Lunatic's Garlic Beef Stew or Why Vampires Won't Attack You Tonight

Hi folks.

I have to tell you a secret.

But.........

you have to promise not to tell anyone else!

Okay?

Pinky swear!!

Okay, are you ready for it?

I LOVE weekends. I know....it's shocking right. I've revealed too much. Maybe I shouldn't have told you. I should have kept it to myself. But we're pals. We're buds. You're my homey. So I feel like I can tell you this kind of stuff. Just don't tell anyone else. It's our little secret. Mmkay?

It is odd that I enjoy them so much. I mean it's not like I work in a highly stressful job like some of you. I basically am either home in sweat pants for 85.6% of my life. Or I am in the car driving hooligans around for the other 14.4% of the time. But I dress up when I go out. I wear jeans. Yup, rock star baby. This Mom goes out in style. On a good day I even brush my hair.

So when weekends roll around I like to chillax with the hooligans. I mean when they have time for me. Which is like....whenever they aren't busy with more important things. Like boyfriends, girlfriends, work, friends, conferences. Oh sorry, my hooligans are older hooligans, not little tiny hooligans. Mini- me is 18 and B....okay wait, I think B needs a new handle. What do you think? He doesn't get enough air time around here. So we'll put it to a vote. I'll offer suggestions, you can weigh in and I shall do what I do with the kids often....which is....listen to what you say then do what I want anyway. What? Yah, big shocker I know. I've been a stay at home Mom for 23 years, I micromanage. Which is Mom code for bossing people around. Okay here's the list:

1- We can continue to call him B.

2- We can call him Bray, which is what I call him often.

3- We can call him Mini-C. The theory behind this one is hubs name is C'Paul, I call him C, hence the name Mini-C.

4- We can call him Mini-dude.

I've already decided. Let's see what you think. Er, right I forgot I micromanage.

So I made some stew. It totally rocked. I wanted to post it last night but stew is hard to take pics of. So I was planning on taking some today in natural light. But...

the appraiser came to see the house....

then the puppy peed on him...

then I got bored....

then I ate cherry kisses...

then I took mini-me to see a movie...

then we got home and had important stuff to do...

like watch Fringe....

*smiles sheepishly*

I love you guys!

Lunatic's Garlic Beef Stew or Why Vampires Won't Attack You Tonight:

A Lunatic Original

Ingredients:

1 pound blade roast, cut up into chunks (you can use stewing beef but I had extra blade roast on hand)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Memories of Kobe sauce (this is a garlic tamari but any brand will do, thick always better)
1 cup onion, diced or chunked
1 cup celery, diced or chunked
8 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
2 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut up into chunks (they tend to hold up nicely in stew)
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut up into chunks
3 cups water
2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon, use beef or vegetable
1 cup tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut up your beef into cubes or chunks. Place in a container and add the Memories of Kobe tamari sauce in it. Place the lid on and give it a good shake. Marinate this for at least an hour. (I did mine overnight)

Cut up all your veggies and set aside.

Place a good pan on the stove top, spray with a touch of non stick spray and drizzle some oil in it. Let the pan heat up a bit over a medium heat. Now drop you meat into it and keep stirring but turn the pan down just a touch. After a couple of minutes add your onion. Now continue to cook until the meat and onions brown up. Does not take long. And make sure you continue to stir things around to keep it from sticking. You can add extra oil as you go if you need it. I use olive oil when doing this.

Transfer meat to crock pot.

Now toss in your veggies.

In the same pan you cooked your meat, add the water and bouillon. As it boils scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to remove any yummy bits left from the meat and onions. This is where extra flavor comes in. Once it boils pour it into the crock pot.

Add your tomato sauce.

Now toss in your bay leaves and add your salt and pepper.

Add your garlic.

Give a stir.

Turn slow cooker on low and cook for about 8 to10 hours depending on the size of your chunks and make of slow cooker. I would check it at 6 hours, then continue to check it every hour after that.

Serve with a big smile and a stake for those with a sense of humor.

For those of you who know my weird food quirks, I'd love to know why I can't let my food touch on the plate but I can reach into a bowl of stew to procure a piece of tater and pop it in my mouth like it's no big.

Tips and hints:

All slow cookers cook differently. Get to know yours so you can adjust recipes to suit it. I find my big one takes longer, my small one cooks quicker. Good rule of thumb to remember.



You can add extra spices to stew. Get creative. Use what you love.

By the same token you can omit spices. Tailor the stew to your own personal taste.

If you like thick stew add a thickener. My mother in law taught me to thicken things by taking a jar and adding water and cornstarch to it, shake it and add a little of it in your stew towards the end of the cooking time to thicken it. This is a personal taste thing.

Then reach back in and grab a carrot and swirl it around and scarf like 10 of them while taking pics.

So that last tip came into play here at the Bee household yesterday. I like thick stew, it seems heartier to me and less like soup. Hubs likes it thin and runny. As you can see it's thin this time. I want a new camera so....thin stew. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team. Especially when angling for new blogging equipment. Thin stew= happy hubs= less likely to grumble when I say "hey I almost have enough gift certificates to start shopping for a new camera. Remember my birthday last week, when you didn't buy me anything. Well....."

See, new camera equipment desperately needed here!

Toodles and smoochies. xx