat angel hair pasta (Okay so I didn't use exactly 4 oz)
2 green onions, sliced

1) Thaw shrimp if frozen. Cut shrimp in half length wise or width wise. Set aside

2) For sauce: In a small bowl combine water, soy sauce and cornstarch. Set this aside as well.

3) Pour oil into a wok or large skillet, add more oil as necessary during cooking. Preheat over medium high heat. Stir fry celery and onion in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add cabbage, fresh pea pods (if using) and carrots; stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes more until veggies are crisp and tender. Remove veggies from wok/skillet.

4) Add shrimp to hot wok/skillet. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp turn opaque. Once opaque push shrimp from center of the wok/skillet.

5) Stir sauce and add sauce to center of the wok/skillet. Cook and stir until bubbly. Return cooked veggies to the wok/skillet. Add hot cooked noodles, green onions and thawed frozen pea pods. Toss all ingredients together to coat with sauce. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more until everything is heated through again.



**Make ahead tip** Prepare vegetables then cover and chill up to 4 hours before cooking with shrimp.


While I haven't tried it yet, I believe it would be easy to change this to a chicken recipe.

Please let me know what you think.

First posting and Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

So this is my first post, a friend of mine recently started hers (Thanks Brooke!) and I figured this would be easier than emailing dozens of people different things and different times. Sadly I don't have any pictures at this time but I will soon, hopefully. So here is a recipe for the cinnamon rolls and I have a few other that I will probably be putting on here as well. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (may vary)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, semi-packed
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter melted

1) In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, approximately 10 minutes. In a small sauce pan heat buttermilk until warm to touch, stir often as you don't want the buttermilk to clump on you.

2) Pour the buttermilk and oil into the yeast mixture and mix well all the way through. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir the flour mixture into the liquid 1 cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 20 times. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. While dough is resting in a small bowl stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.

3) Roll dough out into a large rectangle. Spread the brown sugar mixture all over the dough, roll up into a log and pinch the seam to seal. Slice into 1 inch pieces and place cut side up in a lightly greased 10x15 baking pan. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate overnight.

4) Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 400 degree oven.




Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup hot water

Pour ingredients into small mixing bowl and combine by whisking together pour over cinnamon rolls while hot or whenever you wish.