Polish Hunter's Stew.

From Elise. Calls for lots of different cuts of pork and mushrooms. I don't know if I did something weird or what but I'm not a huge fan of this taste. I soaked the sauerkraut. I used turkey Polish sausage, pork loin, smoked pork rib tips, and baby bella mushrooms. I think I used OC Pale Ale. It came out sour, salty, bitter. The whole taste is not entirely offensive, but it's not entirely enjoyable either. I am loath to throw it out thought since it has so much meat in it. Apparently, I didn't take a picture of it because it was so terrible. It gave me a lot of gas.

Italian Sausage and Cabbage Stew.

From Elise. I used a regular cabbage intead of savoy since they were all out when I was at the store. I only had half a pound of hot Italian sausage which is fine since I'll eat it with sandwiches. Minced and sliced onions, white beans, fairly simple and straight forward stew. I thought it was really good.

Curried Lamb and Lentil Stew.

Mixed some recipes from here and here. Had a bag of lentils that I got tired of looking at. Got some lamb on sale. Of red meats, lamb is probably the best for rich, spicy dishes. I think I'd still prefer a good cut of beef to lamb if it were a steak though, as lamb on its own may be too gamey.

Browned the lamb in a pan before tossing it into the crockpot with a can of tomatoes, some beef broth for the lentils, and everything else. Pretty good.

Irish Beef Stew.

From Elise. Finally got around to trying this since I had some Guinness Extra stouts on hand. Used Boss Monster (zin blend) for the wine. Forgot to salt the beef before cooking so it came out a little bland. First bowls were too watery, I think, so I spent some time a few days later reducing the stock. Smelled good. Leftovers in the freezer.

Goulash and Dumplings.

Sourced from Elise. Chuck roast makes awesome meals when simmered down. Reminiscent of carbonnade, it goes the route of tomato paste and paprika. I think it could have used more paprika. The dumplings turned out nicely fluffy. Good cold weather food. It was goulash-ious.

Beef Carbonnade.

Sourced from Elise. I used Ommegang Abbey Ale. Turned out decently enough, I think. It's a strongly flavored beef and onion stew. I had it with sourdough rolls, but it should go well with rice, potatoes, etc. It reminded me of beef stroganoff but heartier with a more complex and less salty flavor.

Chicken and Dumplings.

Oops.

Well, here's finally something non-alcoholic. There should be a lot more like this since I'm not allowed to spend anymore money on booze for a couple months.

Source from Elise. Flour is such a useful, random thing. It makes everything. I'm putting the ingredients for the dumplings here because I haven't figured out a good system for knowing when to use baking soda and when to use baking powder. All I know at the moment is that baking soda goes with chocolate and buttermilk.

• 2 cups cake flour (can sub all-purpose flour)


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 3/4 teaspoon salt


• 2 Tbsp butter, melted


• 3/4 cup milk


• 1/4 cup minced fresh herb leaves such as parsley, chives, and tarragon (optional)

Everything is pretty simple and obvious save for making a roux to start the stew base which is foreign to me since I don't make gravy.

The dumplings turned out a little dense but fixable next time. Also, I didn't add salt when making the stock, which I should have done because the chicken ended up a bit bland. In general, I should just start using a little more salt. Chicken and dumplings are also apparently freezable, so we'll see how that turns out.

CHILI.

Here's the sauce. I followed it but without the flour (used ground beef instead), fennel, cayenne (couldn't find them), and green pepper (didn't want to spend the money). I also wasn't paying attention to my measuring spoons and measure out everything relative to a 2 tbsp scoop, thinking it was a 1 tbsp scoop. So all the spices are right in proportion to each other, but it's actually double what the recipe called for. Still turned out delicious.

The picture is before I dressed it up. I was hungry. Typical additions: cheese, sour cream, Frank's, cornbread. I could eat this all night.

Chicken Pot Pie. Sort of.

Um. Iw as trying this recipe and did all sorts of weird stuff. Long story short, it turned out pretty runny and tasteless. Probably will not try it again for a long time. The biscuits, on the other hand, were awesome.

What? I like pepper.

Pork and Black Bean Stew.

I think I found this recipe on the back of a can of black beans. You would think I would a can of black beans better than that. In any case, this was...

• Black beans
• Corn
• Green chiles
• Chicken broth
• Pork (I ended up using trimmed portions of country style ribs. It was a lot of work but worth the price. Looking for something easier? Use lean stew meat, obviously.)

I believe...that's about it. Bring to boil, simmer. Use whatever seasonings you want, especially to make it spicy, like lots of chili powder. Add flour if you want it less soupy, though it thickens on its own in the refrigerator.

I thought it served well with some japs, diced tomato, and sour cream; add a side of sourdough.