st. patricks day

People’s Porter Shepherd’s Pie + Giveaway

March 15, 2016 by rachelle 20 Comments

People’s Porter (Foothills Brewing) Shepherd’s Pie

I’m feeling frisky this week, y’all! It’s my birthday month and we’re giving stuff away! Woot! So, I’m coming at you with an additional post to remind you to ~~wish me a happy birthday~~ enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day holiday and to enter the giveaway for some free food from HelloFresh! If you’re not familiar with these fine folks, you can find them here.

We (and again, I mean me and IDK why????) have stepped things up a bit and in the spirit of my birthday and the upcoming holiday, I took the traditional Shepherd’s Pie and, well….. duh! I added beer! Because why not? If you want a family friendly version either substitute the beer for beef stock or go with this recipe where I made Shepherd’s Pie and lamented about how the only thing I wished I did different was to add beer. So I put it in a glass. What can you do? I went with the People’s Porter from North Carolina’s own Foothills Brewing because if it’s a beer you want to drink in a glass, it’s a beer you want to cook with. And I do love their beer any way I can get it!

BTW – this is not a sponsored post and I have not received any compensation from Foothills or anyone else. I just love good craft beer.

Anyways, I’m having a birthday and I hope you win a gift! I’ve teamed up with a bunch of super cool bloggers who know what it’s like to need a break and have someone else put together a meal for you. Who doesn’t need a break now and then? Scroll down to see the widget to enter and be sure to check out some of the other websites! Good luck!

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Win $500 Worth of Delicious HelloFresh Meals!

Giveaway Courtesy of HelloFresh and Arousing Appetites

Bacon and Feta Stuffed Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki + Giveaway

March 14, 2016 by rachelle 29 Comments

Bacon and Feta Stuffed Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki

Happy Monday, friends! Did y’all have a fantastic weekend? We had some beautiful weather here in the Carolinas and we happily took advantage of it. We got out our bikes and went for an 8 mile ride on one of our local greenways. Y’all will totally be relieved to know that I made it through the whole ride without crashing. You may remember that I have some issues with balance and riding bikes.

Enough about my embarrassing bike crashes and let me tell you how absolutely gorgeous the greenway was – keeping in mind that I missed a lot of wildlife and flora due to the fact that I cannot take my eyes off the trail for more than a few seconds or I’ll end up in the bushes, pond, on a porcupine, etc. Anyhoo, there were yellow wildflowers blooming everywhere, ducks were swimming in the water, and turtles were chillin’ on rocks in the sunshine. It was a great day and I hope it’s safe to say that spring has sprung!

Since it’s Monday and we’ve established that Mondays blow, we’re going to ease into this week like an easy Sunday morning – even though I have to suit up and go to work. Womp Womp. On the positive side of things we’re still continuing this month-long celebration of all my favorite things for my birthday and I guess we can include some St. Pat’s celebrating too. I’ll share.

The theme today is pub food. I mean, seriously. Who doesn’t love a burger? We (and I don’t know why I say we when it’s really just me) have stuffed some ground lamb with crispy bacon and feta cheese and topped it with some super easy tzatziki. Toss this on an onion roll and throw in some fries and all is right with the world.

Oh! And guess what? Since we’re celebrating my St. Patrick’s Day birthday pretty much all month long, I have a present for you! A giveaway! I’ve teamed up with a bunch of really hip bloggers to giveaway $500 worth of HelloFresh Meals! The winner has total freedom of choice to put together a preferred choice of veggie boxes, classic boxes, and family boxes! While we love our friends in other countries, this giveaway is only available for United States residents. Scroll below the recipe to enter the giveaway and be sure to check out the other very cool participants’ websites for some fantastic recipes!

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Here are my really cool friends with links to their websites!

Win $500 Worth of Delicious HelloFresh Meals!

Giveaway Courtesy of HelloFresh and Arousing Appetites

Homemade Pistachio Pudding

March 10, 2016 by rachelle 30 Comments

Homemade Pistachio Pudding

My ongoing St. Patrick’s Day birthday celebration continues. You may be seeing a theme here.

