Beef Stew

This is seriously the most amazing beef stew ever.  The secret:  red wine and sun dried tomatoes (no canned tomatoes!).  The broth has incredible flavor.  The texture is thick and wonderful.  And the best part??  **Drum roll please** I tweaked the recipe so I could throw it in the Crock pot!  Which takes the difficulty level of the original recipe down a few notches.  How can you argue with that?

Ingredients:  cube steak or stew meat, red wine, garlic, bay leaves, flour, salt, pepper, olive oil, onions, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, frozen peas, chicken stock, Italian seasoning, sun dried tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce.

Add the beef to a bowl with the red wine, garlic and bay leaves.  Cover and leave to marinate a few hours or overnight.

Chop up the carrots, potatoes, onion and mushrooms.

Season the flour with salt and pepper.

Dredge the beef in the flour mixture.  Save the marinade.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet and brown the meat over medium heat.

Preheat a Crock pot and add the meat to the pot along with the marinade and the rest of the ingredients.  Season with Italian seasoning.

Mix it all together and cook over low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.

And that's it!  Pretty easy huh??

The flour that was on the beef thickens the broth.  It has a wonderful beef flavor as opposed to a canned tomato flavor.  The sun dried tomatoes add just the right pop of tomato without overwhelming the beef and the meat is so incredibly tender and mouth watering.  This is hearty and delicious!  This is a one pot meal that will become a staple at our house.  Enjoy!

Link to the printable recipe:

Note:  I tweaked it slightly to make it work for the Crockpot.  But the ingredients are the same.

Beef Stew

Source:  Barefoot Contessa

Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

This recipe has been plastered all over Pinterest.  So I had to try it.  And I'm sooooo glad I did!  It has changed my life.  I'm now going to try to come up with my own Crockpot variations of my favorite soup recipes because it was so dang easy.  And of course, if they are good, I will share them :)

Ingredients:  frozen southern style hash browns, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, onion, cream cheese, salt, pepper and seasoned salt to taste, bacon, cheese and scallions for garnish.

Chop up some onion.

Then add it to the crockpot, along with the hash browns, chicken broth and cream of chicken soup.  If I have to critique this recipe, I will say the chunks of chicken from the condensed soup were a little freaky.  I think next time I'll use cream of celery.

Mix it all together and season with salt, seasoned salt and pepper to taste.  Don't be shy with the salt, especially if you are using low sodium soups.  Cover, turn the Crockpot to low and let it cook for 6-8 hours.

About an hour before you are ready to serve, plop in a package of cream cheese.  I would recommend breaking it up a bit so it will melt faster rather than adding it in one big hunk like I did :P

Give it one final mix.  And that's it!  I mean it REALLY could not be any easier than that!!

Now if you want to make it BAKED potato soup...

Fry up some bacon until it's nice and crispy.

And chop it up into pieces.

Grate some cheddar cheese.

And garnish your bowl with the bacon, cheese and some scallions.  This reminds me of my days as a server at Charleston's.  Baked potato soup was - and still is - one of my favorite things from there.  This was almost as good.  I'm adding this to my list of all time favorite recipes.  Thanks again, Pinterest!

Copy and paste the recipe below into Word for a printable version:

Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

Serves 4

32 oz. bag frozen southern style hash browns
32 oz. box chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 c. chopped onion
salt, seasoned salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. pkg cream cheese (don't use fat free...it won't melt!!)

In a Crockpot, combine everything except for the cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour before serving, add the cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Serve with cheese, bacon bits and green onions.

Source:  Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour

Cream of Mushroom Soup

This was unexpectedly the best soup I've ever made.  It was just so dang good I don't even know how to describe it.  I halved the recipe with the intention of eating a quarter today and the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but instead I ate the whole pot in one sitting (I mean, I am a nursing mom anyway :P).  Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:  mushrooms, olive oil, butter, onion, carrot, fresh thyme, leeks, flour, white wine, half and half, heavy cream, parsley.

Cut the stems off the mushrooms.  I had pre-sliced mushrooms already on hand but if you buy whole mushrooms, cut the stems off and slice the caps.  Any kind of mushroom will do.

Chop up some onion and carrot.

Heat some butter and olive oil in a pot.

Add the mushroom stems, onion, carrots, a sprig of fresh thyme and salt and pepper.

Let that cook over low heat for about 15 minutes (sorry, forgot to get a pic of this stage).  Then add some water.

Bring it to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Let it simmer for about 30 minutes to create a rich, wonderful mushroom stock.  I believe this is what makes this recipe to die for.

When it is done simmering, strain the stock into a bowl and discard the solids.

And what you'll have is a bowl of liquid gold!

While the stock is cooking, cut the dark green parts and the roots off of the leek.

Slice it in half lengthwise.

And chop it into pieces.

Leeks tend to be really sandy, so add them to a bowl of water and swish them around a few times to remove any dirt.  Then drain them and pat dry.

Add the rest of the butter to your soup pot.  I always use a dutch oven when I make soup.  It just seems to work really well.

Add the leeks to the pot and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes.

In the mean time, chop up some fresh Italian parsley.

And some fresh thyme leaves.

When the leeks have cooked down, add the mushroom caps and cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Until they are nice and soft and have started to release some of their liquid.

Then add some flour.

And let that cook for about or minute or so, stirring, to cook out the raw flour taste.

Then add the white wine and let it cook for another minute or so until it's nice and thick.

Add the mushroom stock, thyme, salt and pepper.

Bring it to a boil and reduce it to a simmer.  Let it simmer for about 15 minutes until it has thickened and reduced.

And now for my favorite part:  mix in the cream and half and half.

Then add the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

B-E-A-utiful!  I just love any cream of _____ soup.  But I think this one takes the cake!

Silky, creamy, YUMMY!!

Link to the printable recipe:

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Source:  Barefoot Contessa