Slow Cooker Beef Stew

There is something absolutely lovely about a weekend with nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do. After a solid two months of booked weekends and traveling, we finally enjoyed a weekend at home with some great fall weather, a bonfire with friends, disc golfing, a bean bag tourney with family and football watching. (Disclaimer: the football watching was actually rather disappointing...for Vikings fans, anyway.)

Are slow cookers cheating? I vote no. I love that you can get all the prep out of the way in the morning and enjoy dinner later in the day without much fuss. I chopped up all my veggies (except for the potatoes) the night before and only had to spend about 10 minutes putting everything together in the in the morning. Errands ran and a good game of disc golf later, we came to home to the aroma of homemade stew simmering away. A special note about my disc golfing skills: it's amazing that I'm capable of wielding a knife without losing a finger...or an arm...you'd never guess from my lack of coordination on the disc golf course. Anyway, nothing ground-breaking or Earth-shattering here, just a good, down-home beef stew that makes a return to my recipe repertoire every fall and winter.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 red potatoes, diced
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 6 c. beef broth
• 3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp. corn starch

Directions:

Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and ground cloves. Pour flour mixture over meat and stir to coat. Add veggies to slow cooker. Pour beef broth and Worcestershire sauce over veggies and meat and stir. Simmer covered on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours. During the last hour of simmering, dissolve corn starch in cold water to form a paste and stir into stew. Serve with crusty bread if desired. Enjoy!

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