Grocery Shopping - a late night ramble

I've always liked grocery shopping.  Well, mostly.  Reaching the top shelves gave me a bit of anxiety when Nathan and I were first married.  Now I just climb when I need to and everything is well in the world again.  But yeah, there is just something about the grocery shopping process that is soothing.  Making a list. (checking it twice - yeah right!) Looking through the flyer for sales.  Going to the store.  Checking things off the list.  Bringing the grocery items home and putting them all away in the empty spot where their predecessor sat before being used up. There is just something nice about a freshly stocked pantry.

In the years that Nathan and I have been married, we have lived in towns with various grocery shopping options.  The first place we lived was a small town with two competing grocery stores.  We could get everything we needed in town and had a Superstore/Walmart half an hour away where we chose to get certain things at a fraction of the cost. We had our "city" list and our "home" list.

The next place we lived was a city.  Because we had to drive to the nearest grocery store (about a mile away), we picked up groceries less often but it was more of a big deal when we went.  We probably shopped about once a week. It was economical and oh-so-convenient for those "oh no, I need lettuce!" moments.

The last place we lived before our current location was a small town.  (Village maybe even?)  It had one grocery store.  It was not uncommon to find expired food, or nearly expired food, still on the shelves.  Packages of diapers (that I occasionally needed to purchase when our washing machine froze up in winter) required a wipe-down to rid them of years of dust that had accumulated.  Produce was hit or miss and prices were usually twice as much as at the grocery stores in the city.  The local grocery store was great for emergencies and had some good sales, but 90% of our grocery shopping was done in the city, a mere half hour away.

Now, we're back in a small town with two competing grocery stores.  Our grocery shopping looks very much like it did in the first few years of marriage.  I go to my favourite local grocery store every couple days to pick up what I need for supper or to stock up on a sale item (only visiting the other store when there is an exceptional sale).  Day to day groceries are bought in town, the rest (stock up shopping) is done an hour away in the city about once a month.

We've been shopping like this for a year now and lately I've been feeling a pull to do more local shopping.  I appreciate so much that there are grocery stores in town, and the fact that there are two competing stores keeps the prices lower and the selection higher.  So why wouldn't I support these stores for the majority of my shopping?  Why do I run to the city with my full grocery list when I can get everything I need in town? 

Well, those are good questions.  And to answer them, I'm going to do an experiment.  I'm going to take the plunge and do all my shopping locally.  ((Oh boy, I just thought of our Costco membership...do we give that up?!))  Would we save money buying groceries in town and not spending that $30+ on gas each month to drive out? Not having a Costco membership would save us $50 a year right there!  And that's not even factoring in how stressed we get when we go into the city for a shopping day with our two year old and feel like we're literally running from one place to the next for 6 hours straight.  It would be much simpler to make a list each week with the local flyers, pack up my (soon to be) two kids and drive the 3 blocks downtown to buy what I need.  It would also solve the problem of stocking up too much when in the city because "who knows when we'll be in the city again?!"  Hmm...the more I think about this, the more I am convinced that this is the way to go!  (I wonder if Nathan will be on board??)  Maybe we could even find a babysitter for an hour each week and make grocery shopping our date night!  That would be a step up from our nonexistent date nights that are currently on our calendar. Now there's something that might convince hubby that this is a good move ;)

What about you?  How do you feel about local shopping?  Do you shop locally or find yourself driving to check off your list? 

Oh Henry Squares

2/3 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup syrup
3 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
6 oz chocolate chips
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

Cream butter/margarine and sugar.  Add oats, syrup, vanilla, and salt.  Stir to blend.  Press firmly into 9x13 inch pan.  Bake at 375 F for 12 to 15 minutes.  Microwave chocolate chips and peanut butter for 2 minutes on defrost.  Let cake cool slightly then spread with melted topping.

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This is what I'm making right now.  I'm at the "let cake cool slightly" part.  It smells wonderful in here and I can't wait to try it.  I've never made this before so I'll let you know how it is and whether you should drop everything and make your own right now, or if it's a pass.  Now that I've posted this, though, I'm sure hoping that it's good!


