gildeddawn's Profile

This is a good recipe I've made quite a few times.

French Farmer's Baked Beef and Barley
From The Old Farmer's Almanac Everyday Cookbook

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds stew beef
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cups beef stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 cup pearl barley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Trim all of the fat from the beef and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion. Add the beef cubes and brown them on all sides. Transfer the onion and beef to a 3-quart ungreased casserole and set aside. Combine the stock, herbs, and barley in the skillet and bring to a boil. Pour the stock mixture over the sautéed onion and beef, cover, and bake for 1 hour. Garnish with parsley and serve in shallow soup bowls with French bread.

I strongly agree with Michele Hays. The contest didn't offer any finalists that actually defended the morality of eating meat - it only featured those who made the best excuses for mitigating its perceived immorality.

None of them said that eating meat is not wrong, or that killing animals to eat them is not wrong. Some of us believe that. Eating other organisms is what organisms do. You can make a strong argument that factory farming is wrong, and that some methods of slaughter are wrong, but the act of eating meat itself? It's part of the natural behavior of humans, like sex or childbirth. If you don't want to participate, that's fine, but don't make it out to be a criminal act.

I appreciate the review, but I'm a little ambivalent about the title and concept. Does it really have to be for moms, rather than parents, or just busy people? It seems to reinforce sexist stereotypes. (I know. I'm a parade-rainer.)

Use it for the meat in a shepherd's pie (well, technically a cottage pie, since it's beef, but you know).

I have to say that I prefer to freeze scones after baking. I've found freezing the dough unbaked really kills the texture.

Krisinaks - It's pretty much like it looks - "rai" pronounced like "rye" and the ta as "tuh," emphasis on the first syllable.

I definitely use foil. It's about ten times cheaper than parchment. At least.

If you're making gravy, think about your thickener - if you use flour, your friend won't be able to eat it, but cornstarch is ok.

Why not do yogurt with lots of toppings, at least as part of it? You could get fresh fruit, nuts, honey, and jam and maybe make some homemade granola in advance, and then serve whole wheat muffins or something of that nature alongside. Savory options for toppings might be olives and tomatoes, too, which would be good if you started with plain yogurt.

I agree with alicelost - the number of ingredients that read "chopped," "diced," "minced," or "julienned," can be pretty important. Sometimes it's easy to underestimate the time involved with those. If they need to be cooked separately, things can get even more complex.