11 February 2024
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! In between all the commercials, entertainment, conspiracy theories, and expert analysis, they will actually play a football game which is secondary to everything else.
If you read between the above lines, you may be able to determine I feel pretty good this morning. Not good enough to chance a morning walk but good enough to get out of the house, pick up my insulin prescription and stop at Winn-Dixie on the way back to the house to round out my grocery order yesterday. I needed cantaloupe and a few other ingredients for tonights dinner.
I also decided to reward myself and bought a dozen Duncan Donuts. Yes, I know, my sugar levels…. However, I like to think I do everything in moderation. They freeze well and I can have one a day for 10 days (I inhaled two right off the bat). My preference is simple glazed, maple frosted and those dipped in chocolate. I couldn’t figure out what the guy was asking about the chocolate ones. When I got back to the house, I understood he was asking if I wanted sprinkles. I got sprinkles accidentally. All good.
I’ve gotten addicted to Whole Foods online recipe section. I scroll through that and see what looks good. If you click on an option, it provides you a list of ingredients. My choice was “Root Vegetable Stew with Beef and Barley.” Strangely, instead of stew meat, they provided ground beef. It also called for barley but neither Whole Foods nor Winn-Dixie had barley. I did find a package of precooked barley and lentils and substituted that. I also had to substitute a turnip for a rutabaga. I’ll put the recipe down below.
Just so you know, I’m getting old. One sign of aging in old folks when I was a kid was age spots. Well, I have a doozie.
I must be over a century at least! Actually, it’s due to the chemo I’m undergoing and is called thrombocytopenia or Purpura. It’s because I have low platelet levels and when I bump into something capillaries bleed into the surrounding area and my blood doesn’t clot like it should. I’ve got them all over my arms, particularly where I wear my watch which constantly pushes against my skin. Most of the spots I’ve forgotten what I bumped into.
I will watch some of the Super Bowl today. I generally can’t sit through the entirety of the broadcast but I can do short periods. It doesn’t really get too exciting until the end and even if something occurs when I’m not watching, it’ll be on replay for the next 25 years.
Here’s the recipe from Whole Foods. Stay tuned!
Root Vegetable Stew with Beef and Barley
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup all-purpose flour or oat flour
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
¾ pound lean beef round, cubed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 large stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
½ medium rutabaga, peeled and chopped 6 white button mushrooms, sliced
⅓ cup pearled barley
1 quart beef broth, divided
1 bay leaf
¼ cup chopped parsley for garnish
DIRECTIONS
- Step 1
In a medium bowl, combine flour with the salt and pepper. - Step 2
Toss cubed beef in flour mixture, coating all sides and reserving any leftover flour. - Step 3
In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. - Step 4
Brown beef on all sides and remove to a plate. - Step 5
Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. - Step 6
Stir in celery, onion, carrots, rutabaga and mushrooms, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot. - Step 7
Cook vegetables until softened, stirring, for 3 minutes. - Step 8
Add barley and continue to cook, stirring for an additional minute. - Step 9
In a seperate bowl, stir 1/4 cup beef broth into remaining flour until completely blended. - Step 10
Add this, along with remaining broth and beef cubes, into the pot. - Step 11
Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender and stew is thickened, about 1 hour. - Step 12
Remove and discard bay leaf. Garnish with parsley and serve.