And the verdict is... ... ...WOW!  It's nothing like an Oh Henry bar, but oh SO good!  I strongly suggest that you make some of these tonight.  Do it...

christmas cookies

 I made Christmas cookies last night.  And I decorated them today.  I could only find neon food colouring though...so the cookies are far from traditional.  But I like them.  It made me excited for a couple years down the road when I have a little helper to help me decorate them...

any time now...

I wonder if I could lure little baby McCorkindale out with a promise of chocolate?  Of course, the chocolate would have to be ingested by me first, but I really think I could make a sacrifice like that to meet the little one early...

(38w5d - only 8 more days to go...ish...)

Clarification

I had a question on my last post so I thought I would address it here, in case anyone else was wondering about this particular part of the post as well.


Question: "I do wonder what your intentions were when you put such words as; smart, green and nutritious in quotation marks?...Are you mocking such foods as Wonder Bread Invisibles (which, by the way is complete marketing)? Or are you suggesting that you will not be feeding your child smart or green foods?"

Clarification:  Honestly, I had no intentions when I put those three words in quotation marks.  I suppose though, on second thought, that by doing that I was giving a jab to the marketing companies who understand that parents want to feed their children nutritiously and, therefore, stick a label on any product that even comes close to qualifying as "healthy", whether or not it has changed at all or become more nutritious in the last 25 years.  I meant nothing more and certainly agree with feeding our children the most healthy food available, with some treat-like exceptions of course.  Like Kool-Aid. : )

Mmm...Kool-Aid...

I love Kool-Aid.

Well...I like Kool-Aid but I love slushies made from Kool-Aid.

Today it seemed unlikely that there would be any more slushy-worthy days yet this fall.  Rainy.  Cold.

Time for Kool-Aid, the drink.

As I was pouring the Kool-Aid crystals into the water - the best part of making Kool-Aid, by the way, if you do it slowly and watch each individual crystal dissolve - I noticed that the package boasts about being both caffeine-free AND a source of vitamin C.  Do you see it?

I must say, I'm skeptical.  I believe the caffeine-free claim.  Why would Kool-Aid ever have caffeine?

But vitamin C?  Is this drink not made up of solely sugar and food colouring? 

Obviously Kool-Aid sales are suffering from the latest resurgence of nutrition-conscious moms who only feed their kids the most "smart" "green" and "nutritious" foods available.  This must be some sort of marketing gimmick on Kool-Aid's part, right?

Will I buy Kool-Aid for our kids?  Who knows.  I firmly believe in treats like sugared cereal and pop, in moderation of course. 

If I do buy Kool-Aid, though , it won't be due to the promise of vitamin C, I can assure you.  I'll probably head to real fruit juices for that...

Just thought I'd share this interesting moment from my day.  At least now, if I ever need a way to justify the yummy sugary-ness of Kool-Aid, I have vitamin C on my side...

Back in the Kitchen...

Is it just me or is there something about being out of a kitchen for 6 weeks that just makes you want to bake and cook til the cows come home?  Seriously, while I'm "not cooking" I think of a zillion meal ideas and just can't wait until I am cooking again full time.  Unfortunately, I never write these ideas down and, once I'm back in the kitchen, I am searching desperately for meal ideas by the third day.  But when I do find an idea, I go to town!

There is something about a break from the kitchen that makes cooking and baking new, fresh, and enjoyable again.  Last night I decided that I was going to make sweet & sour meatballs with rice for supper.  It was one of my favourites while growing up and those are the things that appeal to me most these days.  I looked briefly for the recipe but with my Mennonite Treasury of Recipes packed away, I was left to fulfill my craving by memory.  Meatballs was one of the things that I often enjoyed making with my mom while I was growing up.  I loved getting my hands into the meat and mixing it all together (bear with me), shaping each individual meatball, and then plunking it carefully into the frying pan next to all the rest.  Cooking the meatballs was my favourite part, though with the frying pan so hot, I would often get splashes of grease stinging my hands and arms.  Of course it was never enough to burn me, and the fun of watching the meatballs until they were halfway cooked and then flipping them over to cook on the other side far out-weighted any spitting grease that came my way!  And the memory of making meatballs with my mom is what gave me the recipe yesterday.  I remembered mixing the meat with my hands and therefore could picture the different ingredients that went into them.  They didn't turn out quite as yummy as my mom's always did, but they never do, do they?  Some things just need a mother's touch, I guess...

