Stick To Your Bones Winter Stew

For me, there is no exact recipe to a good stew. I usually just stick a bunch of basic things into a pot, let it cook forever, and something good just seems to come out of it in the end.

I start with the basic stew meat at the grocery store. This time around, I wanted a lot of meat so I used two packages. 

Next I take about a cup of flower and add a couple good shakes of garlic seasoning salt and coat the bits of meat with flower. While I'm doing this, I'm letting my pot heat up nice and good on the stove with a drizzle of olive oil.

I don't coat the meat too much, it'll just get mushy as it browns and that's no good.

Quickly sear the meat in your pot.

After my chunks of meat are all browned up, I add a little red wine to get all the nice bits at the bottom of the pan up, that's flavor. Don't lose that!

Next I add two large cans of diced tomatoes and one can of water. Seems like a lot at first, but it's not.

After that, I add two large sized potatoes diced up (not too small, or it will just disappear in your stew towards the end). 

Then I dice up one medium onion and throw in some carrots.

Next I add some seasoning. I don't have exact measurements, sorry. I just add a little at a time until it tastes right.

But for this, I used Suzie Q's Santa Maria Style garlic seasoning, pepper, red pepper flakes, sriracha sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and love. Kidding on the love. Sort of. Not really. Maybe.

Then I partially cover that bad boy and let it stew on low for about 4 hours, more or less, so that it cooks down and thickens up. I know it's done when the meat pulls apart with a fork or spoon, but today I'm not quite done yet. 

I gotta add some of this good stuff:

Just about a cup of chopped up cabbage will do. Stir it in and cover for about 30 minutes and presto! Stew is done!

Am I the only one who finds a nice, hearty winter stew really sexy? Especially with some cheese on it. Ha. Probably. I haven't been on a date in a while. Play Dough looks sexy to me right now.

Anywho, that's how I made stew for the weekend. Now it's time for a nap. I'll leave you with this final shot of my dog Milo.

And this one too. He's so cute.