So I was at the store yesterday, and came across a great looking round steak marked down because it was nearing it’s “sell by” date. Yeah, I’m a bargain hunter like that… It was about 2 lbs and selling for under $5, how could I pass? Anyway, it had beef stew written all over it (I don’t care for the cut-up stew meat they sell, as it’s generally a rather poor cut of beef).

Here’s what I did:

2 lbs beef, cubed approx 1″
2 large white potatoes, cubed approx 1″
1 onion, chopped
2 cans cooked carrots
1 can sweet corn
2 cans spiced tomatoes
pepper (fresh ground, don’t ask me how much, just twist the mill till you have enough)
1 cup of water (approx)

All that went into the crock pot. After about 7 hours, I had what looked a lot like vegetable beef soup – but that wouldn’t do! I wanted stew! So I mixed a couple of tablespoons of corn starch in about 1/2 a cup of water, poured that in, and let it cook for another half hour.

During that last little cooking session, I made a pan of corn bread – and when it was all done, I had a huge slab of corn bread on a plate covered in the best damned stew I’ve had in ages.

Yeah, it may not sound very exciting, but it was delicious. Considering it was the first time I’d ever tried to make stew, I am very pleased with what I ended up with. I’ve already had seconds, froze about half a quart, and the rest won’t likely last more than a couple of days.