Dreary Spring Days? Make Stew!

        I love Spring! But not all Spring days are full of sunshine and pretty blooming flowers. Some days are downright misereable; cold, dreary, rainy, and muddy. It's these days that drive me to either cook to my heart's content or let my creativity run free as I write, paint, or sew. Today I felt like cooking and writing. What better way to do that than to write a food post! Dreary days like these make me want to eat comfort food. Rich, fatty, carbohydrate-filled comfort food. My solution to that? Stew! I usually make a vegetarian version of what I'm about to share with you, but today just needed some beef. If you want to make a vegetarian version, just add some of your favorite type of beans instead of beef and serve it on a bed of quinoa for added protein.

Rainy-Day Stew                                           Serves approx. 4-6
6-8 C. water
1 Tbsp. beef flavoring (I use Orrington Farms broth base & seasoning.)
4 leaves of sweet basil.
1/2 tsp. parsley
3 shoots of green onion (leave them whole if you like.)
2 stalks of celery (diced)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. white pepper
Pinch of black pepper
Start bringing these first 10 ingredients to a boil right away so the flavors can begin to combine!
3 large leaves of kale (tear into large chunks, don't use the stem!)
4 med. mushrooms (quartered)
3 med. carrots (scrub and roughly chop)
1/2 slice of thick bacon (fry until crispy in a large skillet and then chop or crumble)
1 lb. beef stew meat. (dice into 1" cubes and sear in the bacon grease)
Add these 5 ingredients to the broth and simmer on high for about 20min.



2 med. red potatoes (scrub and dice into 1/2" cubes)
After 20min of simmering has gone by, add the potatoes and stir everything together well.
Now you have a decision to make. Either leave it on the stove to slowly cook or put it in a 325* oven. Either way it will take another hour to cook down. If you put it in the oven, you might want to cover it loosly with some tin foil. This is also the hard part because you will want to stir it often! Well, don't!!! Only stir it once partway through and stir it carefully. If you stir it often the potatoes will crumble and make a weird texture. It is done when the liquid has slowly cooked down to about 1/4" in the bottom of the pan.

    It should resemble this. ^ 

remove from whatever heat source you are using and serve hot over a bed of noodles, rice, or quinoa. (your choice! They're all yummy!) Enjoy!

My daughter is lurking in the background, ready to eat!