Tag: Farm Life

Instapot Peasant Stew

Last Sunday, I was hungry for Boeuf Bourguignon.

What is this fancy French sounding dish? It is a beef stew in red wine made somewhat famous by Julia Child. The stew is simmered for 3-4 hours in the oven, developing deep rich flavor.

Before I go further, I must make a disclaimer. For those of you following our adventures at Five Feline Farm, you know we have significantly reduced our consumption of red meat. However, when we do choose to eat beef, we go all out on something high quality, delicious and special.

Back to the Boeuf Bourguignon.

It was already 4:30 PM and not wanting to wait until 8:00PM to eat, there were two choices: make something different or find a short cut.

I made up an Instapot shortcut.

Since I wasn’t following a recipe, I also decided call my version Peasant Stew.

Peasant Stew

1 pound beef, cut into 1 inch cubes (use any cut that has some fat marbled throughout, I happened to have a couple of strip steaks in the freezer)

1 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 cups beef stock

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3 large carrots, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices

2 Tbsp flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound buttom mushrooms, quartered

6 Tbsp butter, divided

2 tsp neutral oil such as canola or grapeseed

Heat oil in Instapot using the brown/saute setting. Add beef in single layer and brown all sides. Work in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pot. Remove beef and set aside. Add onion and garlic, saute for 2 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to turn transluscent. Add flour, stirring for about 1 minute until browned. Add red wine and continue cooking for 3 minutes to release alcohol. Add tomato paste, carrots and browned beef to pot and then beef stock. Make sure the stock just covers the beef and carrots, using more or less than 2 cups as necessary. Add bay leaf.

Attach cover and set steam vent to closed. Use stew setting or manual with high pressure for 35 minutes.

While stew is cooking, melt 2 Tblsp butter in skillet and saute mushrooms until browned. Work in batches to avoid crowding if needed.

After pressure has released, remove and discard bay leaf. Remove beef and carrots, then set pot to brown/saute to boil broth. Once reduced by half, add remaining butter by tablespoons until sauce is silky. Stir in beef, carrots and mushrooms and stir to coat.

This is best served with a crusty bread and green salad.

Bon Appetit!

For more recipes like this, check out Simply Delicious, a memoir of cooking.

052-Seed Starting

It is mid-January as we recorded this and time to start the first seedlings for the garden. We discuss our process and plans for the upcoming season.

We get the majority of our seeds from Johnny’s and Baker’s Creek and recommend these sources for high quality seeds. Donna also describes saving seeds and how to determine when seeds from prior years are still viable.

And here’s the link to Gardener’s Supply.

Thanks for listening.

See ya.

How Do You Treat Your Skin?

You have probably heard that your skin is the largest organ in your body. It is responsible for protecting your delicate insides from the elements. That’s a big job. Taking good care of your skin can help protect the rest of you.

Did you know your skin is porous?

This means what you put on your skin can be absorbed into your body. In fact, there are several medicines that are topically applied. Everything from analgesics to birth control to nicotine to high end narcotics can be delivered to your system through a patch or a cream rubbed on your skin.

What about your lips?

Lips are skin too. Not only does the skin of your lips absorb what you put on them but you are likely licking your lips taking in whatever you have applied as a protectant.

So what is the point of all this?

Take a look at a tube of national brand lip balm. Do you see an ingredient list? No. If you want to know what you are smearing on your lips, you have to search the internet and even then, it is not easy to locate. When you do find the list, the first ingredient is petroleum. It then progresses through a number of ingredients or chemical compounds that are difficult to pronounce.

Our Answer.

Here at Five Feline Farm, we take a more simple approach in our lip balm known as BEEk Balm. We use beeswax for durability and protection, sweet almond oil for soothing and moisturizing, and Vitamin E oil for heathy skin support. Then we add pure honey or food grade essential oil for flavor.

That’s it. Four ingredients. Our list fits on the tiny label of a lip balm tube.

You can take this one small step to living a more pure life. Get yours here today.