CEiMB - Aromatic Beef Stew with Butternut Squash

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It is raining here.  And I do mean Raining with a capital R.  Felt like I needed a boat or paddles at least to get to work today.  I love it when it rains overnight and then sunny during the day.  Wouldn't that just be perfect?  We have had a lot of snow, then last week it was sunny, and now cold and rain.

So. . it's raining and it is a great night for stew.  My sweet friend Kayte over at Grandma's Kitchen chose this week's recipe for our Craving Ellie group.  Go over to her blog to see how she cooked it up and to get the recipe.  If you are interested in joining our group, click on Craving Ellie and check out the other bloggers and all the good food coming up.

As for the stew, somehow I was not excited about adding butternut squash to stew.  I do trust Ellie Krieger though to produce healthy, delicious recipes.  I was "tweeting" with Marthe and Kayte earlier today and they were cooking it up and it sounded so good.  So I gave it a go. The verdict?  We liked it, but next time I think I would leave the cinnamon out.  I also wish my meat had been a little more tender.  Crock pot would have worked great for this.  It said to serve with couscous, but I served with rice.


Earlier in the week our TWD group made corniest corn muffins and luckily I still had two muffins leftover which went really well with the stew.


I have to give kudos this week to my husband, Chandler.  Chandler loves the food I cook and he hardly ever complains.  And he does a lot of the grocery shopping for me which helps tremendously.  He sometimes makes mistakes - like tonight.  He got my diced tomatoes, but forgot the tomato sauce.  I just substituted some spaghetti sauce out of a jar for the tomato sauce.  Hey, whatever works, right?  He's just my best friend and in case he reads this blog this week, I want him to know how much he is appreciated. 

Is anyone watching Off the Map on tv?  I just love that show.  Sort of like Grey's Anatomy in the jungle.  Comes on Wednesday nights at 9 CST.  Try it.  And one of the main characters (Martin Henderson) isn't so bad either.  What do you think?

Comments

Kayte said…
Looks great! I have my post scheduled for tomorrow but I saw yours so thought I would pop over and see what yours looked like...it looks like mine, so I must have done it right! We loved this exactly as she wrote it...very happy with this recipe. I did cook it in the crockpot, however, as I figured the meat would not be as tender as we like it only cooking it 30 minutes. Very easy in the crockpot, too. I like the idea of this with rice and the marinara sauce sounds really good.
March 9, 2011 at 7:53 PM
Chats the Comfy Cook said…
Reading what Kayte wrote, it sounds like we all had our issues about the length of cooking time for the meat.

Your dish looks great. This is a good winter meal.
March 10, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Joanne said…
I had the same prob. with the meat. It didn't get tender enough. Ted cooked it for another 40 minutes. Guess it was ok after that.
As for that show 9pm is WAY too late for this early bird. :)
March 10, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Mary said…
Omigosh...I read this post quickly and saw shout-out to your husband followed by photo and I assumed for a second that guy was your husband! I will have to try crockpot next time-I love the magic of set it and forget it!
March 10, 2011 at 4:57 PM
Bri said…
Yep, I can vouch that the crockpot was a fabulous way to cook this! I loved your shout out to your husband; it sounds a lot like my husband! He always means well, but it doesn't always work out according to plan. I wish I had some of those corn muffins I keep reading about on peoples' blogs! They look scrumptious.
March 10, 2011 at 9:26 PM
TeaLady said…
Ditto on the crockpot. 4 hours on high and the squash and beef were wonderfully tender.

Nothing wrong with rice. If the hubs had been home rice would have been on his plate.
March 10, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Anonymous said…
Yum!!! That's all I can say ;)
I have to agree with you on the meat: it was a bit too chewy, I would have liked it to be more tender.
Since I still have about a pound of butternut squash leftover I'm going to make this again, but this time I'm gonna use chicken.
March 11, 2011 at 4:11 AM
Anonymous said…
Such a sweet shout out to your husband!! I wasn't sure how the butternut squash would work in stew either, but I'm glad to know it turned out well :)
March 13, 2011 at 5:33 PM
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