Tim's Post Takeover!!!!

Hi.

Nice to meet you.

I'm Tim.

Go grab a drink if you want- it's ok,  I'll wait.

Better? Good.

There, now that we've met, you might be thinking to yourself, "Self, where have I seen that name before?"  You might remember me from such amazing blog posts as, well, as pretty much all of them.   I am the dork that shows up in Jessica's wonderful posts as comedic relief and ruins most of her beautiful pictures by either being in them or by eating a bite before she can get her camera out.  That being said, I thought it would be a wonderful idea if she let me guest post on her blog to see what I could come up with.

                                             
                                              Me, after Jessica relinquished creative control!


However, first I had to come up with something I could actually make.  This took some serious thought as my culinary skills extend well into the realms of cold cereal, toast, oatmeal, steak, steak, steak and sometimes chicken.  Not a ton of options on that list for a food blog.  So I settled on steak.

Then after more deliberation, I figured I would combine my love of steak with something else very near and dear to my heart.......BEER!! This combination would be a delicacy of epic proportions!  And Tim's Guinness Stew was born (with help from www.Epicurious.com).

                                                          The REAL star of the post.

Since this is a guest post and the post of a novice cook and food blogger, there will be pretty much no common cooking or food terms.  If I do use them, there will be a 50/50 chance that I messed up the term.  Remember, you were warned, and this is my post.  So there.

Potatoes, Carrots and Celery.
In a bowl. 

Things you will need:

3 pounds Beef pre cubed is easier if you can get it.                    

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, coarsely (whatever that means) chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped                                                                                                  

2 carrots                                                                                                                       

2 stalks of celery

3 small potatoes

4 tablespoons of water

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 cups beef broth

1 cup Guinness - by cup I really mean 1 can (seriously for this much meat it wont hurt).  

Big Pot (5 to 6 quart oven safe preferably)

Step 1.  Buy food.  Just kidding.

Step 1.  Flour beef in a separate bowl before you do anything and preheat oven to 350 degrees
Step 2.  Saute onions, garlic and oil in a large pot.
Step 3.  Brown the meat in a large pot on moderate high heat.  Use some extra olive oil so the meat doesn't burn.
Step 4.  Add half a can of Guinness once the beef is nice and brown
Step 5.  Drink other half of Guinness
Step 6.  Add tomato paste and beef broth
Step 7.  Bring to simmer, then add a second half a can of Guinness if you drank the first remaining half
Step 8.  Add water, potatoes, carrots and celery
Step 9.  Repeat step 5
Step 10.  Add Salt and pepper to taste

                                             At this point, it should vaguely resemble this.

Step 11.  Place in oven for 2 hours.
Step 12.  Enjoy with friends and loved ones.  Or alone (with enough extra for weeks!).

Beautiful Beefiness!  

The Guinness really helps to tenderize the meat and adds a wonderful flavor.  Thanks for reading and for those of you wondering, Jessica will return next week with something much more mature for both the palate and the mind.  I hope your Guinness stew turns out as amazing as mine did.  And if it doesn't, the wonderful thing about cooking with beer is you can drink until it tastes edible.  Good luck and bottoms' up!