Hearty Beef Recipe

Missy, here. I'm doing this post ahead of time since I'll be in Dallas, Texas, for the ACFW conference when you're reading this. Since I may not be around much today, I thought I'd just share hearty beef recipe I created last week. I hunted for a recipe I'd seen made on Food Network but couldn't find it. I figured I'd watched enough shows that surely I could figure out how to cook some beef stew just from memory. :)

So...

Missy's Beef Stew

I had a pack of stew meat (chuck) in the freezer that I thawed out.

Put a little oil in the pan and heat on medium high heat. Add the beef and sear each side until you get good caramelization (only about a minute each side since the beef is cut in small pieces. Don't cook it through!).

Remove to a bowl.

Add chopped onion to the pan (that now has nice brown bits from cooking the beef) and stir, cooking until translucent. Then add any other vegetables you'd like to include. I wanted sliced carrots but only had a bag of julienned ones so I added a hand full of them. I also had a few fresh mushrooms leftover to add. Cook until softened.

Then add about 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or red wine. Let cook for a couple more minutes while scraping the bottom of the pan, to deglaze.

Add about half a small can of tomato paste for richness. Then pour in about half a box of chicken or beef stock (I only had chicken). Return the meat to the pan, cover, and then simmer on low until tender (at least 2-3 hours for the chuck).

I decided to serve on polenta, made according to package directions. It was tasty!

Well, I hope I'm getting to see some of our regular blog visitors in Dallas! For those of you who couldn't come to ACFW this year, I hope you'll hold down the fort and have a nice chat at the cafe!

Oh! A recipe preview!

In case you want to make the recipe that I'll be sharing next week (my daughter's birthday cake), then be sure to buy these ingredients at the grocery this week:

1 package cream cheese (I used "light" and it was fine)

1 tub of CoolWhip (you'll need 2 cups)

1 box Devil's Food Cake mix

1 package Oreos

Semi-sweet bakers chocolate or chocolate chips

staples like eggs, oil, sugar, butter

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? :)