Cooking All Day

I've been cooking all day preparing for the weekend.......company is coming and I don't want to miss visiting with them.
First up on the menu is "Leftover Pot Roast Stew"

I used the last canned tomatoes from my garden from last year and added the following ingredients:

6 cups beef stock or just plane tap water 

diced leftover pot roast

4 diced large potatoes

2 cans whole kernel corn

2 cans green beans

1/2 shredded cabbage (I used red cabbage)

2 cans English peas

2 cans stewed tomatoes (or canned tomatoes from your garden)

2 onions, diced

1/2 chopped clove of garlic

1 cup of uncooked spaghetti broken into 2 inch pieces

1 can tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

 

All of these goes into a very large pot to simmer for 3 hours. The smells are out of this world.

I'll cook a pan of cornbread to eat with the stew or just serve the stew with my favorite crackers and a salad.

Here's a peek at the process. See all that steam.......oh I wish we had smell-o-blog right now.

 

Next, I've baked a hen.

 

Notice the apple poking out of the cavity of the bird? Someone mentioned that placing and baking an apple inside the hen gives it a different flavor...sorry I couldn't remember where I heard about it but wanted to give credit anyway.

I cooked the hen with peach juice that I saved from a peach cobbler recipe I made last week. No use in allowing that excess juice from the can to go to waste. I also added some whole cranberries to the mix and baked for about 2 hours. Again, the smell is delicious.  I'll probably cook some rice and steam squash, broccoli and cauliflower for a great meal.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!