Beef Stew Recipe

Don't you love a good beef stew!? I didn't even like beef growing up, but since my tastes of matured... haha, I just love it! Jordan went on a YM's camp last summer and the last day this wonderful lady in our Grace Dyer brought them beef stew (they actually were up on top of Mount Robinson as the camp was a hike and Jordan arranged for the helicopter that brings tourists up everyday to bring a package up and it had beef stew, buns, and chocolate from Grace) and he was telling me how it was the best thing hes ever tasted! From then I've been craving a good beef stew!

So I bought this slow cooker little magazine at a Safeway check out. I love doing slow cooker meals when I work, cause I have time in the morning to put it together and then we have a tasty healthy dinner when we get home. So this has been one of my favourites. I've tweaked a few things and when I made it last week it was fine tuned and perfect! So here is the recipe with a few tweaks I did. Enjoy! Its so easy to make too!

Beef Stew:

-1/3 C flour
- 1 t salt
- 1 t paprika
- 1/4 t pepper
- 2 1/2 lb lean boneless beef stew
meat
- 2 T EVOO
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 bag (1 lb) baby carrots or cut up 5-6 carrots into the size of baby carrots
- 2 C baby potatoes
- 1 can beef broth (184ml)
- 1/2 C Welshes grape juice
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1 T minced garlic
- 1 t ginger
- 8-10 mushrooms chopped (if you like mushrooms, leave it out if you don't)

- Spray Slow Cooker
- heat up oil on pan.
- Combine flour, salt, paprika, and pepper in Ziploc. Shake beef in Ziploc and fry in oil on pan. Brown beef on all sides for 5-7 mins and transfer to bottom of slow cooker. Top with potatoes, carrots and onions.
- Mix broth, juice, tomatoes paste, garlic, and ginger.
- Pour solution into cooker
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours
- Add mushrooms and cook 1-2 more hours
- if not adding mushrooms cook on low for 6-8 hours

ENJOY!

Easter Card for Elder Pizzey

It has been so fun to have my baby brother on his missions. I love reading his emails and letters and reading how already he has grown so much! He is serving in Salt Lake City South mission. He got out of the MTC last week so hes in his first area. He covers 2 stakes! And the 2 stakes are within blocks of each other!!! That just blows my mind! He says it needs some cleaning up, so him and his companion are working hard to do that! He's very pumped to work hard and has a excellent trainer and they just click! I just love it!

I also love writing letters (aren't letters so much funner than emails) and sending cute things. Blake always loved my cards and would tell me at birthdays / Christmas he would get excited for them. So while he's on his mission I've decided every little holiday deserves a card! So here is our Easter card, with a photo picture instead. Its in girl colors... but it is Easter... what can you do!

1/4 Century club!

(Yes, this is me as a baby... and no my dad is not 16 here)

I sort of feel like I've been 25 for at least the last 3 years, so this wasn't as big of milestone and others would feel. The reason for that is because with my work I work with a lot of clients who are trusting me and spending quite a bit of money. They are usually 90% of the time older than me, and many times ask my age or judge me at first cause I look young (or really am young.) So since I started in the industry almost 4 years ago I've been telling clients I'm 25! haha, its just a little white lie... but mostly a business strategy. So this day is a long time coming!

But it was a great birthday (Jordan spoiled me) and nice to reflect on all the things I've learned over my 25 years on this earth. Trust me I still have lots to learn, but I like to say that I'm honestly 25 now, and I feel it... and it feels good!

So here are the 5 main things I've learned (that I can think of off the top of my head) in my 25 years on this earth ;)

- Not everything goes according to plan. I'm a planner, and especially over 2009 I learned that my plans don't always unfold. So I've learned to be more accommodating and roll with the punches. "When given lemons... make lemonade!"

- Family is the best, I have lots of wonderful close friends that I love so much! But nothing beats family, and I'm so grateful to have mine close by!

- I thought I couldn't love Jordan more than the day I married him... wrong! Every day I love him more and more! I love as we grow older and make experiences together, we only get stronger!

- The love that I have for my daughter is the best feeling in the world! And its taught me to see a glimpse of what my Heavenly Father feels for me! I love watching her learn and grow and she cracks me up on a daily basis. I just love being a Mom

- I love to create, whether its at work or at home. To make something beautiful just makes me smile, and to helps clients make there homes beautiful gives me such joy as well! I also love dealing with clients and people. I love to read people and see the different approach I should take to deal with them.

Reno Update #2

Well here are the updated Reno pictures. I keep putting off getting these on my blog because I wish I had more to show to give more of the "wow" factor. But the fact is until I find a wallpaper that I like and wont cost me a arm and a leg, and once we get some more time and money... we are sort of at a stand still. SO... I might as well show the progress over the last month.

What has changed since the last pics: Paint, back splash in kitchen, window covering in kitchen and living room, and FINALLY I got pictures up. I just saw no point in doing that until we painted. Excuse the lack of closet door in the front entrance, I have so many ideas to make my front hall cute, but we are having trouble finding a closet door for the odd shape that these old closets are (its very annoying since Avery's favourite thing is to wear our shoes lately) so hopefully we find one soon.


Drapes from Pier 1, first place I looked and they were perfect. They had all my colors in it, it was really quite strange how perfect they were since they suited my style too! And hopefully one day I'll get rid of the IKEA furniture and have some much nicer... but that is down the road!

Didn't Jordan do a good job on the back splash?!?! He keeps looking at all his imperfections (which I don't see) but I've been so impressed at the wonderful job he's done!

Left on the list:

- WALLPAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Baseboards

- New Doors

- New light fixtures

- Crown molding to finish off above cupboard

- front entry closet and door

- figure something out with front entry paneling

AND.... I'm sure I'm missing something. Everyone with old houses knows it never ends!