Just now I was making some brownies.  (Have I mentioned how nice it is to just be able to walk into the kitchen and satisfy my cravings?!)  Another memory came to me as I was using as spatula to scrape the last of the brownie batter into the pan.  See, for the first few years that I remember helping my mom in the kitchen, she didn't have a spatula.  Different people have different "essentials" in their kitchens and, in my mom's kitchen, a spatula just wasn't one of those essentials.  I specifically remember the day my mom got a spatula.  It was August of 1994.  My parents were leading a missions trip to Paraguay, South America and our whole family was able to go along.  While we were gone for those 6 weeks, an interim pastoral couple stayed in our house and carried out the pastoral "duties" that my dad was missing while out of the country.  When we arrived home, we found a few new things in our kitchen...things that were obviously "essentials" in this other woman's kitchen that she hadn't found in my mom's kitchen.  Among those goodies was a rubber spatula.  I remember being quite disappointed in this new appliance the next time my mom baked something.  That spatula was far too efficient, leaving next to nothing in the bowl for us kids to enjoy!  My life changed a little that day.  I must say, though, that my mom got quite good at not using her spatula to the best of it's ability.  Somehow there was always a bit of batter left in the bottom of the bowl for her kids to lick out. : )

I hope my kids enjoy helping their mommy in the kitchen as much as I (sometimes) enjoyed helping my mom!

Picture Post!

I finally uploaded pictures from our camera, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to share some of what we've been up to this past...month and a half.  These were all the "events" that were on my camera.  I just haven't been motivated to take pictures lately.  I hope that changes once McBaby gets here!  I'd hate to miss out on those first few days of prime newborn picture-taking just because I "don't feel like it!"  Anyway, without further ado...pictures!

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When we first arrived back in Canada, Lennox had a close call with a skunk.  Gross.  He spent a couple days outside and got a scrub with a peroxide/baking soda mixture as well as with tomato juice.

The peroxide mixture is supposed to actually get rid of the smell, while the tomato juice apparently just masks it.  It did help alot, but he still smelled like skunk when he got wet until just recently.  Or maybe he still does...I try to avoid wet dog as much as possible these days.  My nose just seems to be extra-sensitive to doggy smells right now...  The white eyebrows in the picture looked so funny!  We put petroleum jelly on him so that he wouldn't get the peroxide in his eyes.  I don't think his eyes burned, but he sure didn't enjoy the cold water from the hose.  He looked at me with such sad, pain-filled eyes and whimpered like I'd never heard before...poor guy.

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The next pictures are from just yesterday.  Nathan and Josh were playing XBOX 360 yesterday morning when one of them (probably that wonderful husband of mine) had the idea to hook up another XBOX to another tv so that they could each play online and be on a team.  Now, our tv was just sitting in the basement, unused, and each of the brothers has their own XBOX, so they shifted around some furniture, hooked up some extra equipment and nerded it up BIG TIME!

Seriously, that was some nerd-fest that was going on down there in the family room.  They each had their headsets on, each had their own tvs and game systems, and they played ALL day.  In fact, they're playing again right now.  I just heard Josh rejoicing quite loudly in what must have been some sort of victory.  Now they're talking through their strategy for what to do next.  Funny guys.  I've been left to entertain myself the last couple days so I've been baking and sewing, which leads me to my next pictures...

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These are the pillows that I've been working on for the past two days!

We had four throw pillows in our old house that were in need of rejuvenation.  They were a bit faded and dirty and, while I could have just thrown them in the washing machine and at least had clean pillows, I felt that they needed a bit more.  Besides, it was something small that I could do already to work toward making our new place our own.
 

Three of the pillows are the grey plaid fabric above.  It was a bit frustrating to work with because the fabric wasn't square.  I would cut straight along the lines of the plaid and hold the fabric up and it would have an obvious slant to it.  I don't really understand, because surely the lines of the print would be straight, but in fact it was the fabric itself that was stretched or just poorly made.  Anyhow, I managed to get all the plaid lined up squarely on the pillows and even matched the pattern on the front and back of the pillows.  If you'd seen the crookedness of the fabric I was working with, you would be impressed.  I certainly am!  I'm just hoping that the next time I buy plaid fabric I won't have to deal with that!

