being fancy for once

slushy alert

I threw a wee romantic evening for Josh. 

And you can do thiiisss toooo! (wooo noises)

Unfortunately, as I was having so much fun/cider I forgot to take photos of my main which was Beef in Beer stew with dumplings. I know its not the most romantic meal (ha ha) but we like hearty food and I have never had dumplings before and I am going to be honest I don't think I will again, they are a bit like eating sour dough. My starter was pinched from my date on valentines day with my two lovely friends! Camembert infused with rosemary and garlic with ciabatta and herbed balsamic oil. Fancy eh?

Oh yeah. Thats beer.

Desert was meant to be creme brulee but we were so STUFFED that I left it for todaaay! Horraaay!

So in the spirit of blogging, this is how to make this meal and I have highlighted all the ingredients instead of making a list, because thats how I roll: 

Starter

Creamy Camembert and ciabatta

very easy peasy

Run to your kitchen like an eager beaver and whack on that oven to a nice 180 degrees, mmm toasty

Get your fancy pants Camembert and make sure all the fiddly plastic is off (like dur?) but then put it back in the wooden box/home. Make a few marks in the Camembert with a knife and sprinkle on some rosemary or thyme, both work really nicely.

Get your ciabatta and slice it into nice toasty chunks and cover in olive oil and chopped garlic and I love putting fennel seeds all over them too... get your hands in their and mix it all up like a PRO.

 Then pop both of them in the oven for about 10 minutes

 Main

Scrummy Beef in beer with Dumplings

This is a whack it in a pot recipe

Keep the oven on the 180 degree setting

Go grab a handful of carrots and a couple of onions that look fit and healthy and start slicing and peeling and crying (because of the onions, not because your cutting vegetables, unless that's something that makes you sad... then feel free to have a funeral afterwards.)

Get a pan on hob and heat to a very medium-in-the-middle-setting and plop some oil into the bottom. Throw in the onions and carrots and cook for about five minutes, stirring and singing whilst you go.

Grab your diced beef (by the way we tried this with mutton too - cause its cheaper - and it works well too) and lightly cover the diced beef with flour and a pinch of salt. (You can add bacon too, without the flour on it!) Then pop this in the pan too with the vegetables until a wee bit browned and they have all got acquainted.

After another 5-10 minutes you should pour all these ingredients in a casserole dish and pour a normal-sized bottle of stout/beer over the contents until all the ingredients are covered. Add half a beef stock cube, 2 spoons of brown sugar and a very generous sprinkle of thyme  to the dish too and mixy mixy.

You can now put this all in the oven and relax/watch tv/look at your pet fish/if we are being honest... go on facebook for a whole hour

After 30 minutes its time to add the dumplings, but because I didn't like them, I will happily say: don't follow this instructions and in fact pop some baked potatoes in the oven now instead. But if you do like dumplings: Buy suet and mix with flour, parsley and water until doughyyyy and pop nice little round balls of dumplings straight in the casserole dish with the stew.

After another 30 minutes... your DONE and you can marvel at your finished masterpiece and fill your belly

Pudding

I will post this tomorrow :)