Beef Stew and Mexican Cornbread

Sorry, no pictures at the moment. I am having technical difficulties....

Beef Stew

I got this recipe off my friend Grace's blog . I finally brought my slow cooker home yesterday and got a chance to make this. SOOO good! The beef just falls apart, it's so tender!

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup baby carrots (I used 2 regular carrots and cut them up)
• 4 large potatoes, cubed (I used 3)
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley (didn't use this)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 onions, sliced (I used 1 big onion, I think 3 onions may have been too much for our taste)
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

• Place meat in a large plastic bag. (I didn't do all the meat at once, it was easier to cook that way)
• Combine 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt; pour into the bag with the meat, and shake to coat.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside.
• Transfer to a slow cooker along with the carrots, potatoes, parsley, and pepper.
• In a small bowl, stir together 2 cups of boiling water and dry soup mix; pour into the slow cooker.
• In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened; remove to the slow cooker.
• Pour red wine into the skillet, and stir to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom.
• Remove from heat, and pour into the slow cooker.
• Cover, and cook on High for 30 minutes.
• Reduce heat to Low, and cook for 6 hours or until meat is fork tender.
• In a small bowl or cup, mix together 2 tablespoons flour with 1/4 cup warm water.
• Stir into stew, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until thickened.

Mexican Cornbread

This I got off my fav recipe site, allrecipes.com. I really wanted cornbread with the stew, and thought mexican cornbread might be good with it. While it came out really good, I think next time I'd just make regular cornbread with the stew (or just leave out the chilis)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, melted (I used 6 T.)
• 1 cup white sugar (I used 1/3 c.)
• 4 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1/2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (didnt use this)
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (used 1c of cheddar since i had a whole block of it)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar.
• Beat in eggs one at a time.
• Blend in cream corn, chiles, Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese.
• In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
• Add flour mixture to corn mixture; stir until smooth.
• Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into center of the pan comes out clean.