Cuban Shepherd's Pie

I have never had traditional Shepherd's Pie. What I've had is Shepherd's Pie done Abuela style. The ground beef, or picadillo, is cooked with a bay leaf in a tomato sauce. The resulting meat has such a full bodied taste that pairs well with the garlicky mashed potatoes. One day I will try to make this dish in its traditional incarnation but 'til then I will be feasting away on the Cuban incarnation. Let me add that this dish is for those who like the taste of tomato paste because it's pretty concentrated in this dish.

Abuela's Cuban Shepherd's Pie
Serves 2

3/4 to 1 lb ground beef
~1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
2 medium-sized potatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp minced garlic
~2 Tbsp butter
~2 Tbsp heavy cream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare baking dish by spraying with cooking oil.

Brown beef in a skillet over medium heat. Drain. Add water, tomato paste, and bay leaf. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens and bay leaf is wilted. Remove bay leaf and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until soft. Drain water, add garlic, butter, and heavy cream. Mash with a fork until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour meat into baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. Bake for 20 minutes or until top is crisp and hard to the touch.

Project Empowering Motherhood Round Up

My little project has come to an end and this post is long overdue. The project started off with me wanting to celebrate making it to 6 months of motherhood and it has ended with me having a whole new appreciation for how different women view and experience motherhood. I loved reading everyone's responses and sharing them with you. I'm so happy that motherhood has allowed me to connect to some incredible women.

Special thanks to all the participants:

Jenn of Bridgetown Baby Momma
Melisa of Project Nursery
Esther, my aunt
Andrea of Dolce Drive
Jenny of rainy day gal
Jen, my friend
Heather of Lucky Star Lane
Mollie of Bloom Photography
Jamie of Sew Sweet Peanut Boutique
Charlotte of Mommyhood Mayhem
Erika of Lovely Little Lola
Alex, my friend
Shari of Spearmint Baby
Julie of ZozoBugBaby
Lenore of Mommyhood Mayhem
Caroline of Whipped
Alex of Before the Baby Wakes
Prudy of Prudence Pennywise
Delia of  The Love Life
Kelly of Hard Hard Can This Be?
Becki of Becki Bakes
Bree of Baked Bree
Jill of Baby Rabies
Erin of Breedwoman Needs a Timeout
Josie, my mother-in-law

Here are my answers and if you want to read through the whole series (instead of clicking on individual names) go HERE.

Guest Post Over at Breedwoman!

Make sure to head over to Breedwoman Needs a Timeout to read my Letter to My 18 Year Old Self. I promise it's good (and long, nothing I could do about that one!).

Thank You Berry Much

Cati tried blueberry for the first time on Monday and she seemed to really like it. This is the first fruit I feel like she's reacted positively to right off the bat. It also solidifies my thoughts that Cati may not like things that are too sweet, like pears. Another interesting development is how messy Cati has gotten with eating. Before she wouldn't get any food on her and most of the food remained in her mouth, now food gets everywhere and I pair of her white pants have been permanently stained by carrots.

Blueberry Sauce
Source: Cooking for Baby by Lisa Barnes
Makes

2 cups blueberries, fresh or thawed

Place blueberries in food processor and purée until smooth. There will be small pieces of peel in the purée. To remove them, put the purée in a sieve over a small bowl and push the purée through with a rubber spatula.

Note: You do not need to add anything else to this. I love that! I added a bit of cereal to thicken up the sauce the first time I gave Cati blueberries. It thickened up to a yogurt-like consistency after being refrigerated and didn't need anymore cereal. 

The players. 

The sauce. 

The baby. 

Dulce de Leche Cookies

If you are a dulce de leche fan then you must absolutely try these cookies. TWD made these a while back (sorry about not participating then Jodie!) and I didn't make them because I was at the beginning of my motherhood journey. If I remember correctly, I didn't think I would ever make it back into the kitchen when these cookies were selected. These cookies are amazing and they actually taste like dulce de leche. I didn't sandwich them like the Dorie recipe calls for because I wanted to keep things simple for myself. A dulce de leche filling would have made these cookies truly spectacular though.

Dulce de Leche Cookies
Source: Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours
Half recipe yields about 24 cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups store-bought dulce de leche (or homemade!)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft. Add the 3/4 cup of dulce de leche and both sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Don't be concerned if the mixture looks a little curdled- it will smooth out when the flour mixture goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter.

Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets, using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie and leaving 2 inches between them.

Bake the cookies 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front the back at the midway point. The cookies should be honey brown with a light sugar crust, but they will still be soft, so remove the sheets from the oven but don't touch the cookies for another minute or two. Then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure you cool the baking sheets before spooning the dough onto them.

Enjoy!

Styling C: 09.20.10 to 09.22.10

Monday, 09.13.10

The Look: Crawling Comfort

The Outfit: United Colors of Benetton "sweety" pink top, Old Navy pink pants

Tuesday, 09.14.10

The Look: Baby in Pink

The Outfit: Gymboree white headband, First Impressions pink striped dress

Wednesday, 09.15.10

The Look: Casual in Jeans

The Outfit: Gymboree red and white polka dot headband, Carter's white t-shirt, 
Old Navy jeans
 

Cati's Dress

This is for you Alissa and anyone else interested in the crochet pattern for the dress Cati wore during her 6 month photo shoot. THIS is the pattern.Enjoy!

Guest Post Over at Mommyhood Mayhem

I wrote about my Mommyhood Mayhem Moment so go check it out!

 

Espresso-Chili Rub Steaks

A few years ago we went to a steakhouse and Alex had a steak made in some kind of coffee seasoning/sauce. He was instantly in love with how the coffee brought out the best in the steak. He has since tried to replicate that steak. Although this recipe is a great one, the cumin is very powerful and it takes away from the espresso flavor. Still though, the steak was tender and the spices came together to give you a steak that was a celebration of tastes, grilling, and eating.

Espresso Chili Rub
Source: Weber's Way to Grill

1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 Tbsp espresso powder
1  1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp peppers
4 rib-eye steaks

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Lightly brush the steaks with oil and season evenly with the rub, pressing the rub into the meat. Cover the meat and let sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before grilling over high heat.

Cook to desired doneness. Let steaks sit for 3-5 minutes after removal from grill. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Obsession of the Week

I was all about Picnik last week. This week I'm all about Befunky. Befunky is another photo editing site but it has such cool features, like turning pictures into cartoons. One of the things I want to do is frame some of the pictures I've taken and put them up around the house. I have this vision of displaying some of my food shots in our kitchen. I wanted to get them printed on canvases so that it wasn't just plain photographs on display but I haven't found a site that would print them on a canvas small enough. In comes Befunky; they have an "underpainting" photo application which I have just about applied to every picture I have. Now all I have to do is print, buy frames and mattes and my photos will look more like a piece of art than a simple photograph.

Here are a few of my food shots:

A few of my favorite flower shots (when was the last time I took a picture of flowers?!):

Even the girls got in on it:

I would love to get a painting of our house from artist Tony Mendoza, but in the meantime I think this could do: