'Tis The Season For Beef Stew

What gorgeous weather we have been having of late! I've been absolutely LOVING it.

We haven't been able to go camping but have been trying to get in as much time as possible outside and around the fire in the evenings.​

Last Friday evening we invited some friends over to enjoy a meal together and sit around the fire. My menu suggestion was grilled hamburgers (I'm always ready for a grilled hamburger) but my wife, having finer tastes and more in tune with the seasons and what to eat with each season, suggested beef stew. Beef stew it was.

She conned me into helping and I purchased some sirloin steak, shoulder roast and rump roast from our farm store and got busy cutting it up into stew sized pieces

I did the dirty work and she did the magical combining of this and that ingredient and when it was all said and done, we had some very good stew sitting out under our spreading oak trees enjoying the cool, quiet, moonlit night sky with friends.

Classic Beef Stew

2 lbs. Stew meat
2 T. oil
1 1/2 c. chopped onion
1 (16 oz.) can tomatoes with liquid (cut up)
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed beef broth, undiluted
3 T. quick-cooking tapioca
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
3 med. potatoes, cut into 2" pieces (we like to add sweet potatoes as well)
6 med. carrots, cut into 2" pieces
1 c. slice celery cut into 1" pieces

Cut beef into 1 inch cubes. In a Dutch oven, brown beef in oil. Add onion, tomatoe, broth, tapioca, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, bay leaf. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Cover and bake at 350* for 1.5 hours. Stir in carrots, potatoes, and celery. Bake covered 1 hour or longer until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving. - Carolyn N.

This recipe can be found in the Down Home Southern Cookin' cookbook. (You can buy our stew meat here.)

Pictured above was another evening's meal. We grilled a flank steak over the campfire and cooked some potatoes in the Dutch oven. Enough talking about food. I'm getting hungry!

That's all for this week. Stay safe, enjoy the beautiful weather and all the small things in life that are free.