My husband and I gave up beef for Lent, which is why one of our planned dishes for Easter Sunday, just a few days away, is this mouthwatering, toothsome, stick-to-your-ribs beef stew, which we’ve happily dubbed “Easter Stew” in anticipation of the eating of it.

Beef stew is one of those things that, if you spend a lot of time cooking, is something you develop over the years. I’ve had all kinds of beef stew, from thick “Irish” ones made with Guinness, to Spanish style ones with a generous amount of chorizos and olives.

But while we love beef stews of all kind, it’s this one that gets the top honor of being our “celebratory” dish, to be enjoyed at the culmination of a season of staying away from meat and alcohol.

And, believe me, we will enjoy this.

Easter Beef Stew

3 lbs. beef shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
8-9 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 large carrots, in 1/4-inch slices
1 whole garlic head, crushed
5 shallots, peeled
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 dried bay leaves (if you have fresh, by all means use it!)
1 bottle dry red wine (your favorite. Do not use bad wine)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons butter
kosher salt and pepper, to taste
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1/2 lb frozen green peas
1 lb white mushrooms, halved
1 lb potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2-inch pieces
pinch sugar

First, marinate the beef. Place it in a large container, add 6 sprigs of thyme, carrots, garlic, shallots, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves, and wine. Mix well, coating beef well, cover and refrigerate for 4-5 hours.

When you’re ready to start cooking, remove beef from marinade, and blot dry. KEEP this marinade… you’ll be using it later.

Heat evoo and butter and 2 sprigs thyme in a heavy-bottomed pan on HIGH heat. Remove thyme after a few seconds, and add the beef. You want to brown it evenly on all its sides. Season with kosher salt and black pepper. Add the marinade back to the beef, and stir well. Then add beef stock, bring to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, until it starts to thicken (15 – 20 minutes). Now, cover, put heat on LOW, and cook for 2 more hours.

After 2 hours, add potatoes, peas and mushrooms and pinch of sugar. Bring back to a slight simmer, and cook uncovered for 30 minutes more, or until vegetables and meat are tender. Season again.

Not too hard, was it? Believe me, this is the BEST beef stew ever… and will guarantee you a very Happy Easter!

Easter has always been a big deal in my family- but, while I did enjoy the Egg Hunt as a child, I never found the “Golden Egg”, the special hidden egg that meant you won first place in the contest. I’ve just never been good at rushing around, searching under tables and chairs or behind curtains.

Now that I’m all grown up, though, I can actually make my own Golden Eggs for Easter. Give me a dozen eggs, some chocolate filling, and some food-safe gold powder (from my friendly bakery store), and I’m good to go. Here’s how:

Golden Easter Eggs
(makes a dozen)

1 dozen large eggs
18 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp gold powder
1 tsp vodka, plus drops as needed

First, clear out the eggs: wash each egg in warm water and dry thoroughly. Insert a sterilized needle into the small end of the egg to make a small hole. Do the same with the large end using a skewer to make a 1/4-inch hole. Insert the needle into the large end and break the yolk. Remove the contents of the egg by blowing into the small hole through a straw.

Now, make the chocolate filling: Melt the chocolate using a double boiler over a water bath or in a microwave according to directions on the package.

Pour the melted chocolate filling into a pastry piping bag fitted with a small round tip and fill the prepared egg shell through the large hole. Return the filled eggs to the egg carton.

Place the gold powder in a medium stainless steel bowl and add the vodka. Stir until completely blended. You can adjust the thickness of the mixture by adding tequila a drop at a time until you obtain the desired thickness – the mixture should be thin enough to easily spread. Use an artist brush to paint the egg shells gold. Put the carton of painted eggs into a freezer for 7 – 10 minutes to firm the chocolate and set the paint.

With Superbowl Sunday coming up, it’s the perfect time to show you one of my favorite recipes. This is the one I pull out when my husband’s friends are coming over. Because they’re chicken wings, they’re tasty tasty tasty- and because they’re baked, not fried, you don’t have to feel so bad about polishing off so many of them.

You’ll want to serve these with a bowl or two of some good blue cheese or ranch dressing- preferably homemade, but the stuff from the bottle is just fine. I’ve served these with fat-free ranch dressing, and no one was the wiser. Including the husband, who is decidedly anti-anything fat-free.

For these, I use our homemade hot sauce, but feel free to use Frank’s Red Hot or something similar. Like Sriracha. These are awesome with Sriracha.

Baked Wings

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
chicken wings- around 2 dozen
1/2 cup melted salted butter
hot sauce (1/2 cup if using something like Frank’s Red Hot, or around 5 tablespoons Sriracha or Tabasco)

Line a cookie sheet with foil, and spray with some Pam or Crisco spray. In a large freezer bag, combine flour, cayenne, garlic powder and salt. Mix well. Add the chicken wings, which you’ve patted dry, seal, and shake until well coated.

Transfer wings to foil-lined sheet, and (this is important!) refrigerate at least an hour.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400F. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce.

One by one, dip the wings into the butter/hot sauce mixture, and return to the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 20 minutes, turn over and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes.

It’s two days before Christmas Eve. Are you ready for Santa?

Nobody’s really sure when or where the tradition of leaving a plate of cookies and glass of milk out for Santa came from, but it’s done around the world- cookies and milk in the U.S. and Canada, of course, but sometimes other types of food in different countries: mince pies and a glass of sherry in Britain and Australia, chocolate brownies in Sweden, and in Ireland? Guinness, naturally.

Because we’ve got a freezer full of ready-to-be-baked cookie dough, and we never run out of milk, we’re pretty much set for Christmas Eve. If you aren’t, here are links to some of our most popular cookie recipes- guaranteed to get you on Santa’s “nice” list!

• Sugar Cookie Recipe which I shared with you last Halloween. Delicious and perfect for Christmas cookie decorating.
• Favorite Cookie Recipes that go awesomely with milk.

Okay, so I didn’t really need a fortune cookie to tell me that my Christmas would be a busy one- last year, I felt like I couldn’t stop to breathe for the whole of December.

This year, I’m doing things differently. This year, I’m preparing for Christmas. Here’s how: I’m using my freezer.

A few weeks ago, my freezer just upped and died. We had it repaired, and now it’s running like (almost) new- something I’m extremely grateful for, because it’s not even December yet, and I’ve already packed the following in my deep freeze:

• Two rolls of Sugar Cookie Dough.
• Four sets of Homemade Pie Crust.
• A gallon-sized freezer bag filled with about two dozen frozen Chocolate Chip Cookie balls.

… all of which, of course, will make my December so much better. Consider: my husband, friendly guy that he is, invites a bunch of people over “for coffee”. In about fifteen minutes, I can serve them their coffee with freshly baked Sugar Cookies or, better yet, Chocolate Chip Cookies hot from the oven. Or I could suddenly have a hankering for rockin’ Apple Pie. Since I already have the crust chilling in the freezer, all I need to make is my recipe for Rockin’ Apple Pie Filling.

While it’s not yet December, start planning ahead. Use your freezer. You’ll be glad you did.