Irish Lamb Stew, Cookies N Cream Cake, and Roasted Celery Root and Pear Puree

 I've been busy in the kitchen again and I'm feeling a much needed break will be coming on. Or at least I'm taking a break for today. I made all the things in the title- along with cinnamon rolls yesterday because I didn't want the icing ingredients to go to waste. 

So...here we go. Starting with Lamb Stew. I had my doubts about this recipe..just seemed too simple. And I was right. I'm not into it. I so badly wanted to add carrots and all kinds of things but I resisted because I really wanted to find out it if it would be good on its own. It was edible- but I wouldn't make this again. This is from the Unofficial Harry Potter cookbook which I am cooking right through. I'm not about 65% through the book. Only 35% more to cook through! 

Looks very meh....

Next up- a cookies n cream cake. I was craving one for a little while now. It came out OK. I think if I were to make this again I would use a chocolate cake base with a deeper chocolate flavor. I just used the Hershey's Chocolate cake recipe and freestyled the icing. I used a mix of butter, cream cheese, and mascarpone with crushed Oreos. I wish I took a picture of the inside. This was actually the second attempt. The first time I baked the cake I baked it for about two hours because I went to watch TV and complete forgot I was baking a cake. 😂😂😂 Whoops. The remake was a lot better though. 

And last up- Celery Root and Pear Puree. I thought this was the last puree in the Vitamix book but looking ahead- there are more. I almost skipped this recipe thinking Celery Root would be hard to find. But---apparently not. To my knowledge I have never had celery root. Had no idea celery even has roots. But I'm always down to branch out and try new vegetables. So I very loosely followed the recipe...and I really like it. It has an edge to it. Very flavorful- kinda spicy. Complex. And the added pear (I used canned) gave it enough sweetness. I still am not really 100% sure what to do with puree. I feel like they go best with fancy food- you know where they place a smidge on the plate and then small portions of whatever food. I just served with Salmon and Rice. It was surprisingly good. 

And that's all for this week!