Perfectly Cooked Instant Pot Beef Stew
Plus, winter reading recommendations for adults & kids
Hi!
It’s early Sunday morning and I’m up before anyone else. It seems that it’s no longer possible for my body to sleep in, but also, I love this quiet and peaceful start to the day. It’s just me and our cat Tiger, who is circling around the room trying to decide between sleeping under the Christmas tree or on the couch, where the heater on the ceiling blows down warm air (she chose the couch).
The house is dark except for the light of the Christmas tree. Outside, a Snow Moon is glowing in the pre-dawn sky. December’s full moon (called a Snow Moon) will be shining brightly all week as we inch towards the Winter Solstice. I’m slowly sipping my coffee (flavored with Nut Pods holiday nog creamer, of course!) and thinking about what I want to enjoy and accomplish this week.
*The little light on my mug is from my Ember coffee cup, which isn’t as festive as a Christmas mug but it keeps my coffee piping hot. I love that mug!
Last week I confessed that I didn’t have a single gift bought or ornament hung. I’m happy to report that I’ve made some progress on that front. There still aren’t any presents under the tree, but the tree is up and decorated, filling our living room with the seasonal scent of pine. One thing I love about a real Christmas tree is that it encourages me to pause every time I come in the front door and take a long, deep inhale.
This year, my holiday decorating isn’t happening in one giant, joyful swoop. It’s happening slowly, in bits and pieces. The boxes filled with holiday decor made it up from the storage room and then sat in the hallway unopened during the week after Thanksgiving. This past week, after we decorated the tree, the boxes sat half-hidden behind the couch, still filled with the bottle brush trees, miniature houses and other decorations we still needed to put up. Yesterday the kids and I hung a loopy trail of colorful lights across our front fence and today, hopefully, we’ll finish putting everything else up inside.
Decorating this way is not ideal, but it’s also not a sign of personal failure. Life is busy and it’s okay to accomplish things slowly. I have a natural tendency towards slow accomplishment, and although it can be really frustrating at times, it also provides a shield against burnout both during the holidays and during regular life. Whatever it is I’m trying to accomplish, I usually get it done eventually, albeit with stops and starts along the way and a few periods of rest and most importantly, an acceptance of what’s actually possible vs what I want to be possible.
If you’re also trying to embrace a slower, less frenetic winter season, this is a good time of year to read Katherine May, author of Wintering and a Substack newsletter called The Clearing. I’ve also sunk into Rosamunde Pilcher’s cozy Coming Home, which is a long, slow read that will take me all month to finish. Last December, I read Pilcher’s Winter Solstice which has the same cozy, slow reading vibes and can only be read with a cup of tea by your side at all times. Rosamunde Pilcher isn’t for everyone - her writing is a little dated at this point and the books are long - but if you love a meandering story about love, family and cold houses warmed by tea, Scotch and fireplaces, she’s perfect winter reading.
More Holiday & Winter Reading
Lately, I’ve been keeping one book on my nightstand and one book upstairs, in an effort to spend less time on my computer (or phone) and more time reading books. Right now, my upstairs book is Flight by Lynn Steger Strong, a quick-moving novel about the resentments and connections between adult siblings that come to a head during Christmas.
Also on my winter reading list:
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Time of the Child by Niall Williams. These are both Irish novels set in December. Probably not super cheerful, but I’m hoping the books will be charming in that melancholy Irish way that I can’t get enough of.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Has anyone read this? It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize 2013 and the story sounds intriguing. I love finding backlist books during this time of year when all the “Best Of” lists seem to reading and recommending the same five new releases.
Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Mathews - Hopefully the story is better than the horrible title? I’m tempted to read this one because it comes highly recommended by the Currently Reading podcast if your craving a lighter, heartwarming holiday read centered around romance.
Children’s Picture Books - This year my kids are officially too old to be truly interested in holiday picture books (waaaahhh!) but I picked up a stack from the library anyway, partly out of habit and partly because it’s possible that I was always the person who loved them most anyway. I love spending a little by the tree flipping through picture books filled with snowmen and mittened children and cheerful woodland creatures.
Some of our favorites:
Bear Stays Up, by Karma Wilson
Grumpy Badger’s Christmas by Paul Bright
The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett
Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs
The Night Before Christmas (we always read this classic on Christmas Eve)
This Week’s Recipe: Instant Pot Beef Stew
Pressure cookers do a fantastic job of tenderizing meat and concentrating flavor. This Instant Pot beef stew recipe cooks the stew meat first, until it’s fall-apart tender, then adds potatoes and carrots for a shorter cooking time. This means everything in the stew will have exactly the right texture. Making this Instant Pot beef stew recipe takes times but is worth the effort - this is truly the best beef stew!
To make beef stew, you can buy a chuck roast and cut 2-inch chunks of stew meat, or buy pre-cut stew meat. If you can't find chuck roast, then substitute bottom round roast, top round or rump roast.
Below are the 6 steps you need to follow. Find the full recipe → HERE
Step 1: Sear the meat. Remove the meat from the pot and saute onion.
Step 2: Add beef broth, water and thyme. Add the meat back to the pot.
Step 3: Cook the stew meat for 25 minutes on high pressure. After it cooks, skim oil off the top of the broth (this is optional).
Step 4: Whisk together a slurry of tomato paste and flour. Whisk in ½ cup of the hot stew broth. Slowly pour the slurry back into the stew, to thicken and flavor the broth.
Step 5: Add potatoes and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure.
Step 6: The stew is ready! Add salt to taste and fresh herbs like thyme and parsley
That’s it for today! Hope you enjoy your Sunday and have a not-too-exhausting week. School is already out for one of my kids and also for me, now that my work schedule follows the school calendar. It’s just as thrilling to be holiday break as an adult as it was when I was a kid!
xo
Jenny