I love when the temps turn to sweatshirt weather, a time when your cheeks get that slight wind chill burn when you’re out for a walk. Work is located downtown and I walk 2 miles every lunch time to keep in shape, get some fresh air but mostly just to clear the head. I have come up with many solutions to the days pressing issue while walking. I’m and IT guy with 35 or so users spread out in 5 locations with an additional 6 servers/PCs to service. To top it off sales is on the road here and in Asia a lot of the time. So every call I get it is 99.99% chance of being issue call. As anyone in my situation will tell you every caller does not give a _____ about anyone else problems just theirs. Oh yeah you take care of the president first, no matter what.

Anyway back to my daily walks, some of the shop owners, police and the mentally challenged give me the nod as I walk by with ear buds blocking out the sounds of downtown Milford and the local neighborhood. I have become a townie it has been since I was in my teens that I’ve been there. Different town different times.

Lyn and I finally broke down and bought a new crockpot, one that you can put the pot on the burner and brown saving those great little flavor bits on the bottom. With sweatshirt weather there is nothing better than coming in from outside and smelling the rich flavors of a great beef stew, heck even a bad one smells good.  As promised here is that quick beef stew recipe I made. I made a small batch since I am still on the fend for yourself diet but made sure I had left overs.

Ingredients

• 1 pounds stew beef like bottom round, well trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. ground pepper
• *********
• Pinch or two of red hot pepper flakes
• 1-2 Tbsps. olive oil (plus more if needed)
• 1 medium to large onions, ruff chop
• ¼ cup ketchup – I did not have tomato paste that would probably be about 1-2 Tbsps.
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 large potato, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup bay carrots
• ¼-_1/2 cup chicken broth would have been better with beef broth but again I did not have.
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• *********
•  ¼-_1/2 cup frozen peas put in when almost ready to serve
• ¼-_1/2 cup frozen corn put in when almost ready to serve

Directions

1. Coat the beef in the flour and pepper. I like to put in plastic bag and shake to coat. Heat a few tablespoons of the oil in a crockpot pot over medium-high heat. Brown the meat, a few pieces at a time, adding more oil as necessary. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium heat until tender, about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the ketchup and coat the onions. Remove and set aside.

3. Place pot in crockpot, pour the wine into the pot and scrape up any browned bits. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, thyme, red pepper flakes and bay leaf.

4. Cover and cook on low heat for 7 ½-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Add the peas and corn and heat through.

I was nervous because it was a small batch but it came out pretty darn good.

My pictures did not come out that great so I admit it I borrowed one from the web. Thanks Susie Cushner interestingly enough her recipe was real close to what I did. Our gut instincts must be close.