Beef Stew in the Crockpot

I finally have a day that I can do some cooking and get gifts finished.  Maybe today, on Christmas Eve no less, I can finally get into the holiday spirit.  I thawed the beef roast that I received two weeks ago and it is now in the crockpot with a bunch of other CSA veggies cooking into a stew.   Here is the recipe:

 

Crockpot Beef Stew

• 1 3-lb chuck blade roast
• 8 cups water
• 4 medium carrots, large dice
• 4 stalks celery, sliced thick (I had done this and frozen them several weeks ago)
• 6 small red peppers, sliced (also frozen)
• 1 lb fingerling potatoes (larger ones cut into 1" pieces)
• 5 small to medium red onions
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp garlic powder (I don't have fresh garlic available)

 

Prepare the vegetables as follows: carrots and celery in thick slices, potatoes either whole or cut to 1" pieces, red peppers sliced to 1" slices and red onions halved or quartered (depending on size).  Place vegetables into crock, add water and place roast on top.  Add spices and cover and cook 3-4 hours on high.  Remove roast and cut into bite-sized pieces.  Add meat back to crock and cook on LOW for 1-2 more hours.

 

Normally I would increase heat to HIGH again and add 1 cup barley (cook for 1 hour on HIGH).  Unfortunately, I also don't have barley here, so we will have to "suffer" without.  I also do not have red wine here, so I will check spices once the initial cooking is done and adjust as needed.

 

I am working on a pair of leg warmers as a gift for my mother-in-law while waiting for the stew to cook.  I hope I can complete them.  I cannot believe that I am just now making her gift this year!  It has been a crazy end of the year.

 

I want to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas.  We finish the moving next week and then I will have to get busy cooking again.  I am a couple packages behind on using my CSA packages and they are enticing me to do some serious cooking!