GCC: Menu 24 - Irish Stew and Ficelles

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This weeks Gutsy Cook Menu is a tribute to the upcoming Saint Patrick celebration. Chosen by Shandy of Pastry Heaven, it was the perfect Saturday night dinner.  The Florida weather even cooperated, since we were enjoying a nice sunny, COLD day.  Perfect for a stew, with a crusty homemade bread.  There was a third option of dessert – French Apple Tart, which I skipped.

I’m not a huge meat eater, in fact I really try not to eat meat at all, but lamb is just too good to pass up and this weeks stew called for lamb as the main protein ingredient. While it is a bit pricy, the fact that this was feeding only 3 of us, and one of those was a child, I got away with spending about $14 bucks for 1 pound.  And it was just the right amount and we still have some leftover for Tom to take to work on Monday.

As like any savory dish I try out of a cookbook, I tend to use it as a springboard for me to put my own twist on it.  And this one was no exception.  The instructions tells you to pretty much layer all of the ingredients in a heavy casserole, season and bake for one and half hours.

Raw.

I just could not bring myself to follow this. 

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Sweet Kitchen Tips 26

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As you may have notice, yeast has been making more and more of an appearance in the blog. I’m baking more breads and cakes that have this ingredient that can be a tad temperamental.  Here are a couple of tips that I learned along the way.  All of my tips are for active dry yeast.  I’m not so ready to venture into the other scary unknown called “fresh yeast” just yet.

Storing – once opened always store in a cool, dry place, preferably the refrigerator (a must for fresh yeast), but bring to room temperature before using.

Yeast needs both a warm environment and food to grow. The process is often called “proofing the yeast.” Yeast should be dissolved in warm water (100-110 degrees F), but not hot water or it will die. Sugar is usually added to “feed” and grow the yeast. You should see activity within 5 minutes, bubbling and expansion during yeast activation. If you see no activity, your yeast is too old, the water was too warm or too cold. Game over, and you need to start over.

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GCC: Menu 23 - English Muffins

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You know when you have every intention to do something.  You plan it, you set reminders for it, you HAVE THE TIME TO DO IT.

But, for some unknown reason, you just cannot, for the life of you, complete it.

Enter our choice last week of Gutsy Cooks Club.  English Muffins from scratch and then you take those muffins and make the ultimate dish that said muffins were made for.  Egg Benedicts.

As you can see, the English Muffins part got DONE.

The egg benedict part? NOT DONE.

Can I give myself a C+ for effort?

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