Beef and Apricot Stew

You are probably tired of me talking about stews. In the fall and winter months I make soups and stews at least once a week and I must say they are one of my favorite foods. If you read my blog regularly you know that both by how much I talk about my love of soups/stews and how many recipes I post. I promise that come spring I will be back to lighter fair, but until then stews will be a staple. It helps that both of my sons are huge stew eaters. So much so that my son's birthday was this past weekend and that was what he requested for his birthday dinner. Love that kid. Beef stew is probably my favorite type of stew. It is comforting and re-heats well for lunches. Last weekend I tried a new recipe for Beef and Apricot Stew from Everyday Food (the last issue-boo!), which looked simple and perfect for fall.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 1 hour 55 minutes, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store with the exception of the lamb which was supposed to be the main ingredient. I have a horrible time finding lamb in my area. I am hoping that since we now have a new International market that I might have more luck. Since lamb was non-existent I substituted beef. Two things that I would change about this recipe. The ginger sticks weren't popular in my house. Instead of making sticks I would suggest grating the ginger on a micro plane. This would allow the flavor, but not make large sticks of ginger which my kids pretty much hated. Additionally, I would cut down on the amount of apricots to 1/2 cup. Using 3/4 of a cup of apricots was just too many. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With an hour and a 1/2 in the oven this recipe takes a little bit of pre-planning. However, any good stew is worth the wait. If you implement the changes that I made above  I think this stew could be a great fall and winter staple recipe. Plus it's gluten free which works great for my dietary needs.

For the recipe go to Beef and Apricot Stew.

Martha Stewart Living Boeuf Bourguignon Soup with Horseradish Chive Bread

As the summer months approach, my time for making new soup recipes is coming to an end. My desire for hot foods plummets when temps spike into the 90's, so  I have been hunting down the last of my soup recipes to test out. I pulled out a recipe for boeuf bourguignon soup with horseradish chive bread a couple of months back from Martha Stewart Living and figured I would give it a try.

There are few ingredients that I have a very hard time finding as long as I don't mind going to multiple stores. However, I have met my match in regards to finding bone-in beef short ribs. After looking at three separate stores in my region I asked the butcher and was informed that price of ribs has gone through the roof due to too many rib joints opening in the region. My next idea was to purchase a roast and use a soup bone, however, the butcher also informed me that the stores make more money selling the bone to dog food companies and therefore don't always sell them to the general public. So ultimately I had to make a major modification to this recipe due to unavailability of beef ribs. Instead of the ribs, I substituted a well-marbled beef roast. The other modification that I made to the recipe was that I used the bottle of Merlot in my fridge that I use for cooking, instead of the suggested Burgundy. The price of Burgundy is incredibly high currently and the cost isn't justifiable for my family budget.

The prep time for this recipe is short and the active cooking time only about 20 minutes of the roughly 3 hour total. My prep took slightly longer due to the fact that I had to cut my roast into pieces, instead of using short ribs, which would not have required the additional prep. The recipe is simple and easy to follow, with minimal effort involved. The bread portion of the recipe is particularly easy, the bread is store bought, with only a horseradish-chive butter being added.

Even though I had to substitute two major ingredients in this recipe, the end result was delicious. The bread was a particular highlight, with a sweet taste that my two boys particularly enjoyed. My husband remarked that the bread reminded him of a great alternative to steak house garlic bread, that he would definitely eat again in the future. I was denied my soup leftover the next day due to my two-year-old sticking his hand into the soup pot in the fridge, I will have to make this recipe again so I can enjoy multiple bowls!

For the recipe go to Boeuf Bourguignon Soup and Horseradish Chive Bread .