• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cups water
• 16 ounces tomato sauce
• 28 oz canned plum tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Season ground beef with salt and pepper, add to pot and cook until brown.  Drain excess fat.

Add remaining ingredients to pot, stir and break up tomatoes using a wooden spoon.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until peppers are tender.  Serves 4.

Source: Taste of Home

This month's What's Baking is hosted by Angela from The Tiny Tyrant's Kitchen.  The theme she chose was Fall Flavors.  My inspiration for Fall Flavors was Thanksgiving.

Have you started thinking about Thanksgiving?  I have, mostly because I'm shocked I haven't received a call from my Dad to make plans.  Why am I shocked?  Because he usually call no less than 5 times to plan, what I don't know.  We eat the same.thing.every.year, and we each bring the same dishes too.  At any rate I'll report back to you how many phone calls occur to plan for Thanksgiving.

While this will not be served at our Thanksgiving, remember we don't vary, it does includes sweet potatoes, which we will eat.  This would be a great dessert to serve at your Thanksgiving or any Fall celebration.  Generally, I would consider this a dessert too, however, Sweet Potato Bread makes a great side for the Beef Bourguignon we ate early this week.

This wasn't my planned What's Baking post, but it served as a great alternate.  You see, my original post was supposed to be Herb and Apple Cranberry stuffing, and well, that post will have to wait for another time since the photo was ridiculously unrecognizable.  The only reason I'm mentioning this is in case you're looking for a great Thanksgiving stuffing.  My photo was horrid, but the stuffing itself was very bright and flavorful!  I'm not a stuffing lover, I actually skip in on Thanksgiving (so I can eat more pie), but I would make, and eat, this stuffing again. 

Here is what you'll need for the Sweet Potato Bread:

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar (omitted, I did not have any)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and powder, and salt.

In a separate large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sweet potatoes, oil and water.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined, do not overmix.

Spoon mixture into loaf pan.  Top with vanilla sugar.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.  Serves 12.

Source: Penzeys Spices November 2011 Catalog, pg 53

I was a little apprehensive when I got half way cooking and opened the bottle of red wine.  This was a bottle that was gifted to me, and I had no idea what varietal it was since the label is in Russian.  It smelled and tasted a bit sweet, which made me panic, but not for long because I began pouring it in and hoped for the best.  Then I drank a glass of wine.

The good news is, it worked!  Or maybe I just assume it worked because I don't know how the stew is supposed to taste!?  Anyhow, JR commented that it was really good so I'll take that as another sign it worked.

If you've been putting off making this because it seems a little intimidating or time consuming, put those thoughts out of your mind and go ahead and try it.  My only advice would be to save it for a weekend when you have more time.  And be sure to head over to A Taste of Home Cooking for the Recipe Swap Round-up of Soups.

Here is what you'll need:

• 6 slices thick bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces 
• 2 lbs beef cubes/stew meat, cut into 1 inch chunks
• salt and pepper
• 4 carrots, peeled and coined
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
• 1/2 bottle red wine
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 tsp thyme
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 6-8 pearl onions
• 8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour 

Preheat oven to 250F.

In a Dutch oven preheated over medium-high heat, add bacon and cook until browned.  Remove from pot and set aside.

Season beef and add a portion to the bacon fat.  Sear meat on all sides, then remove from pot and set aside.  Repeat in batches with remaining meat.

Add carrots and onions to the pot, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.  Add garlic to vegetables, stir and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

Add beef, bacon, wine, tomato paste, beef broth and thyme to the pot.  Stir and bring to a simmer.  Cover pot and place it on the middle rack in the oven.  Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

15 minutes before the pot is ready to come out of the oven, heat butter in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add onions and mushrooms and cook until tender, 10-15 minutes.

Remove pot from oven and place on the stove over medium heat.  Add onion and mushrooms to pot and bring to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine flour with a large scoop of liquid from the stew.  Whisk until thickened and well combined.  Add another scoop of liquid to the bowl and whisk until smooth.  Add to the pot of stew and stir until well combined.  Allow the stew to cook another 10-15 minutes until thickened.  Serves 6.

Source: Ina Garten as seen on The Cookaholic Wife

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 large eggs, lightly beaten

• 1 large egg  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400F, and make sure rack is in the middle.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar and salt.  Set aside.   

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add butter and water.  Bring to a boil.  Remove pan from heat and add dry ingredients.  Using a wooden spoon, stir quickly until dough forms a ball.

