Earlier in the week I made beef stew. It was so good that I had a hard time waiting the full 10 hours until dinner  to dish myself up a bowl! I cooked it on the stove, but it can definitely  be cooked in a crockpot after the initial browning of the meat.

I based my recipe on my mom’s boeuf bourguignon recipe, but I omitted the bacon, as we didn’t have any in the house.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups white onions, diced
• 3/4 cup each carrots and celery, diced
• 1 cup white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (tops only, stems may be discarded or saved for a later use)
• 2 T. Air Dried Shallots
• 1 T. Minced Garlic
• 4 T. Butter or Olive Oil (your choice), divided
• 2 lbs. Stew Beef, cut into bite sized pieces (chuck roast works great)
• 1/2 c. AP Flour
• 6 cups beef stock
• 1 Bottle Red Wine (approx. 4 cups), your choice.
• Spices: 1 Bay leaf, 1 T. French Tarragon, Pinch Rubbed Sage, 1 T. Thyme, Salt, Pepper

Directions:

1. In a Large Stock pot, melt 2 T. butter/heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Cook on medium/low heat, stirring occasionally until onions are clear and veggies have sweated.
3. While veggies are cooking, rinse meat and toss gently in AP Flour to coat.
4. After veggies are cooked, scoop out of pot and set aside, add remaining butter/oil, and brown beef over medium heat.
5. Add cooked veggies back in and stir/scrape browned bits off the bottom and sides of pot.
6. Turn heat up to medium/high and add in about half the wine. Scrape off as much of the browned bits off the bottom and sides as you can as the wine cooks.
7. Add remaining wine, stock, and herbs. Cover pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. If you wish, you can transfer everything to a crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
8. Serve with hot, buttered bread, and a green salad. It is soooooo good. If you have leftovers (hahahaha), it is great re-heated and served over rice or buttered noodles.