I made Irish Stew!

All of my family and friends know I'm a die hard traveling lover!  I've been a few places in life but not as many as I would like.  Since having my son and being a stay at home Mama doesn't leave me with much room and/or budget to travel anymore I decided that I would bring all the country's and different places of the world I would love to visit to me.  How was I to do this though?  Well, I started thinking about ONE of my favorite things about traveling and that is trying so many different types of new foods and that my Dearest Reader's, led me to this...
I had the fabulous idea to start cooking a traditional meal from another part of the world once a week.
Tonight was the first time I did it and I made Irish Stew!
I have to say this was the best stew I've ever had in my life.  I can't explain how delicious it was.
I guess you'll just have to make it to find out for yourself.

I went off of a recipe that I found but I didn't follow it to a "T".
I really just used it as guild lines to follow.

Ingredients:
Sunflower Seed Oil
2 lbs. of Beef Stew Meat (You're suppose to use Lamb but I couldn't find any today.)
7 Sprigs of Thyme
2 Bay Leaves
6 Carrots (peeled, cut into 2 inch halves)
2 lbs. of Red Potatoes
1 Large Yellow Onion (chopped), (I was to use the white and light green parts of Shallots.)
2 Tbsp. of Worcestershire
Salt and Pepper
Water.

Directions:
Put about 1-2 Tbsp. of sunflower seed oil into a large frying pan,  brown your meat with half of the large yellow onion, thyme, salt and pepper.  When your meat is cooked, pick out the thyme and add about 1 1/2 cups of water and stir up all the juices, I used this as my stock.  Peel and chop your potatoes, carrots and other half of raw onion.  Pour and mix your veggies, meat, stock, worcestershire and bay leaves into a baking dish.  I had to use a 9x13 and it was FULL.  Fill your dish with water until all the ingredients are right at being covered with water.  (I set my dish on top of a cookie sheet just in case it decided to boil over, my baking dish was almost filled to the top.)  Cover with foil.
Put into the oven at 375 degree F.  Bake for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until your potatoes and carrots are tender.

You could also make this in a crock pot, I would estimate the cooking time to be around 4-5 hours on high. 
OR
You could also make this in a pot on top of the stove on medium to medium-high heat and stirring so the veggies don't stick to the bottom.

This was so easy and simple to make.  I know the next time I make this I want to try and find some lamb instead of beef and I think the next time I'm going to add cabbage to it as well.

I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as mine did!
Mm mm yummy!

My new addition to my living room!

So I have to start off by saying I have the greatest neighbor of all time.
She decided months ago that she would give me this beautiful piece of furniture but she couldn't find the key for the two cabinet doors for the longest time.  Well...  She found it and here it is in my living room!  I really cannot wait to go to the store tomorrow and get some Murphy's Oil Soap and Liquid Gold so I can clean it up.  There are a few places where the nails need fixing but I think David wants to help me fix it up so I suppose I'll leave that to him.

I can't remember exactly but I think my neighbor told me this is made out of Walnut. 
I'll have to ask her about it again.

Either way...  I love it!

It's funny too, I drew up a sketch of a "dream cabinet" for my crafting supplies so my little one can't get into them and also I would like them organized for once.  Well, I put that sketch on my bulletin/wish board and I finally got it.  I was just going to build one but now I have this beaut and it didn't even cost me a penny!  Oh, free stuff!  Eek!

When I'm finished with the mild restoring I'll post before and after pictures, but for now here it is!
My beautiful dresser/cabinet that's going to save my desk for all the crafting clutter!