Beef Stew

This weekend wasn't very exciting as far as cooking goes...actually it was pretty much non-existent!!  Honestly, most of it was spent clearing leftovers out of the refrigerator.  We did a pretty good job with only a minimal amount going to to trash or garbage disposal.  This was due to the fact that my husband dedicated most of this weekend to building the kid's mega playground structure (I'll post pictures when it's done) and needed 3 extra people to help hold huge beams of wood.  As thanks he bought 3 pizzas for lunch Saturday afternoon and my mother in law was nice enough to also bring over like 100 boxes of cookies.  I guess it's okay to cheat on your diet every now and then!  Even though I didn't technically help with the building of the playground, someone had to take child care duty.  I earned my cookies!!

So I started this week out with an empty fridge and exciting menu for the week.  I have a few things I've never made from scratch, but have always wanted to try and my Assistant Chef has been briefed on this weeks menu selection.  Then yesterday afternoon it hit me!  The return of my ickyness!!  I spent the rest of the afternoon popping Tylenol and feeling like my head was going to explode.  Right now I just took another Tylenol in hopes of stopping the stabbing pain radiating from the base of my neck all the way up behind my eyes.  Ouch!  I don't have time to be sick this week so I'm just going to have to push through it.  Today will probably be a cartoon day for the kids so I can rest, but no pajama day for me!

A friend texted me last night to find out if I ever cook without a recipe...if I just throw stuff together as I go.  Funny she should ask since last night's dinner was something I just threw together.  So I guess the answer is yes and no.  Yes I do just throw stuff together a lot of times based on what I have on hand and make additions or subtractions to ingredients through trial and error, but usually I have a base recipe I start out with that I know will work and go from there.  I have been cooking long enough to know what changes I definitely want to make mostly to salt content or spice levels when I have a new recipe.  I also know how I have to cook or hide certain ingredients like onions or peppers if I even want a sporting chance of my husband....that's right, I said HUSBAND, not kids....even trying it, let alone liking it.

Monday night's dinner was beef stew.  I tossed around the idea of making bread bowls for them, but I looked over and saw a bunch of the Irish Soda Bread still sitting in a Tupperware container.  That on top of my headache made me quickly nix the bread bowl idea.  Headache or not, I should have taken the 2 hours to make the bread bowls...or some bread in the bread machine at the least!  Despite still having the appearance of tastiness, the bread was pretty hard and not edible.  No bread for the stew.  Oh well...no one left the table hungry regardless.  I didn't lose any sleep over it...although I didn't sleep well because of the headache.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say the bread and headache weren't directly related!!

Beef stew is pretty much just soup with some cornstarch added at the end to thicken the broth.  This time I made a beef stew because I had some stew meat in the freezer, but I also really like chicken stew.  Maybe I'll have to make some chicken stew in the near future....and this time I'll make the bread bowls!  Whole chicken is on sale this week so maybe I'll do a roast chicken with stuffing and then use the leftovers for some nice stew.  Mental note to self!!

P.S. The Tylenol I took this morning has started working.  Now instead of a stabbing in my brain it feels more like a gentle poke.  I can deal with that!  Looks like I have about 3 hours to be amongst the living before the pain in my brain returns.  Time to get started on dinner tonight...everything has to be in the crockpot by 10:00 a.m.!!  I wonder if my Assistant Chef is awake yet??

Beef Stew

1 lb beef stew meat (I think it was round, but I'm not 100% sure)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 c water

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 c)

2 stalks celery, chopped (about 1/2 c)

1 small can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 tbsp parsley

5 c beef broth

3-4 carrots, chopped (about 2 c)

4 medium potatoes, chopped (about 2 c)

1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried basil

1 beef bouillon cube

1/3 c frozen peas

1/3 c frozen corn

Cornstarch for thickening

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Start browning meat and season with pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.  After about 5 mins, add the 1/4 c water.

Continue to cook over medium-high heat until the water is evaporated and meat is browned.  This took about another 10 mins.

Add onions, celery, parsley, can of tomatoes and beef broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  I was pretty excited to try out my frozen cubes of parsley I made the other day.  It worked quite nicely!  It's the little things in life, right??

Meanwhile, I chopped my carrots and potatoes and set them aside.  You can place the potatoes in cold water to keep them from oxidizing and turning a funky brown color.

Turn heat back up to medium-high heat and return to a boil.  Add carrots and continue cooking over a low boil for 15 mins.

Add potatoes, basil, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce and bouillon cube.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer another 30 mins stirring occasionally.

Add frozen peas and corn.  Remove the bay leaf and discard.

Mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1 tbsp cold water until smooth.  Add to stew and continue to cook, stirring constantly.  Repeat this step as many times as necessary to reach desired thickness.

Remove from heat.  Stew will continue to thicken as it cools.

My beef stew served with salad and inedible bread.  I took this picture before I realized the bread was nasty.

Beef stew.