Hearty Beef Stew

This week the temperatures dropped considerably and we needed something to warm us up.  We were on vacation all last week and this was the perfect recipe to ease back into the cooking routine.  I was spoiled eating at Disney World- NO cooking, but best of all NO CLEANING!  Personally the mushrooms were my favorite part of this stew (but I love mushrooms!!) I am glad that I finally paid attention and wrote down how I made this stew because I always forget what I put in it.

Ingredients:

• Drizzle of Olive Oil
• 1 lb of Cubed Stew Beef
• 4 Carrots- cut into pieces
• 2 Potatoes- cut in to pieces
• 2 Stalks Celery- cut into pieces
• Small Onion- I leave my fairly in fairly large pieces
• 6-8 Whole Mushrooms- cut into thick slices
• 6 Cups of Beef Stock (I use Better than Bouillion- it comes in a jar.  I usually add a little more than the directions say on the jar to give it a little richer flavor.  I added 3 tablespoons for 6 cups of water)
• 3 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• About three strips of Bacon- cooked and chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons Red Wine (I used Shiraz because that is what I had open this time)
• A pinch of Steak Seasoning
• A pinch of Dried Rosemary
• 1 1/2 Cloves of Minced Garlic
• 1 Bay Leaf

Serves 4-5

Drizzle Olive Oil in a large skillet.  Add beef.  Sprinkle beef with steak seasoning.  Cook for about two minutes and then add in celery, onion, and carrots.  Cook for additional 3-4 minutes.  Pour meat and veggies into large slow cooker.  Add in potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, bay leaf, bacon, and stir together.  

Pour in the wine and beef stock.  I know it looks like a lot of mushrooms in the picture.  Everything else is heavy and sinks to the bottom while the mushrooms float to the top.  Cook on low for about 6 hours.

Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with 1 tablespoon of softened butter to make a paste.  

Remove one cup of broth from the slow cooker and whisk in the flour butter mixture.  Pour back in the slow cooker and mix well.  If this isn't enough to slightly thicken it, remove another cup of hot broth and mix in another another tablespoon of flour.  I didn't want my stew super thick so this was perfect for me.  I then turn slow cooker to high for about 20 mins and served with garlic cheddar biscuits.

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Adorable Baby Wall Art with Chevron and Chalkboard

My project for today was making some cute wall art for a friend of mine, and after I completed hers, I went ahead and made some additional ones and put them up for sale on etsy. These are three different prints, one is a monogram, the other is a birth announcement plaque, and last is a prayer. Here is the one I call "The Mallory" and it is in girl colors:

The others I created were in more of a boy pallette and I call them "The Ivan."

Please check out the listings on our Etsy Shop and email us if you want something custom. Enjoy!
Mary Bobbin's Boutique Etsy Shop

Family Hearts

February is just a couple of days away, so it's time to start on my Valentine's crafts. Okay I probably should have started a few weeks ago so that I could actually enjoy some of the decorations that I want to make, but I am going to give it my best shot over the next few days. As a kid Conversation Heart Candies were a staple to every Valentine's Day. I never really liked them, but I always liked to read them. Now they put all different sayings on them. At the store the other day I was looking at the Valentine candy and discovered that Brach's makes Ice cream Flavored Conversation Hearts. I decided that I was going to give them a try. Here are a few of my favorite sayings.

The new Ice Cream flavors did not impress me, but the candy did inspire today's creation.

Materials Needed

Wooden Hearts

4-6 Different Pastel Paint Colors

Staple Gun

Paint Brush

48" of 1.5" wide ribbon

Letter Stickers

The hearts had barcode stickers on them so I had to use a combination of a razor blade and Goo Gone to get the adhesive off. To make sure that I covered up the slight color that the Goo Gone gave, I had to paint each of the hearts with 3 coats of paint.

After the paint is dry, arrange the name letters on the hearts. To attempt to get the names centered and straight, I started with the middle letter of the name and placed it in the center of the heart. I then placed the letters on either side and so on until all letters were on the heart.

Next I spaced the hearts on the ribbon. The dots on the ribbon helped me to space them equally apart with out having to measure it. I used the staple gun to attach them in place.

I next attached an 8 inch piece on the top heart to form a loop to use as a hanger.

This SUPER CUTE decoration will hang in our house year after year!

Mouth Watering Pot Roast

For dinner tonight, I am making my husband's favorite- Mouth Watering Pot Roast. I actually think the recipe title is Mississippi Pot Roast, but we call it mouth watering because the flavor is so good our mouths actually water when we think about it!

The best thing about this roast is that it's super easy and since you make it in the slow cooker, you can make it in the morning and forget about it until dinner. You can use a lot of substitutions as well, in fact I'm using one today because I do not have one of the ingredients.

Ingredient List:

• 1.5/2 lb. Chuck Roast
• 1 packet ranch dressing mix
• 1 packet Au Jus (I am out of the Au Jus so I'm substituting for 4 cubes of beef bouillon)
•  3/4 stick of butter (adjust this according to your taste, original recipe calls for entire stick)
•  4 pepperoncinis

One of the most important things I would like to point out is that you DO NOT add any water or broth to this. The beef drippings and butter create enough.

Directions:

1. Put chuck roast in slow cooker
2. Empty ranch packet then Au Jus (or in this case bouillon cubes) on top of beef
3. Put butter on top
4. Place each pepper around the butter
5. Cook on low 6-7 hours until meet is tender.