This is the yellow fabric that I used the other two pillows.  When I found the grey plaid, we both liked it, but Nathan felt that it was a bit boring to just use grey.  He's usually the one in this relationship who loves to spice up our decor with some bright colors.  I usually appreciate his opinions, but gently gear them toward classier designs that aren't too tacky (as bright colors can be if done wrong!).  For instance: Nathan wanted something more "fun" than the grey so we picked out this yellow with a swirly white design to go with the plaid.  It's a pop of color, it matches the yellow thread in the grey plaid fabric, AND it isn't over the top.  It's a nice fabric that I can live with so in this case I'm glad that Nathan suggested something bright.  It worked out perfectly and I love our new cushions!

I also tried piping for the first time with this project.  I learned a few things throughout the process of sewing on piping...let's just say the second pillow is better than the first.  And if I were to make a third pillow at some point, I'm sure it would be better than both the first two combined!  I think the piping adds a nice, finished edge and I won't hesitate to try it again.  It does take practice, but I definitely suggest going for it if you ever find yourself thinking about it.  I'm no sewing pro and I did it.  It's always worth a try!

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I also mentioned that I have done some baking in the last couple days.  I baked burger buns yesterday for our Canada Day bbq and also made the following recipe of cookies.  They are SO good.  I suggest only doing a half batch, as the full batch made me 4 dozen good-sized cookies.  And while freezing cookie dough for baking later often works, I don't know that it would work in this case with the corn flakes in there...

Buffalo Cookies

• 1 cup melted margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 11/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 11/4 cup crunched cornflakes
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips.

Instructions

1. Cream margarine with sugars, adding eggs.
2. Add vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and mix.
3. Add flour and mix.
4. Add the additional dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, till they are lightly colored.

The recipe is from this great site called Mennonite Girls Can Cook....you can find the recipe HERE.
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There...how's that for a long, hodge-podge of a post?  Hope you're all having a good Canada Day long weekend!  If any of you have any suggestions for what kinds of projects I should do next, I'm all ears!  I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting things to make.  Right now I've got a baby blanket for McBaby on the go and I'm re-doing an afghan that I made last summer because I just don't really like how it turned out.  But I'll be done those in a matter of days/hours, so seriously...anything interesting that you've been making/doing lately?  Let me know!

The Local Eating Trend...

There has been a trend in the last few years when it comes to eating.  It is called Local Eating, or eating locally.  The idea is for individuals to choose to eat foods which are in season and grown within a short distance from where they live.

The problem I've always had with this concept is that the people I've heard about who have chosen to eat like this live in areas where there is always something in season.  If this is the case where you live, wonderful!  It is a great way to do your part for the environment and to be responsible for the world around you.  But my question has always been, "What happens if you live on the Canadian prairies and nothing is in season for 9 months of the year?"  I feel like telling the warmer-climate hippies to bite their tongues because obviously they are blind to what winter means for us.

I wasn't even thinking about this question, though, when I discovered that, while growing up, my family really did eat mostly local produce year round!  I had no idea that my mom was so "ahead of the times"!  (I bet Mom didn't either, did you Mom?)  I was shocked to see that it can work, even in the dead of a Saskatchewan winter.  Here's how we did it:

My mom would always have a garden.  In it she would plant cucumbers, potatoes, peas, corn, carrots, onions, tomatoes, peppers, beans (sometimes?), cabbage, and lettuce (am I forgetting anything?).  I also remember having kohlrabi one year, as well as squash.  Rhubarb and raspberries were also grown every year.  These vegetables would basically feed our family all winter.  My mom would spend all summer tending to the garden, planting, hilling, fencing, weeding, picking, etc. 

Once the garden was stripped of all its vegetables, the job wasn't done.  Vegetables don't feed a family all winter without a little help.  Potatoes, carrots and onions were put into storage in a cold room to be used throughout the winter.  Peas and corn were frozen.  Tomatoes were made into sauce and canned.  Cucumbers were made into both relish and pickles.  And, of course, much of the produce was eaten fresh, as that's when it always tastes best!


It's true, I didn't grow up with a variety of vegetables.  We didn't have salads year-round, and our vegetable side dishes were often peas or corn.  But it was a balanced diet nonetheless, and we were all healthy and happy.  And we were helping the environment more than I ever realized... 