I’m keeping with my who knows how many week celebration of my St. Patrick’s Day birthday party and sharing things that make me happy and are totally my jam.

Come on ride this train.

Enter the pistachio. One of my one and only true loves.

Yes. I have more than one. Don’t judge me.

Now, I know some of y’all may not think that pistachio pudding is the sexiest dish on the planet. But, dude, really? Pistachio!!!!!

I’m also continuing with my theme of my St. Patrick’s Day birthday other theme of ungreen green things. And here we are.

Like Annie pointed out in her comment on this post – pistachio pudding should not be green.

I couldn’t agree more. And the same goes for mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I’m just sayin’

Okay, okay, I admit that there is some tiny bit of green tint going on here in this pudding. Well, yeah! There are pistachios in there! But seriously, your pudding should not be something that looks like it came right out of Ghostbusters.

A tint of green if you smash or chop your pistachios is totally legit!

Either way, if you’re using this recipe you’ll be making a paste which is going to make your pudding DELICIOUS!

Sorry. Totally not trying to yell. Pistachios just get me all kinds of excited. And don’t even get me started on pudding.

I’m a huge lover of the stuff and have shared a few of my faves Homemade Butterscotch Pudding and White Chocolate Pudding.

This pistachio pudding is delicious on its own, but I’ve also used it several times in other No-churn Spumoni and Spumoni Cheesecake recipes. Check back next week to see what St. Patrick’s Day and birthday excitement we have going on!

Cheers and have a fantastic weekend, y’all! XO

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Adapted (very slightly) from Joy The Baker

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

March 12, 2015 by rachelle 14 Comments

Yeah. I did it again. I just can’t help myself when it comes to double chocolate stout.

But you can’t say I didn’t warn you the other day with the Double Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake!

So when I was perusing Jennifer’s copy of Food & Wine I became inspired at the mention of Irish Stew. I haven’t made Irish Stew in quite some time and right now it seems we are all about everything Irish for my ~~upcoming birthday holiday~~ upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

This Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew was inspired by and similar to the Irish Stew in the magazine and based in part on the way I make beef stew and pot roast.

Not only is is made with beer, but for the most part it is done all in one pot. I say for the most part because if you don’t get distracted about going ~~day drinking~~ for a pedicure with Lisa and , you would remember to add flour when you put the meat back into the pot after deglazing. But if you forget, no worries! Just remove some of the broth to a saucepan, put it over some heat, and mix you up a slurry to thicken it up. Serve it up with some crusty bread or biscuits and you are good to go!

See this guy? We had it with him. It is a caramelized onion and gruyere biscuit posted in the recent past at Smitten Kitchen. I highly recommend it.

Inspired by Food & Wine

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

Ingredients

3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds lamb shoulder cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups double chocolate stout I used Young's
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
2-3 small turnips peeled and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
1/2 pound carrots peeled and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
12 or so fingerling potatoes
6 cups beef stock
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs thyme
salt and pepper
1/3 cup milk
3 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown lamb in batches careful not to over crowd the pan or they will steam and not brown. Reserve the meat in a bowl until all is browned. 6-7 minutes per batch (I also browned the pieces of meat with the bones)
Pour the beer into the pot, cook for a few minutes scraping up all the brown pieces
Add the lamb with any liquid in the bowl, onions, garlic, stock, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, cover and cook in the oven 2 1/2 - 3 hours.
Add the carrots, turnips, and potatoes and cook until tender, about another 45 minutes to 1 hour
Remove pot from oven, take out the bay leaves, and transfer a few cups of the liquid from the pot to a saucepan over medium-high heat
Mix together milk and corn starch and add to the hot liquid in a slow stream,stirring until thickened. Transfer back into the pot with the stew, stirring it in slowly until combined
Serve hot with crusty bread or biscuits

st. patricks day

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

Ingredients

Instructions

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