Favorite Beef Stew

I've been using this beef stew recipe since 1982 and have never found another to rival it. The timing of adding each type of vegetable is one of the things that make this beef stew special. Be sure to follow the recipe and don't add the ingredients all at once. If done correctly, the potatoes and peas will be perfectly cooked through and not the least bit mushy. The celery and carrots will be slightly crunchy for a pleasing blend of textures.

At my house, this recipe is affectionately called "Invisible Stew". When our son was a small child, my husband and I told him that he would turn invisible if he ate all of his stew. It worked like a charm! After he emptied his complete bowl of stew, we couldn't see him for at least 30 minutes. Those were fun times. More than twenty years later, he still comes around and asks me to make Invisible Stew.

Favorite Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2 pounds stew beef, cut into 1 inch chunks
3 tablespoons oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cubes beef bouillon
4 cups water
4 cups potatoes, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
2 cups carrots, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 cup celery, cut diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup frozen peas

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a 4 quart sauce pot or dutch oven. Add beef and brown lightly. Remove beef and set aside, making sure the oil remains in the pot.

2. Add garlic and onion to oil in the pot. Cook until the onion is clear.

3. Add flour and stir into the oil and onion mixture. Brown lightly.

4. Return beef to the pot. Add 1/2 cup water and stir until smooth. Add Worcestershire sauce, bouillon, salt, pepper and remaining 3 1/2 cups water. Stir and cook until the broth forms a thin gravy.

5. Reduce heat and simmer beef in gravy for 30 minutes.

6. Return pot to medium-low heat. Add potatoes and carrots and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

7. Add celery and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

8. Add frozen peas and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve hot.

Thai Dinner Party Ideas to Wow Your Guests

Thailand Inspired Dinner Party

Think Thailand and you imagine the ancient temples in Chiang Mai, the Chao Praya River reflecting the glow of the Wat Arum temple during warm evenings, white sandy beaches and blazing sunsets, Bangkok's chaotic traffic, graceful bamboos, and the history rich sacred city of Ayuthaya. The food is glorious too! Hot and sour soup with shrimp, sumptuous fried rice with crab, Thai summer rolls, and the heavenly mango ice-cream. You can bring Thailand to your home in your next dinner party.

Recreate the Culture

Dinner party ideas can be successfully executed if carefully planned; and if you have been giving dinner parties with the same food and party theme, it is about time to try something exciting to delight your guest or better yet, surprise them with a Thai dinner party.

An element essential to a captivating Thai themed dinner party is the setting. Do not plunk the food on serving dishes and convince your guest you are having a Thai dinner party this way. Your guests will surely go home unimpressed.

The Table

Dinner party ideas always bring focus to table preparation. For your Thai dinner party, use an embroidered (if available) green or red silk runner to give the table the exotic Asian look that echoes the mystic of the East. Bamboo placemats in their natural color will enhance the vibrant silk runner.

As a centerpiece, orchids floating in low celadon or jade green vases and scented candles arranged beautifully will perfectly perk up your table. You can also arrange shiny pebbles on or around the vases. For table napkins, use raffia tied with ribbon matching the color of your table runner. For music, find Thai traditional instrumental music to enhance the ambiance of the setting.

Lighting

The dining area should not be brightly lit but illuminated with soft lighting to dramatize the scent of incense and heighten the Thai inspired dinner. Setting and lighting makes the dining experience a delightful one.

Food and Drinks

Thai party dinner ideas for the festive fare is not complete without rice and Thailand's famous spices - curry, cayenne pepper, saffron, cilantro, and chili powder. Some Thai recipes can be easily prepared in advanced or brought in stores. You have several choices, pork, poultry, noodles, fish, and greens.

The flavors range from hot, sour, sweet, bitter or salty and the food is prepared with the freshest ingredients. When choosing the menu select ingredients available in Thai food specialty shops or order the more tricky recipes from Thai restaurants.

For the drinks, you can introduce Thai Iced Tea to the women, a sweet concoction of black tea, evaporated milk, sugar, cinnamon, cardamon, and tons of crushed ice. For the gentlemen, give them the full bodied Singha Beer and they'll get a kick out of it.

Use a Thai theme for your next dinner party and enjoy the compliments that are guaranteed to flow your way. It is easier than you think.

Kitchen Gadgets

Are you one of the many individuals who likes kitchen gadgets? Most people who cook are very fond of or even hooked on kitchen gadgets. Naturally, some kitchen gadgets are more useful than others and some are positively essential.Who could do without a cooker, a kettle or a coffee maker? Mixers and blenders are common items too and electric tin openers and knife sharpeners can be found in many kitchens. How much cooking would you be able to do if the electricity was cut off?

Cooks have always loved gadgets, the only thing that has altered is that the majority of the contemporary kitchen gadgets are electric these days. We had a water-driven potato peeler when I was a child. It was attached to the tap by a hose and the water drove a wheel which span an abrasive wheel which took the skin off a pound or two of potatoes.

We also had a manual apple corer and a garlic squeezer, but that was about it. On the other hand, our kitchen has quite a few electric gadgets, including a juicer, a rice cooker and a bread-making machine.

My wife's favourite kitchen device is the rice cooker, but then she is Thai and eats quite a bit of rice. In fact, the rice cooker is only switched off to wash and refill it. It leaves a beautiful sweet smell in the air which is not dissimilar to fresh bead, if you use Jasmin rice, which is Thailand's finest.

When I lived in Britain, my kitchen was full of labour-saving devices, but some of the things I used to use just once a month over there, I now see being used every day. For instance, I had a wok and a bamboo steamer which I used once in a while, now all my food is cooked either in a wok, in a bamboo steamer or on a barbecue.

Similarly, I had a pestle and mortar which looked good on the top of the cupboard. It gave the impression that I was a proper cook, but I never truly found a use for it. Now my wife uses a huge granite pestle and mortar to prepare every meal. It weighs about ten pounds and is large enough to mix a cake in; the broad end of the pestle will fill half an orange (I use that as a juicer, that is how I know).

My favourite kitchen gadget is the bread maker, but then I am European and am very partial to bread. Where I live though, in northern rural Thailand, the bread is quite sweet by Western standards and took me a few years to get accustomed to. Now I can bake my own and I love it, although obtaining strong flour is not so easy.

I like to put the ingredients in the bread machine before I go to bed and set the timer so that the bread is cooked when I wake up. You do not need an alarm clock with the smell of fresh bread wafting from the kitchen! Now all I miss is cheese, but I have not seen a cheese-maker yet.