Geese, goofs, ogygia and taco stew...uh huh....chili

The other day I got out some frozen meats so I can make dinners through the week. I pulled out an whole organic chicken, stew meat, pork ribs and 2 steaks. We had the steaks last night with the best macaroni salad ever. It's called Amish Macaroni Salad on allrecipes. I've mentioned it before. In fact it's that exact recipe that made me become a member of allrecipes. Now I even have a published recipe!

Today I grabbed the stew meat but knew I didn't want to make stew since we'd had beef roast the other day with potatoes cooked in the brown roast juices--too much like stew. I also knew I didn't want to make beef soup. So as I was perusing 'stew meat recipes' on Pinterest. I found this recipe.



Oh Sweet Basil's Taco Stew


I'd never thought of Taco Stew before! So thanks OhSweetBasil for giving me the idea to come up with my own recipe. I'm not following her recipe at all except for some of the veggies and tomato sauce.

First I cut the stew meat into bite size pieces, then browned it in a little olive oil that I got from The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel that we stay at in New Orleans.


Louisiana Pizza Kitchen FQ



I bought two of their oils. One has bay leaf, whole red peppercorns, whole black peppercorns, oregano and garlic cloves. The other is all red pepper flakes and one big dried red chili and man it is spicy as hell!  I put liquor pourers on the tops and they sit right next to my stove for easy access. I've already had to refill the herb one.

Once browned a bit, I added some beef broth to the meat and am letting that simmer for 2 hours so the meat gets really supple. I detest hard chewy beef in stew, soup or beef and noodles so I always cook it low and slow and long.

Meat getting loose and tender.^^^^

Once 2 hours have passed I will add onion, red and green bell peppers-chopped, and garlic and let that cook for a bit to tenderize. Then I will add some corn, diced tomatoes and dark red kidney beans. I am not sure what seasonings I will add yet. I have a liquid packet of Rick Bayless' Taco Seasoning and also umpteen dried taco seasonings packets. Will probably need to combine them both for lots of flavor. I want it thick so it can be scooped with the tortilla chips. Topped with cheese of course!

We had geese in the park across the street yesterday! Like about 15 of them all lazing in the shade of a tree and looking for food too. I had gone out to feed the fish and the two dawgs went with me. Stark is always at my heels anyway, no matter where I go or what I do. So after feeding the fish I headed back into the house. Stark, of course, came right in with me but Ava was standing by the pond. I looked at her and asked her if she was coming in. She just looked at me which is my cue that she's staying outside. She loves being outside but Stark always wants in. So after me and Stark got in, a few minutes had passed. I did a couple things and then decided to look outside to see what Ava was up too. That's when I saw the geese so I grabbed the camera. Haven't seen Molly the duck for about 2 weeks now--she's the duck that vacations in our closed pool. I look toward the patio and that damn dawg is on the couch!
Here's a quick vid I took of the whole situation.

I meant to say-Ducks in my pool. Don't know why I am always calling the pool the pond....guess it does kind of look like one with the water on the cover. We treat it with mosquito doughnuts and also a big chlorine tablet to keep the water from turning green. No wonder Molly hasn't been around. LOL Actually she came around after we'd done this so I know neither of those additions scared her away. If the dawgs didn't scare her nothing does!! She even lets me get pretty close. She sees and hears me come out of the house and knows I have cracked corn in my hand and if she's on the side of the pool she instantly jumps into the water and heads to me. She's so cute. Silly duck.

Ava always knows when I am taking her picture.

She also loves her pool and plops in it then plays with the water. She will lay on the couch or in the pool for a good 20 minutes each time. Even in the sun. They both have their own pool but they 'share'. Usually if Stark is in one pool Ava bullies him out of it, then he has to get into the other one. LOL She's so mean to him.

I'm changing up my recipe already. While looking in my kitchen cabinet for diced tomatoes I found a can of stewed tomatoes and viola! a jar of Old El Paso's Mild Taco Sauce. I am going to use that instead of tomato sauce. I do want the tomato chunks so I will use the stewed tomatoes too. I will chop them so Jeff doesn't get a big bite of tomato. I'll use their juice too. I don't have any diced tomatoes just big cans of whole tomatoes. Way too many tomatoes for Jeffy if I use one of them.
Later: I used 2 cans red kidney beans a packet of McCormick's taco seasoning-original flavor and one liquid packet of Rick Bayless' Taco Skillet Seasoning. I also took the kernels off two ears of corn.

Even later: The Taco Stew was really good but it was more like chili than I had intended. At the end I added some Mexican cheese and stirred it in, Jeff's idea. Next time I won't use any tomato sauce or taco sauce. Just beef broth.

I added cheese on top, then fresh tomatoes, onions, red and bell pepper, jalapenos and cilantro. Ate it like chips just like I wanted.

Blind bpal pick time!!

Ogygia


Say what? Wonder how that's pronounced?

Very light yellow in color.
In the vial: LOVELY! Lovely creamy soap. OMG this is gonna be a super good one. A vintage soap sitting next to a claw foot tub. Used by a Victorian lady with her hair up, held by lace. Milky smooth skin.

On the hand: Vibrant, luscious white and violet flowers. I need a claw foot tub full of this. Super uber, uber feminine. This is all female. Amberish. This is the kind of scent that you'd put on after a bath, then as the day progresses you can no longer smell it but every one that you pass can and they turn as you go by and they imagine an angel with gossamer wings just walked by. Magical. Memorable.

What's in this? Crisp sea air, kelp, and climbing vines, flame-singed cedarwood and juniper branches, cypress boughs, alder wood, violets, selino, parsley, glistritha, and white sage.

The vines, cypress and alder wood are so faint. It's mostly the crisp air. I need to look up selino and glistritha.
Selino is a wild greek celery.
Glistritha is also known as purslane--a plant with edible leaves. Glistritha is the greek name.

Ogygia, is an island mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, Book V, as the home of the nymph Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas, also known as Atlantis (Ατλαντίς^[1]) in ancient Greek.

Hence the greek schtuff.

I love this. It's now one of my all time fave bpal oils. I need a gob.

And here's how it's pronounced.......

There. you. go.