A perfect recipe for a rainy Sunday

A soggy Sunday after an already saturated Saturday ... It's been raining for two days solidly. I'm unusually happy about this as I needed an excuse to hunker down indoors all weekend.  It's far too wet to get out in the garden even if I wanted to!  I've spent all day in the kitchen today (well apart from the hours I have spent on the sofa) and it's been wonderful.


A group of ladies at my work take turns each week to bring in baking to sell to our workmates to raise money for charity.  This week it is my turn so it was perfect timing for a rainy day.  I made giant choc chip cookies and apple turnovers, using apples from our tree of course! :)  These cookies are seriously amazing, soft and chewy just how they should be, I highly recommend the recipe (see below).  The apple turnovers aren't bad either!  I just remembered to take pics as I was packing them up ... must do a food photography course!! I really wish I could take a photo of how good they taste and how amazing my house smelled all day.

First batch of cookies and apple turnovers

I'd also been looking for an excuse to use the crockpot that a friend lent me and today was the day as I figured that cooking dinner would be the last thing I felt like doing after baking all day. Seeing as it was so grey and rainy it was a great weather match for a Irish Stew!  I just threw all the ingredients in to the crockpot at about 11am and turned the machine on and forgot about it for the rest of the day.

Best thing is that the recipe called for garlic, carrots, potatoes and celery, all of which I had in the pantry or fridge from the garden.  Being a slow cooker recipe, it didn't matter too much that I bought slightly cheaper meat than I would normally at the supermarket.  When it is in the pot for so long it comes out so falling apart that you almost don't want to waste a better cut of meat on this recipe.  It turned out great, at dinner time, husband made the mash and all I had to do was ladle on the stew.  Must have been good because there wasn't much dinner conversation apart from these little mmmMMmmms I kept hearing :)  I've put the recipe below ... I added in leeks, a slosh of red wine and a squirt of tomato paste too.  There was far too much of course so there is some in the freezer now that I might use as pie filling and half of the dinner on my plate here is in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, hooray!  There was loads of sauce, so smaller portions and the additions of some nice crusty bread would be a winner combo :)

Irish Stew - cosy Sunday evening meal

Again I wish I could take a photo that did the dish more justice, it tasted way better than it looks! We may have over-done it with the cosiness though seeing as it isn't that cold yet and we had the fire blazing, we had to open the window while we were eating :) It's a winner for winter proper though!

Slow-cooker Irish Stew

Serves at least 4 people with leftovers, serve with mash, good bread and some green veg. 

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon paprika

1 stalk celery, chopped 

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 

3 potatoes, diced  ( I would swap this for pumpkin or kumara if I cooked this again as I like to serve with mash)

1 onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups beef stock

4 carrots, sliced

(I also added a leek, red wine and tomato paste)

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery. ( I also added a slosh of red wine, a good squirt of tomato paste and some leeks).
2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours. Easy :)

Giant Choc Chip Cookies

2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips ( I used 1 cup dark and 1 cup milk choc chips)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. (I put my cookie dough mix in the fridge to chill and as I was cooking two batches I kept the mix in the fridge until ready to use, it stops the cookies from spreading out too far when cooking)
4. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.