I haven’t decided yet if it should be crockpot or crock pot.  I’ve seen both spellings in different online dictionaries, but my spellchecker doesn’t like crockpot, so I think I’ll go with crock pot, what do you think?  Anyway, this crock pot stew recipe is so simple to make and pretty tasty.  It’s a Greek stew that uses the chopped butternut squash from Wednesday’s tutorial.  My favorite part of the recipe was left out of the photo above, and it’s the feta sprinkled over the top at the end.  Whoops! Read more

Prunes have gotten a bit of a bad rap.  They tend to be associated with old people and remedies for intestinal problems.  But really they’re quite delicious and deserve some respect.  Maybe that’s why they’re being called “dried plums” now.  The first time I heard that I was like, “Wait, isn’t that a prune?”.  Personally, I’ve always liked prunes.  My poor brother had lots of health issues, so had to eat some everyday as a child.  I loved it because there was always a bag of prunes in the cupboard for me to snack on. Read more

Beef Aju Sandwich made from a beef bottom roast in the crockpot with an autumn harvest salad

We got beef!  The farmers we do our CSA with also raise cattle, and we bought 1/4 of a cow from them.  You should have seen me skipping around the butcher’s building as we went to pick up our two coolers full of meat.  Buying your beef locally and in bulk is a HUGE money saver.  You might have to do some hunting for a ranch, farmers aren’t necessarily going to be on the internet, but trust me it’s worth it.  We get ground beef, steaks, roasts, soup bones and ribs for less than $3 a pound!  Because we don’t have a deep freezer (although I’d totally stuff one in our apartment if I could), we split the beef with my parents.  This  meant we only spent around $130 and have enough beef to last us 8 months or more.  The first thing I made with our new beef was Beef Aju Sandwiches.

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We have been getting the cutest little eggplants from our CSA lately, and fortunately, there are a lot of great ways to cook eggplant.  I made this recipe up a few weeks ago when we had some thawed ground beef from a local farm to use up, as well as some zucchini that I didn’t want to go bad.  Eric was really nervous as he watched me chopping the zucchini and eggplant up, but as they roasted in the oven and I started cooking the meat with onions and garlic, his mouth began to water from the aromas wafting out of the kitchen.

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I know, I’ve shared zucchini fritters or pancakes on more than one occasion.  But this time I made it all with fresh ingredients and the taste is even better!  In the past I’ve made them with dried parsley and dill, which is still good, but the fresh herbs just take these to the next level.

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