Hamburger Stew

I have a very busy week going on here and am sorry about falling behind. I'm not sure I will catch up or just let this week be a mess. My son starts high school in the fall and we are busy getting all the things in place for his transition.
The other night I made a pot of hamburger stew. I had intended to throw it in the crockpot for the next day but for some reason the dutch oven was calling to me. I love cooking in the dutch oven. This turned out to be a rather quick meal - one we could have eaten that night, if it wasn't bedtime. I cut it in half (sort of) and omitted the rice because my husband wanted noodles in the stew. We ended up serving the stew with macaroni but not together. I don't remember where I found this recipe but it's designed to be frozen for future meals.

Hamburger Stew
2 pounds ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
8 medium carrots, thinly sliced
4 celery ribs, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups water
1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 to 2 tablespoons salt
1 to 2 teaspoons pepper
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENT (for each batch of stew):
1 cup water
In a Dutch oven, cook beef and onions over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the tomatoes, carrots, celery, potatoes, water, rice, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender. Uncover; simmer 20-30 minutes longer or until thickened. Freeze in
3-cup portions for up to 3 months. To use frozen stew: Thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Transfer
to a saucepan; add water. Cook until hot and bubbly.

I used:
1 pd hamburger
2 small spanish onions
3-4 carrots (they were broken so I can't be certain exactly how much)
3 stalks celery
4 red potatoes (these were good sized potatoes)
1 quart canned tomatoes
Worchestershire sauce (to taste)
Bay Seasoning (to taste)
I made sure there was enough water to cover everything and then served it with buttered macaroni noodles and shredded cheese.

Corned Beef

I got to thinking last night - with St Pat's coming up I could do 17 days of Irish recipes. We're not super traditional in our house but St Pat's is one of the few holidays we go all out on. Some years I have even over-decorated our house with shamrocks and Irish flags. It gets us in touch with our heritage especially since we're not that many generations in America on my dad's side (well on my mom's side too but that's her German side, her Irish ancestors have been in America for a long time).
Corned Beef is something that is synonymous with St Patrick's Day. For many years, it was something we tolerated for the holiday but we didn't really like it until I tried this crockpot recipe. There's something about it that makes the meat incrediably tasty. I cook the meat alone starting the night before. In the morning I drain off the water and cook the veggies in that water in another crockpot or on the stove. Then I glaze the beef (sometimes I skip the glaze and we eat it after warming it in the oven).
Glazed Corned Beef
5 pound corned beef
2 bay leaves
Glaze:
3 tbs. melted butter
1 tbsp. prepared mustard
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
3 tbsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. water
Place meat in crockpot, cover with water and bay leaves. Cook overnight on low (6-10 hours).
Drain off liquid (can reserve for veggies). In saucepan heat glaze ingredients, stirring until well blended. Pour over meat. Cook on low 6-8 hours.
Do be careful - the glazing process can dry out the meat so watch it carefully.

Sloppy Joes

This recipe was given to me by a little old lady that used to come in the gas station I worked at many, many years ago. It's a great crock pot recipe but this week we made it with canned pork and it was still great. The recipe says to serve on buttered buns but you can serve it on anything - rice, potatoes, gluten free toast, etc. We, also, substituted the tomato soup and water for a quart of canned tomatoes and added a little extra worchestershire sauce.

Sloppy Joes
2 pd hamburger
1 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 tbs. mustard
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup catsup
1 can tomato soup
1 can water
Brown hamburger. Put all ingredients into crock pot and cook. (can add onions and celery to hamburger while browning).
Serve on buttered buns.