Thanks, Mom, for all your hard work in the garden every summer.  Sorry I didn't help out more than you made me!  I do hope to have a big garden one day and provide for my family the way you provided for us.  Thank-you!

Meal Ideas...

First off, I think it would only be fair if I shared one of my meal ideas with you.  So many of you were helpful and left a note of a suggestion for me to try, so I'll return the favor!  Now let's see...when I'm running last minute, a quick, easy, and healthy meal fall-back is...

 

 Stir Fry

The most common stir fry I make is with chicken.  I cut the chicken into strips and stir-fry it until it is cooked.  Then, I throw in some onions and peppers and cook them until they are a little bit soft.  Then, I add whatever vegetables I have in the fridge (celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) and stir-fry that for a couple minutes/seconds.  I add to that a mixture of apple juice, soy sauce, chicken stock, garlic powder, and perhaps whatever else I see as I'm throwing stuff together.  I let that simmer for a couple minutes until the veggies are cooked and serve it on rice.  Mmm...

Now on to your ideas!

 

Karisbrandes said...

Jared and I eat a fair bit of chicken ceasar salad. It's a lettuce base so I figure that's very healthy. Though that's probably counteracted by the amount of dressing that goes on it. And sometimes I fry the chicken which makes it even less healthy (but soooo yummy)

Sparlingo said...

Jeremy and I make this really lovely turkey dish. It will sound really weird, but the main ingredients are: lean ground turkey, peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, brocolli slaw (brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage). As long as you don't use too much PB it's pretty healthy (although admittedly high in sodium).

Kelsie-Lynn said...

These days our favorite is mini-meatloafs (which I got from Sabrina's meal blog), rice or a noodle dish of some kind, stemmed veggies, and a salad. Nothing fancy but we love it. I will send you the link for the meatloafs. I don't usually like maatloaf but I love this one.

Jo Funk said...

Macaroni, Mushroom Soup, and Hamburger... abbreviated to "mac mush ham" in my family. Ingredients: Onion, Garlic, Ground beef, Macaroni, Cream of mushroom soup, and Peas Pretty simple really... Saute diced onion and garlic, add group beef and brown. Boil up macaroni(or any other kind of noodle). When beef is fully cooked, add a can or two of cream of mushroom soup(tomato soup also works very well) and mix. DO NOT add any water or milk. Drain noodles and mix into beef sauce. Peas go well. Add to meat sauce while noodles are cooking and allow to heat through. Another awesome side dish is ranch potato bake. Ingredients: Potatoes, ranch dressing, seasoning, Ritz crackers. Cube potatoes. Cover with ranch dressing and spices(wahtever you have on hand, I like using a bit of italian seasoning and victorian epicure cheese chives and bacon dip mix). Put in a glass baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350 until potatoes are almost done(check periodically, not sure how long it takes). when almost done, crunch up some ritz crackers and put on top. Bake uncovered until potatoes are done.

Alicia said...

Stir-fries are the staple meal around here - there's no other yummy way to get that many vegetables into me. Sometimes I come home from grocery shopping and chop a whole lot of vegetables so they're handy for stir-frying. We also chop all of our meat into stir-fry sized chunks before freezing. We use tamari instead of traditional soy sauce, which is what my naturopath recommended and I actually like it better than soy. Given that you live in California - health-freak central - you should have no problem finding it. Another idea is beef dip - yum! We brought that to potluck this evening. Carrie recommends our sausage and cabbage dish - cook some farmer sausage, add shredded cabbage, carrots (I shred the carrots with a vegetable peeler for this dish) and onions and saute. Season with butter, salt and pepper. Really good served over mashed potatoes. On the cabbage theme, I'd also recommend that you look up a "Runza" recipe online - kind of like mom's meat buns but with cabbage inside too.

It is time...high time...

Ok, everyone.  EVERYONE.  It is time for you to talk back.  

I am looking for some  

decently balanced, 

decently healthy 

meal ideas.  

(And quick and easy are pluses too)  

When you are thinking about supper, what is your favorite meal to make?

What is your favorite meal to eat?

What is the meal that just makes you feel healthy?

Now, don't go running to your recipe book (unless you really want to).

Often the best meals are the ones that are second nature, that you know off the top of your head.

