Gimme The Recipe – You came for the food now stay for the romance!

LAST day of the first month of the year already! How did that happen so quickly and what have you achieved? Or are you waiting for February to get going on that ambitious list of yours? Here’s a tip – get OFF the f*n phone. Easier said than done I know.

The Plan

For various personal reasons (one of which was being called ‘fake’) I’ve taken a step back from social media and reclaimed an awful lot of time. The ambitions are as follows:

• Blog post once a month
  • With a catch up and a recipe, where would I be without food?!
  • This month’s recipe is Slow Cooker Moroccan Beef Stew
• Edit of my romance novel ‘Good Enough’
  • This is well underway, basically there are some minor errors that shouldn’t be there so these are being fixed
• Promotion of my podcast of ‘Good Enough’ novel
  • This starts today 31 Jan. Basically the podcast is complete and you can listen to the entire Romance Novel ‘Good Enough’ being read (by me!) for FREE. I just need to promote it and get the word out.
• Continue work on the sequel to ‘Good Enough’
  • This is underway with plans to complete writing by end of 2023 and edit in 2024.
  • I am very excited about this project but as I work full time this will be slow and I will enjoy the process with intent
• Instagram once a month
  • It used to be twitter that made my time disappear but there is no navigating that in any sensible fashion these days so I find that grand to just dip in and out of for news etc without going down a rabbit hole. Basically it’s a bit of a jumbled mess and I don’t stay there for long
  • Instagram on the other hand is just far too beautiful for her own good and a pond into which I could continually gaze.
  • What have I learned from my time off instagram? I am missing NOTHING. I am looking forward to dipping in later on this evening, perhaps creating a reel. I really like instagram but there is no need for me to visit every day. I am very interested in the accounts that I follow and looking forward to seeing what they’ve been up to. Like catching up with an old friend.

Good Enough Novel Podcast Promotion

• My first novel ‘Good Enough’ is a feel-good romance and the recorded chapters on the podcast vary in length but on average are approximately 30 minutes. This could be an ideal listen if you’re getting out there walking or could be a good listen on a long drive.
• You will find it everywhere you choose to listen . (PLEASE begin with CHAPTER ONE ! )
  • Google
  • Spotify
  • Amazon / Audible
  • There are more….
• If you can’t find it where you want to listen let me know and I’ll see what I can do to rectify that

Moroccan Beef Stew (Slow Cooker Version)

• Ingredients – serves 6–8
• 1 medium onion
• 1kg stewing beef pieces, e.g. shin
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 cm thumb–width piece of ginger (or 1 tbsp ginger paste)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp honey
• Method:
• Peel and finely chop the onion and place in base of slow cooker
• Peel and crush the garlic and finely chop or grate the ginger and then add along with all the spices and honey and mix well
• Stir in the beef pieces
• Add the tomato puree, canned tomatoes and mix well.
• Cook in Slow Cooker on Low for 8 hours

(Good with buttery mashed potatoes or boiled rice, with a side of green beans.)

Looking forward to catching up at the end of February. In the meantime take it slow and get some time back.

xx Sheila

First the stew.

As you know I’ve taken 50 of my favourite dinner recipes and bundled them together in an ebook ‘Gimme Dinner.’ One of these is Moroccan Beef Stew.

Moroccan Beef Stew

Ingredients – serves 6–8
1medium onion
1tbsp olive oil
1kg stewing beef pieces, e.g. shin
3 garlic cloves
3cm thumb–width piece of ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground coriander
1tbsp tomato puree
2x400g cans of chopped tomatoes
100ml water
2tbsp runny honey

Serve With – mashed potatoes or boiled rice, boiled green

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150^oC / Gas Mark 3.
2. Peel and finely chop the onion.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large casserole pot and gently fry the onion for 5 minutes over a low heat.
4. Raise the heat to medium, push the onion to the sides of the pot, add the beef, and brown for 2 minutes.
5. Peel and crush the garlic and finely chop or grate the ginger and then add it to the centre of the pot to cook for 1 minute.
6. Add the ground cinnamon and ground coriander and cook for 1 minute.
7. Add the tomato puree, canned tomatoes, water and honey and mix well.
8. Cook the casserole in the oven for 2 hours with a lid on. Check it after an hour and if there are any signs of it drying out, add some more water.

(Good with buttery mashed potatoes or boiled rice, with a side of green beans.)

Next the romance.

Fridays have become my writing days. Though busy with the real job in admin I am making time for one of my other big loves which is romance fiction writing. I’ve started working on the follow-up to ‘Good Enough’ my debut romance that was just about to be published this time last year – where does the time go !!!

To write the sequel I am rereading ‘Good Enough’ to revisit my characters and remind myself of all their idiosyncrasies etc and as I started to read a few weeks ago I also started to record. What this means is that there is now a ‘Good Enough’ podcast that you can listen to for free wherever you choose to do that – check out the links down below.

Two chapters are being published every week until Christmas and I do like to think it’s a perfect read/listen for the holiday season.

Links to find the ‘Good Enough’ novel podcast by Sheila Kiely – start on chapter One :

• Good Enough – Chapter 20
• Good Enough – Chapter 19
• Good Enough – Chapter 18
• Good Enough – Chapter 17
• Good Enough – Chapter 16

I hope you like it!

x Sheila.

A question I ask in the introduction to my ebook ‘Gimme Dinner‘ (ahem, IT’S out NOW) is :

‘Does answering the question, “what’s for dinner?”, sometimes make you want to scream?’

Or is it just me?

It doesn’t happen too much now but when my kids were small and feeding them was something to accomplish before rushing out the door to some sporting or other commitment it used to drive me CRAZY.

I would have been doing my best to speedily complete the task with a fair idea of what I needed to do under serious time pressure and then someone would aimlessly wander in and interrupt all that with what I could argue was a fairly pointless question.

Really! Did it really matter what the answer was? Whatever it was it was certainly not up for discussion or about to change anytime soon.

My hope now is that ‘Gimme Dinner‘ will come in handy to anyone who is time frazzled and under pressure to answer that (stupid) question without raising blood pressure. I’ve just discovered the free kindle app myself lately and now have my book on all my devices so when I’m out shopping I can quickly check ingredients lists on my phone and in the kitchen use a tablet/ipad etc for a larger view when cooking. Also if someone does wander in and wants to know what’s cooking , you can just point at the device and silently get on with what you are doing!

If you, reading this, happen to be the person who from time to time wanders into the kitchen and asks that question can I make a suggestion please? How about instead of ‘What’s for Dinner?’ you take a leaf out of André’s book and ask :

‘How can I help?’

Or as André actually asked in his delightful French accent :

‘Der is somezing I can elp?’

If you are unaware of André follow this link to view one of Ireland’s all time favourite tv ads, there are hilarious parodies available too.

To get an idea of what ‘Gimme Dinner‘ includes (50 of my favourite dinner recipes) you can get a free sample and try before you buy.

x Sheila