The Precious

20121226lightningprecious

A friend gave us two chews for the dogs this past Christmas.  Rion, the schnauzer cross, made short work of his.  Lightning decided he would rather carry his around the house and guard it.  When we would hear blood curdling growls from Rion, trying to drive Lightning away from his treasure, we would hide it for a while until we could give it back to Lightning when Rion wasn’t around.

After about a week of this, I asked Jack if he had seen Lightning’s Precious recently.  He hadn’t and we couldn’t find it.  Either Lightning hid it in a Really Safe Place, or Rion managed to slip in, grab it, and eat it. Life became a lot more tranquil.

Beef Stew

 

20121227beefstewMany years ago, my grandmother gave me a cast iron dutch oven which I loved.  Unfortunately, it failed to follow us on one of our early moves.  For years, I looked for a replacement at thrift stores and garages sales.  Unfortunately, people don’t seem to get rid of cast iron dutch ovens.

Jack gave me one for Christmas.  I am using it to make beef stew in the photo.  The purplish things are not sausage, but purple fingerling potatoes.  The stew was delicious.

One of the things I like about this pot is that the top can be used as a skillet.  This makes it easy to brown the meat in two batches, before using the top to cover the pot.