Beef Stew for the Winter Weather Blues

It was snowing pretty hard this morning and has now faded a bit but there is more snow-a-coming! So what's better than a nice hot bowl of stew for a cold wintery, snowy night. And of course I have to make my mom's beef stew, cause it's the only one I have ever really had and it's so delicious!

Beef Stew

1 lb. stew meat, beef cubes
1-2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 carrots chopped
One 32 ounce (4 cups) beef broth
1 cup water
2 potatoes, diced
Salt and Pepper
Slurry (2 T each flour and water combined)

• Brown the meat in the bottom of the pot, until nice and brown. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the chopped onion and carrot and saute until softened.
• Add the beef broth and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down and simmer for 1 hour.
• Peel and dice potatoes and add into the pot. Simmer until the potatoes are fork tender
• Make slurry of flour and water. Add to the boiling stew, stir while adding the slurry. Mixture should quickly come up to a thick consistency. Cool slightly before serving

Of course you have to have bread for dipping in the yummy gravy of the stew. And lucky for us right across the street is this great little bakery, Blackbird Baking Co. We love getting their French Epi loaves, which is pretty much a "pull-off-your-own-dinner-roll" loaf. It sort of look like a branch off a tree. But tonight I decided on just a regular French Baguette.

It's got a great crusty outside and soft doughy inside, so good! And whenever I go I can't just leave with bread and not get one of their delicious cookies! They do have the best Peanut Butter Cookies I have ever had...all soft in the middle...yum! The hubs likes those and the Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I picked up for him. For myself I got the Cranberry Oat Cookie. It's amazing. So soft in the middle with a slight crisp along the edge. Not too sugary and just delicious! It nice to be able to support a local business and they have the baked goods that deserve the support.

*Note: I did not add pictures of my bowls of stew, which I am really sad about. But I forgot to buy beef broth when I went shopping and had to use chicken and so it's didn't look right and the consistency was off because I just realized I didnt make the slurry right, I only did 1 T each...like a dummy. So when I make this again I will have to post pictures.