Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Balsamic Beef & Tomato


Here is a new recipe I recently came up with using very reasonably priced beef stew meat from Whole Foods. My current diet consists of quite a bit of protein, but that can get expensive! This is a great way to make one package of stew meat go farther and taste super yummy! The first time I made this the beef only cost $4 - $5! Hope you'll try it out.



Balsamic Beef & Tomato
Total cooking time: approx. 2 hours

-1 lb. stew meat
-1 26 oz box Pomi chopped tomatoes (or any good canned tomatoes)
- 1/2 onion
-1-2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 2 large mustard green leaves, chopped into thin ribbons (chiffonade!)
- 1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoons oregano
- olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large stew pot on stove on medium-high heat, add in onion and cook for a minute or two. Add minced garlic and stew meat. Brown the meat on all sides for a few minutes to hold in juices. 

Add in chopped tomatoes and oregano and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 

Add balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Recover and cook for approx. another hour.

Stir in mustard greens and add salt and pepper to taste. 

We served it by itself with a side of kale salad, but you could put it on noodles or atop sautéed zucchini 'noodles' if you wish! It would also be great on top of cauliflower mashed 'potatoes.' Mmmm!




Super easy and very yummy!!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

giant lace shawl...finished!

Shawl ensemble by elletrain
Shawl ensemble, a photo by elletrain on Flickr.


Woo! Yesterday I finished and blocked this shawl I have been working on for a while. The pattern is Laminaria from Knitty Spring 2008. I saw nasseknits version on Ravelry and had to make one out of bigger yarn like she did. I LOVE it and will get a ton of use out of it, yes, even in late April, here in Portland. 


The yarn I used is Lisa Souza Baby Alpaca Silk yarn that I got from Stitches South 2 years ago. Sadly, because I have knitting A.D.D., this took me a year to complete, but I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I will be hunting down more patterns with Estonian lace in them for sure. Gorgeous!




Friday, April 20, 2012

Playing with new phone apps.

I'm having so much fun playing with some new iPhone photo apps. On this picture I used Camera+ and Phonto. Camera+ allows you to do a LOT of SLR and editing capabilities on your phone, it even has a timer! Now you can prop up your phone and take shots of yourself. No more awkward self-shots!

Phonto is fun and allows you to add text/captions to your photos. I believe it was the free one. Camera+ is only .99 right now!

Enjoy all of the new possibilities! Isn't it nice to have these at your fingertips instead of having to lug around a full sized camera everywhere? It definitely allows me to take more photos and record more of our lives. <3