Local Summer Veggies and Local Merlot Simmered Beef

Ah yes who doesnt LOVE summer goodies! I have been cooking up a storm lately and my boys couldnt be happier!

The beef i used here is from my local butchers shop and it was lovely and tender!

The veggies are from our local farmers market! Fresh patty pan squash, green beans and red skin new potatoes!

Nothing fancy when it came to these veggies i steamed them in my double boiler pots i checked how tender each lot of veggies were and when almost done i removed them and placed them in a dish where they continued to finish cooking while the other veggies steamed.

The simple sauce i made was just melted homemade butter and a couple of tablespoonfuls of sweet soy sauce mixed toegether right before serving i drizzeled it over the steamed veggies! It was a delish way to get my boys to eat these veggies!

The beef was cooked with home grown onions from my adopted americans mothers garden and before i go on i must add that boy were they hot! The minute i cut the top off the onion my eyes watered straight away! Anyway i used 2 small brown onins sliced them up threw in 4 cloves of home grown garlic i used a tablespoon of homemade butter to saute the onion and garlic in. Once they had cooked down i added the beef chunks and browned them. After that i added half a cup of homemade chicken stock to the pan placed the lid of and let it simmer for about 15mins, after that i added about half a cup of locally made merlot to the meat added a pinch of sea salt about 1 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper and 1/2 a teaspoon of celery salt i placed the lid on the pan and let it simmer for about half an hour. This was extremely tasty!

SourDough Muffins! YUM!

Sorry for my MIA i have been busy cooking and trying new recipes and spending time with my boys :)

Ok so this is not a new recipe per say but i never make these babies the same way!

So i have a jar that lives in my fridge and every few days i bring said jar out and let it get to room temp then i feed it :) and that jar sits on my counter top with cheese cloth over it so it can grow! What am i talking about? I am talking about SourDough Starter! So the day i came about this recipe i was looking at my 2 full jars of sourdough starter that i NEEDED to do something with! So i began searching what i could do with this stuff (other then crackers, pancakes and breads) and i came across a recipe for Strawberry SourDough Muffins, i cant not find exactly where i found the recipe but i really was NOT impressed with it..... It required WAY to much sugar, baking soda, eggs and salt!

So after looking threw my other muffin recipes i came up with this extremely easy and totally tasty recipe!

Now i will warn you all these can be VERY addicting! One will NOT be enough!

Pictured here in the post are 5 different varieties of this muffin recipe!

1. Strawberry, Black Berry and Dark Chocolate Chip

2. Strawberry, Mulberry, Blackberry and Black Raspberry

3. Vanilla and Mango

4. Black Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Chip

5. Mango and Strawberry

Play with this recipe i encourage it! I am starting to play with savory flavors! These make great GREAT quick grab breakfasts or lovely afternoon snacks for the kiddies!

Now for the Recipe!

SourDough Strawberry Muffins

1 cup of sourdough starter

2 cups of flour (white/wheat)

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup of sucanat

1 egg

3/4 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of milk

1 + 1/2 Tbsp of Vanilla extract

1 + 1/2 cup of diced strawberries(or any other fruit)

Preheat over at 375 degrees. Mix everything but the diced strawberries in a large mixing bowl until combined. Then fold in the strawberries. Pour into greased muffin tins. Bake 35mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in tins for a couple of muffins b4 removing and placing on a wire rack took cool completely! Makes 24 small muffins.

You can add many different fruits as i have already mention to this batter! They are divine! Cream cheese is also lovely smeared on them! Enjoy!

Homemade Granola Bars

Ok so today my son had a mate over and it was last minute so i wanted them to have something healthy to snack on! Being that i didnt want to make and bake cookies....as i was already going to be making bread i decided granola bars it is! Now lets just say i have NEVER made granola bars before but i knew pretty much what they were made up with in my mind? That make sense to you? It does to me lol... So headed to the cupboards and pantry and away i went! I came back with;

Oats

Sucanat

Honey

Wheat Germ

Flaxseed Meal

Crasins

Homemade Butter

Dark ChocChips

Vanilla Extract

Crushed Raw Almonds

Homemade Peanut Butter

And there you have it! Those are the ingredients to these DELISH granola bars! Now for the recipe!