Place dough in stand mixer and beat on low until it cools to warm (I watched for the steam to dissappear).  Add 1 egg and continue to mix until combined.  The dough will now be sticky.

Using 2 spoons, scoop out dough and drop 6 mounds onto the baking sheet leaving plenty of space between each one.  

In a small bowl, beat remaining egg and salt until combined.  Using a pastry brush, brush egg mixture over each scoop of dough.  

Place baking sheet in oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 30-40 minutes (I took mine out at 35 minutes) or until golden brown on the outside and dry inside when split in half.  Turn the oven off, prop the door open and leave tray in oven another 10-15 minutes (I completely skipped this step because I didn't read all the way through, and they were fine!).

Remove from oven and finish cooling on a rack.  Serves 6.

Source: Joy of Baking 

A cooking message board that I participate in does a recipe swap every few weeks.  The theme this round is Pumpkin / Apple.  I decided to join the swap this round to expand my horizons a bit and hopefully challenge myself by exposing myself to recipes I may not normally make due to my preference or skill level.

I'm actually a bit embarrassed, because when I received my swap recipe from Coleen I didn't know exactly what a profiterole was.  I knew it was a dessert, but I had no clue what it really was.  That was until I did a quick Google search, and then I got really excited because of course I've seen these before and drooled over them in the baker's case!

I have no idea where to purchase the pastry shells, so I decided to go ahead and make them myself.  Of course when I saw this Joy of Baking recipe, I knew I'd have to include the chocolate ganache too.  Seriously, I couldn't wait to take a bite of the finished product.

While this recipe looks like a lot of work, it's fairly uncomplicated and I'm so glad that I made the pastry vs. trying to hunt it down.  I should point out that there is quite a bit of inactive cooking time for the components, so be sure you give yourself enough time if you plan to make these.

One last note, I didn't realize that I was out of brown sugar, so I went ahead and substituted Splenda Brown Sugar Blend and it seemed to work out fine.  These tasted very decadent, and were so good I ate one for breakfast! :)  Enjoy!

Be sure to head over to A Taste of Home Cooking for the Apple / Pumpkin Roundup.

Here is what you'll need:

For the Ganache:

• 2 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 tsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract 

• 6 choux pastry shells

Sources: Does Not Cook Well With Others (filling) and Joy of Baking (pastry and ganache)

Generally, I make stew in the crockpot.  However, recently I've heard a lot of debate about the crockpot leaving food tasteless.  So I decided to test it out for myself by making this in a Dutch oven.  I'm here to report that this stew was WAY better made on the stovetop, and my husband agreed (he said this was a 10!).  Not only was the flavor sharp, the vegetables were tender, but still intact with nice texture.  

This stew was a great end to a busy, cool weekend.  We paired it with croissants, and an MLB playoff game.  We are both excited that there was plenty leftover for lunch during the week. 

Here is what you'll need:

• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/4 b beef stew meat cut into 1 in. chunks
• 1/4 cup flour
• salt and pepper
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1/2 leek, diced
• 1 small stack celery, sliced
• 2 small carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 small parsnip, peeled and sliced
• 1 small purple top turnip, peeled and diced
• 4 red potatoes, diced 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cup beef broth
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 28 oz. canned plum tomatoes, including juice
• 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  In a small bowl combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Add 1/2 stew meat to the bowl, coating the meat with flour.  Add to Dutch oven, cook until browned on all sides, stirring with a wooden spoon as needed.  Remove meat to a plate and set aside.  Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to Dutch oven, repeat coating and cooking remaining meat.  Remove meat and set aside.

Add remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil to Dutch oven.  Add onion, leek and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly browned.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add carrots, parsnip, turnip, potatoes and garlic, stir and cook until garlic is fragrant.

Add beef broth, bouillon, tomatoes and spices. Stir, break up tomatoes with the spoon and scrape bottom of Dutch oven to release the brown bits.  Add beef, stir, and cover.  Reduce temp to low and cook 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender and sauce has thickened.  Serves 6.

Source: Adventures in My Kitchen

How is it that today is the last day of September?  This year is just flying by and it's making me a little sad.  Sad because that means my nephew's next birthday is just around the corner.  I know I should be happy, but he is growing up too quickly!  It's been amazing to watch him grow, and I so look forward to each time I see him.

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon