Seasonal Adjustments

First, the dog gets a bath. What I didn't expect was that the little guy would shiver, freezing for hours, post-bath. So I filled the hot water bottle and did what I could:

Cold Dog

As the seasons change (and they do change, no matter where you live), I like to reset. Read new books, clean all the things, or cook a bunch.  Today, as it's National Buy Nothing Day, I haven't set foot outside except to walk the dogs. It's thrilling. I was puttering around the kitchen and came up with a good smelling stew that I think may become part of the regular cool-weather rotation:

Yummy stew

During a recent stir-fry incident, I realized the secret to combining numerous flavours is to cook them separately and then add them to the main pot. This is what I did with the stew:

Olive oil

Sea salt

One yellow onion, sliced

Two ribs of celery, chopped

6 or 7 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 pint mushrooms of your choosing (I chose crimini)

Bunch of broccoli rabe, roughly chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes

1 ½ cups of canned tomatoes and their juices

1-2 cups of veggie stock

1 bottle of beer (good beer, don’t cheap out here….)

A crush of dried thyme (pinch some between your finger and crush it over the stew) and a crush of dried rosemary. Use fresh if you’ve got it! Put in as much as you want!

In a large heavy pot, sauté onions in a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with a pinch or two of salt, for 5 minutes. Add celery and ¾ of the garlic and sauté over medium-low heat for another 5-7 minutes, taking care not to brown the veggies.

While these are cooking down, in another wide pan sauté the sliced mushrooms and some of the remaining chopped garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until they are beginning to brown and smell yummy. (Do not crowd the mushrooms!) Reserve them in a bowl and use the same pan to sauté the broccoli rabe, in a bit more olive oil and the rest of the chopped garlic. The pan may be very hot so turn it down a bit and to prevent the broccoli rabe from drying out splash in a bit of veggie stock.  Check on your onions/celery/garlic and when the broccoli rabe are done reserve them in another bowl.

When the onion/celery/garlic mixture is soft and fragrant, add the cooked mushrooms, broccoli rabe, potatoes, tomatoes, a cup of veggie stock, the bottle of beer, thyme and rosemary.  Stir it all up and simmer gently for a couple of hours. Check on it every now and then and add the rest of the stock to maintain a stew-like consistency.  I think the bee is really what makes this nice and hearty.  It cooks off and adds a depth to the sauce that would be great with fluffy biscuits!

Enjoy!