~Kira's Homemade Granola Bars~

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 butter (melted)

1/2 of sucanat

1 1/2 cups of oats

1/4 cup of crasins

1/3 cup of wheat germ

1/2 cups of dark/milk chocolate chips

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup crush raw almonds

In a mixing bowl combine the sucanat, peanut butter, honey, melted butter and vanilla. Stir remainder of your ingredients into the wet mixture. Press the mixture into your baking dish that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray :) Bake these beauties in a preheated oven at 360'F for 15-20mins or until the edges are browned. When done you will want to let them cool completely on a wire rack, when cooled the them into bars.

Depending how chunky you want these babies depends on the size of the baking dish you use. As you can see i used a deeper dish so my first batch are thicker then i had expected! But this recipe would work well spread out very thinly and baked till crispy! When cooled break into pieces and serve in a bowl with cold milk for breakfast! This recipe will most definately make some chewy lace style cookies!

Next time i will add different nuts maybe pretzel bits and different dried fruits :)

~Day Dreaming~

So today was the most laid back day i have had in oh so long.... Im not complaining :) Anyway while i was standing in front of the mirror in our master bathroom after thinking about my laid back day i started to think about all the things i had hoped to get done to this house in the next couple of years, you know like the Bathroom Vanities in our bathroom and the bathroom down stairs. So after washing my face i went down and joined the boys on the couch to watch a movie but i had my laptop with me and i started browsing threw bathroom vanities on one of the CSN stores! I know.. i know... we wont get to do that with moving back to Australia and all but Hey a girl can dream! Anyway i came across some realllly nice ones! Like these just to show you a few!

I like this one alot, Im loving the glass in the doors!

Now this one i could totally see in the boys bathroom down stairs! It fits into the "spa'ish" theme i was going for when i first picked out the colour theme! Love the extra room below.

This is extremely fancy i know :) But can you just imagine what kind of house this sort of vanity belongs in?!? :)

This is simple and would work wonderfully in my small master bathroom! I am a huge fan of the darker woods! And simplicity!

This is different i love the bowl its stunning!

I wish i had a master bathroom big enough for something like this! Although i know hubby would hate it cuz i would have all sorts of things all over the vanity top.... im bad about that LOL!

~Lamb Chop Rub and Tasty Cous Cous~

This is an extremely tasty meal! Like usual no idea what i was cooking for dinner..like most nights and this is what i came up with!

Now i dont know how many of you are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's near you, technically we dont have one THAT close but its close enough (plus we like that its just down the road from another grocery store i LOVE Whole Foods Market) :) and it seems we try and make a trip up to Ann Arbor atleast once a month to stock up on bulk whole foods and other organic goodies! One of my fav things to buy is this;

MMM definately one of my fav things to fix lately because it can be dressed up or dressed down!

~Lamb Chop Rub~

(this rub is enough for 6 large chops!)

2 Tbsp of onion powder

2 Tbsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of sea salt

2 tsp of freshly ground pepper

1 tsp of spicey hot chilli powder

1/2 of ginger powder

1 Tbsp of brown sugar

Mix all the ingredients into a jar/bowl and mix, take your chops of choice :) drizzle one side of the chop and sprinkle the rub over top do this on both sides and place into an extremely hot pan to seal in the juices! Depending on how rare or well done you like your meat depends on cooking time!

This rub is a little sweet and some what spicey :) just the way we like it in our family!

~Tasty Cous cous~

2 cups of dryed cous cous

1 Tbsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of rosemary

1 Tbsp of dried chives

1/2 tsp of sea salt

1 c of raw peas

1 1/2 c of chicken stock

1/2 c of heavy whipping cream

fresh thin slices of parm cheese to garnish!

In a large sauce pan, combine the chicken stock peas, garlic, rosemary and salt. Bring to a boil, turn to low allow peas to cook and become tender, also add the cream at this point. once peas have become tender remove from heat pour your 2 cups of cous cous in slowly stirring threw the liquid. Once stirred throughly place a lid onto and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Remove lid after said amount of time and fluff the cous cous with a fork and serve.

Place thin slices of parm cheese on top and serve! This is super simple and oh so tasty, cous cous in general is fun to play with when it comes to trying new things!