Happy Friday everyone!!  I’m going to apologize to everyone right here and now–I’m sorry I haven’t posted in so long!!  I’ve been totally distracted with life and birthdays and life.  I’ve barely been even experimenting much with recipes, as when I do get home from work, I’m ready to take a nap, or I’m running back out doing something else (yes, I know, we all have our busy moments!)  It’s been a busy few months!  The long commutes too and from work haven’t helped either because I don’t know about everywhere else in the country, but the past few weeks has been absolutely crazy with the weather!  Here in Chicago, we got 10 INCHES OF SNOW….

Only to have it melt a few days later with 50º temperatures!  Personally, I LOVE the winter, especially when it looks like this, but I’m ready for Mother Nature to make up her mind and have it be either winter or spring, ya know?

Since last Sunday was such a cold, wet, RAINY day–I decided what better meal to make than something warm and comforting?  I’d been craving my grandmother’s homemade noodles for a while, and I had just made chicken and dumplings recently so making chicken noodle soup seemed a bit redundant.  So, I was curled up on the couch reading one of my romance novels when the author described something beefy and noodley (yes, it’s a word!  I say so!) and thus beef and noodles was born.  I do have to warn you though, this make a big pot, and you may have leftovers, which you can drop off at my place as they won’t taste very good and I’ll have to grin and bear eating them for you.  A girl has to do, what a girl has to do!

Beef and Noodles

Ingredients

Noodles

• 1 1/2 – 2c flour, plus more for rolling out
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 c milk

Beef “stew”

• 2-3lb beef stew meat, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 large zucchini, quartered and chopped
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 turnip, peeled and chopped
• 1 c red wine
• 8-9c beef broth, separated**
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 large bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the beef, melt butter in a large pot.  Add cut-up beef stew meat and brown until just cooked on the outside.  Once browned, add wine and 3 cups of beef broth.  Put the lid on, turn the fire down to medium-low, and let it simmer for 2 hours or so.  I recommend checking on it from time to time.

For the noodles, stir eggs, milk, and salt, stir with a fork until combined.  Add in flour (I would put in 1 1/2 cups first, add more if needed) until you form a dough.  Put flour on a flat surface and roll dough out, to 1/8″-1/4″ thickness.  My trick here, is to use a pizza cutter.  You’re making noodles…so what you cut is how big the noodles will be when cooked (since these are fresh, they don’t really puff up that much).  I generally cut them to about 1 1/2″x1/2″ size.  Use your imagination, and have fun with it!  Set the noodles aside (so long as they’re lightly coated with flour, you can stack them up on the counter, or put them in a bowl, just make sure they’re not too sticky and don’t stick to each other).

Once the beef is cooked through (it should be almost falling apart, not tough and chewy) add thyme, rosemary, bay leaf.  Add remaining broth and bring to a boil.  Stir in noodles and vegetables, occasionally stirring to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.  Once the noodles are cooked through, turn the fire down to low, sprinkle some salt and pepper, give it a good stir–and toss the lid on for 15 minutes.

Doesn’t that look delicious!?!  By letting the homemade noodles cook in the broth for the extra time, the flour from the noodles thickens the broth to an almost stew-like consistency.  If you want, you can add a little water/cornstarch mixture and really thicken it up, but I recommend letting the noodles thicken it only slightly–naturally.

**Note:  I used beef bouillon and water instead of buying beef broth.  In this case, it’s a 1-cube of bullion to 1 cup of water (follow directions on the jar if using granules).  If you use beef bouillon and water like I did, you may want to watch how much salt you put in–most likely you won’t need any, and just add pepper for flavor.