Stewing

You know that Dinty Moore beef stew, that comes in a can, with the mushy vegetables and the suspect-looking meat mounds? Most people have never considered actually eating it. But you know what? I love that shit. Loooooove it. So, with this in mind, imagine how much I adore its homemade, non-sketchy counterpart.

Free license to eat stew without scrutiny might be my favorite thing about winter. Apparently I'm pretty vocal about this, because a couple months ago at work, publishers started sending me a disproportionate amount of books about one pot meals - one of them being Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever. Seriously, that's the real subtitle. And I'm going to let it slide, because the book is amazing.

I didn't have to spend much time deciding what to make first - I wanted the stew from the cover, and I wanted it NOWS. Minus the corn. (I feel strongly that corn does not belong in soup. One of my coworkers also believes corn has no place on the cover of a book. So this was a double corn whammy. What a polarizing vegetable!) Anyway, the prep for this recipe was extremely easy, and I'm not sure the wonder of a crock pot will ever wear off for me. You put food in it, turn it on, and leave. And then it's a meal, ready when you walk into your house, which has incidentally been filled with amazing aromas. I can only hope that the Nobel Prize commission will someday recognize what this contraption has done for humanity.

So. Old-Fashioned Beef Stew. (Based on the version from the previously mentioned best cookbook ever.)

Ingredients:
4 yellow potatoes, quartered
2 medium onions, quartered
2 carrots, 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 lb beef chuck, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup beef broth
2 T olive oil
3/4 c flour
1 t dried thyme
1 c frozen peas

Throw your potatoes, carrots, onions, 1 t salt and 1/2 t pepper in your crock pot. Put 1 t salt, 1 t pepper and flour in a bag, then the meat. Shake. Heat oil in skillet, add meat, and cook until brown on all sides, but don't cook through. Deglaze skillet with the broth, scrape any browned bits, and put it all in the crock pot. Add the thyme, cover, and cook on low for 8 hours. Add peas, and cook for another hour. Voila.

I took photos of my stew, and then accidentally deleted them from my camera. But honestly, it looked just like the photo. Minus the corn.