Think for a second...

And now hit the comment button and let me know what you thought of!

It's time to get some fresh recipes into this kitchen of mine!

And here's a hint...you can come back in a couple days and check out the comments for a couple new meal ideas for yourself! 

Strawberry Patch

Take a look at what I'm about to eat:

Does that not look AMAZING???

It has been decided...the next time we buy a house, I WILL have a strawberry patch.  And it will cost less than $3/lb to eat to my heart's content!

Pancakes

I made pancakes at 11pm last night.  They were SO good.  We'd had stir-fry for supper, which never lasts very long, so by 11 Nathan and I were both really hungry.  I used to love making late night snacks (like chili - from scratch - or left-overs) back in high school, so every once in a while it is fun to re-live those memories.  Haha.  And the best thing is there were three pancakes left over.  Perfect for my breakfast this morning! 

Best lunch ever?

Manitoba farmer sausage.

Canadian iced tea.

Canadian Heinz ketchup.

Perhaps a piece of Caramilk for dessert?

Yes, I think so.

Cookie-making

I decided to make peanut butter cookies today.  I made 36.  And then I got sick of making individual cookies.  I seem to remember not having the patience for individual cookies ever since I was little and helping my mom make cookies.  I usually overcome my boredom and end up making serving-size morsels of goodness.  But every once in a while at least half the batch of dough ends up on one pan, baked into one HUGE cookie.  I like to call them "cookie-squares".  Why not, right?

Hahaha...I love it!!!

Tastes of Canada

Today was an exciting mail day for me!  I was sitting there quilting, minding my own business, when Nathan came in and told me that he was going to open up his prized bag of Ruffles All Dressed chips that he got for Christmas from his parents. (they don't have such chips in the States)

Here he is enjoying his chips:

I took that interruption as a good excuse to get up from my sewing machine and go get the mail.  As I walked to our box, I was preparing myself, as I do every day, for empty nothingness in our box.  But I got a WONDERFUL surprise!!!  It was not only a good mail day, it was a great mail day!

Let me show you:

I joined a book review club over Christmas week and requested my first book.  And it arrived today!  This seems like a great deal.  I request a book.  Once I get the book, I read it and post a 200 word review on my blog, on a review site of my choice, and on the original site (I think).  Once I've done that, I can request another book!  And the best part...it's FREE!  I'll always take free books...especially if all I have to do is write 200 words.  No problems here!

(I think I'll be posting the reviews over at another blog that I set up especially for books that I've been reading...you can find it HERE)

And the second exciting mail item:

That, my dear friends, is a CARAMILK BAR!!!  From Canada!  My amazing, sweet sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent it to us in our Christmas card!  I'd been craving a Caramilk bar, even going so far as to say that it was all I wanted for Christmas (alongside a baby, of course).

Well, back to my quilting I go!

Mmm...

One of the best things about Thanksgiving? A couple days later when I have tons of leftover chicken to make Chicken Pot Pie. Seriously, one of my favorite comfort foods. All loaded with chicken and veggies and pie crust and creamy goodness. Wow. AMAZING!!!

Russian Food

I've had this craving for Russian food today, so I think I'll try a little something-something from my homeland (or at least the homeland of some of my ancestors). I'll let you know how it turns out...

Guliash

Ingredients

• Beef. Great fresh beef. 1.5 pounds will do.
• A tablespoonful of flour
• 2 big onions
• Tomato paste
• Oil, salt, pepper, laurel leaf

Cooking

Cut the beef into cubes 2-3 cm on each side, roll each one in flour and drop into hot oil boiling in a frying pan. Turn the pieces, so that every side of the cube is fried. This will take a few minutes only, the meat doesn’t need to be done, it only needs a crust. Then take the pieces carefully out and put them into a saucepan. Cut the onions into rings and fry them well in the same oil where you fried the meat. Add the onions to the beef in the pot, salt well, add two-three tablespoonfuls of tomato paste and some hot water, so that the meat is just covered. Then add ground black pepper and a laurel leaf, cover with a lid and stew for 45-60 minutes on a slow fire.

Update: So supper turned out pretty well and tasted alright. It wasn't either of our favorites, but not too bad either. Kinda a "meh" meal. I was hoping for an "amazing" or even a "make again." Not so much...