RECIPE - Barley Beef Stew

Now and then I get an urge to use pearl barley - maybe in a lamb and vegetable stew, a hearty soup or a barley "risotto" (have you tried that? it's delicious with richly flavoured poultry like guinea fowl). And then the pack gets pushed to the back of the cupboard, only to either break open and spill all over everything or lurk until it's so far past it's use by date that it would need to cook for months to be soft enough to eat.

Luckily I rediscovered my latest pack just a couple of weeks before it was due to go out of date, so I decided to try something different with it. Further rummaging brought out the tail ends of a jar of redcurrant jelly and one of Dijon mustard.

I also had some  home made chicken stock in the fridge (but if you are using bought stock, use beef stock!) and the remains of a bag of parsley.

Barley Beef Stew - serves 2

350g diced stewing beef
300ml stock
1 level tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fat for browning - I used lard but oil or butter would work just as well
1 rounded tablespoon pearl barley
1 level tablespoon plain flour
1 level tablespoon redcurrant jelly
dash of gravy browning (optional)
seasoning
chopped parsley to finish

Set the oven to 150C (130 fan) 300F gas mark 2
Place the beef in a bowl and stir in the mustard to coat evenly.

Heat the fat in a flameproof casserole and tip in the onions and meat - unlike a normal stew, you can tip all the meat in at once: although some of the juices will run out to form the gravy, the mustard will help to hold in the flavour. Toss together over heat until the onions have softened slightly and the meat has changed colour - it won't go a dark brown as it would for a traditional casserole, you just don't want any red showing.

Remove from the heat and dust in the flour, mixing well, then stir in the stock. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then add the pearl barley and redcurrant jelly, mix well and taste for seasoning. If it looks a little pale because of the unusual way of starting the beef off (and, in my case, because of the stock being chicken rather than beef), a few drops of gravy browning will sort that out.

Cover and place in the oven for around 2 hours, until the beef is tender and the barley almost falling-apart tender - it makes the gravy rich and unctuous and the pieces of barley give a lovely nutty bite to it.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with mashed potatoes to soak up the lovely juices and a leafy green vegetable like sprouts or cabbage.

I am sharing this with Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews

Glasgow Roses

The other day I saw some lovely Charles Rennie Mackintosh style illustrations and it made me realise it is FAR too long since I played with any of my Glasgow Rose stamps, so I decided to put that right.

The ovals and squares are die cut, the corners fussy cut, and I've used Promarkers for all of the colouring.

I an sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make Your Mark

In the spotlight

For this card I used some of the stamps that came with a recent issue of Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine. First I made the spotlight - I used the waste card from die cutting a circle, cut it in half then stuck the two halves together to form a "pointy oval" shape wide enough for the woman to stand in, then I used this as a mask to sponge on yellow ink.

I removed the mask and then masked off diagonal lines from the points of the shape to the edge of the card, and sponged in the same yellow ink but much more lightly.

After removing all masks I stamped the woman and stars then used a little of the same blue ink and a coarse sponge to very lightly sponge in a few speckles of blue around her legs to create an impression of movement.

Finally the sentiment - it is a Dylusions on the that reads "Be bold or italic, never regular" but I masked off the rest of the words while inking the stamp, then removed the mask and simply stamped "Be Bold" - after all, it takes a lot of boldness to step up there into the spotlight!

I am sharing this with

AAA Cards - One layer (couldn't work the optional twist of Love into this one!)


Less is More - Navy and Yellow


A Place to start (a new-to-me challenge) - Use an inspirational die or stamp

Sisterhood of Snarky stampers challenge #128

It's taken Edna AGES to make up her mind what our challenge was to be thins time at the Sisterhood of  Snarky Stampers. She was all of a dither about whether it should be Kool Aid or Kitties! Thankfully she has come down in favour of Kitties..... LOTS of Kitties!

Now, while I was waiting for her to get her knickers out of a twist, I had a new stamp I wanted to play with so I went ahead and made a kitty card - but used Kool Aid colours. So whatever she chose, I could use my card.
I'd fallen in love with this gorgeous stamp from AALL & Create as soon as I saw it, some months ago, and just had to have it - but it's the first time it's seen ink.

I stamped it on six different acid tones of paper and again on white, then cut out progressively smaller layers from the coloured images and layered them up, to give an illusion of perspective to the stack. I coloured the kitties very sparingly before piecing them over their coloured counterparts.

The sentiment is stamped using the same stamp set.  Once the card was finished I blinged up the parcels with a dash of Stickles.

Why not pop over and share your kitty creations - the snarkier the better - with us at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers? You could be our next Queen or Princess of Snark.

I am sharing this with
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - challenge 23

In the kitchen

This week's challenge at Use Your Stuff is In The Kitchen  and it's given me the impetus to dig into my stash and use some very VERY old stuff.

The brown vinyl peel offs (they really are a rich chocolate brown and not black as they appear in the photo)  came from a goody bag I bought from QVC about 15 years ago. The papers, including the one I cut out the little baking girl image from, were free with a magazine - I see the date on the pad cover is 2012. And the tag is from a bundle of vintage style tags that have been in my stash for so long I can't remember how they got there.

So thank you, UYS, this week you've got me to dig out lots of long-neglected stash to play with!

Butterflies among flowers

Yesterday I posted a card made with a new set of stamps from Hot Off The Press, and here is another card made with the same set of stamps.

I stamped butterflies and roses randomly over the background, then stamped, coloured and fussy cut the image. It's one of the mysteries of photography that the "bright blue" of the watering can and flowers is actually a deep aqua, very close in colour to the butterflies in the background!

I am sharing this with

Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine Anything Goes


The Flower Challenge - Use your latest stamps or dies

Black and gold

I've been having a play with a new (to me, I don't think it's a new release) Hot Off The Press stamp set and here is one of two cards I've made using it.

I stamped the rose label and banner using gold Delicata ink then added the sentiments in black. The background of black card foiled with gold hearts is from the Dovecraft Folkland collection.

I am sharing this with Fab'n'Funky - Hearts and Flowers