carrot

Beef and Mushroom Hot Pot

April 24, 2012

I love my slow cooker. It has been there to pull me out of some tough weeks when I don’t have the time to cook but don’t want to get take out. I realized that I was neglecting it this year so I pulled out the Semi-Homemade Slow Cooker Recipes 2 and went right to a recipe I had bookmarked for a while now. I was always drawn to it because it was affordable, quick, and flavorful… sign me up!

I really enjoyed this slow cooker meal. I know I’ll make it again because it was so flavorful and was so simple. I made some changes to the recipe to suit out palate and what we had on hand. For example, since we always have carrots around I used fresh instead of the frozen as specified. My advice for the recipe to come out well is use low-sodium beef broth and to not cook it for too long. The broth concentrates so it would be way too salty if you use regular broth. Because of my schedule I actually had to cook it for 10 hours. I wish I could simply tell work I need to leave early to manage me slow cooker… imagine! ha! The rice was a bit gummy/mushy at the bottom. It didn’t ruin the meal at all but just something I noticed comparing the rice at the top verse the rice at the bottom.

Beef and Mushroom Hot Pot

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 pounds stew meat, cut into small pieces
1 pound of mushrooms, sliced (2 80z packages)
4 carrots, cleaned and sliced into 1/4″ thick rounds
1 box (6 oz) of wild rice blend
2 14 oz cans of low sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Process

In a small bowl combine the Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Mix together well and set aside.
In a 5-6 quart slow cooker, combine all of the ingredients together.
Set slow cooker for 6-8 hours.
Mix halfway through, if the mixtures looks like it is drying out or too soft in areas.
Enjoy!

A rabbit’s dream come true

November 11, 2009

While I was out getting veggies at the local asian market for our rabbits last night I saw this GIANT carrot. I almost got it figuring it would last for several days but honestly it was quite scary. It had to weigh well over a pound!

Not sure it was engineered to be that big or it is a natural carrot variety but I did not want to risk giving my rabbits some nuclear carrot. I thought I would ask about it but when I first asked them for fresh or bottled yuzu and really confused them I figured that I would not have luck with this either. (Note: yuzu is a citrus native to China and Japan that I read about on White on Rice Couple).

So while I often struggle to communicate with the people who work there I get some good deals on veggies. I’ll keep looking into this carrot and hopefully I’ll find some yuzu.

Carrot Cake- Time to Celebrate August Birthdays

August 6, 2009

There are a lot of people who celebrate their birthday’s in August, including my family and the people I work with. I try to bring in a cake or cupcakes for the people I immediately work with to help celebrate their birthdays. But this time, 8 in one month was a lot to take on! So I figured that I could bring in 1 big one for the office to enjoy with the all the birthday people. I love to bake but I am not bakery! Especially with 4 birthdays in a row!

I made a massive carrot cake for the 8 people who have August birthdays. Requested by Kellie (August 8th birthday)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 24 (but you can get 36 decent pieces out of it)

2 pound of carrots

3 cups of all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

8 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup raisins

2 cups walnuts, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line and grease 2 11”x8” baking pans.

Peel and grate carrots (fine shred with a food processor is okay but a grater has the best results)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a very large bowl, beat the eggs until blended. Add the vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil and beat until well incorporated.

In three batches, add the dry ingredients, mix well.

Fold in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts until they are mixed evenly throughout.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, test for doneness.

Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Let it cool completely on a rack prior to icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

24 oz (3 8oz packages) cream cheese, softened to room temperature, cut into small pieces

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract to the mixture. Slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar. Beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

This recipe can be reduced in half.

The last time I made this recipe I left out the raisins and walnuts (afraidof nut allergies in the office) and it was a lot drier. This cake was very moist but not as easy to work with, especially when icing it!

It was nice that we were able to gather the majority of the office to get together for some cake and signing instead of our teams. We figure that we will now have a birthday cake for the month and it will be done during the staff meetings. hmmm what will I make for September?