Beef Stew

I've told Jan many times in the past that when a day at home is open and nice, all I want to do is cook. Digging through some new recipe book or mag, coming up with the ingredients list, heading off to old reliable Festival one more time (becoming a daily shopper), then coming home, unloading the groceries, and diving into the fine type of the chosen recipe with my suburban dad's version of reckless abandon is The Joy of Cooking that I think is all part of what the famous book is referring to and my kind of fun.  (Any guys reading: maybe it's time to finally take up deer hunting?!) Today it was Classic Beef Stew out of the Williams-Sonoma Slow Cooker Cookbook – the kind of recipe for anyone like myself who comes from the childhood Dinty Moore camp of canned, thick sauced, not runny, beef stew.  The key, I found, was to dredge the pre-cut and well salted stew meat with flour and brown in a pan before pouring into the slow cooker.  Over time the flour and beef broth, along with other juices, (red wine or vinegar both options) form something close to the kind of sauce that is velvety, not pasty.  Along with the carrots, potatoes and other standard ingredients, the recipe also calls for additional cremini mushrooms and pearl onions to be put in the cooker about an hour before the stew is to be served.  Since they're tossed in late, they keep their crisp structure and distinct taste against the more subtle soft meat and sauce.  Mine didn't look look like below, and probably didn't taste as good, but it had some thing on Dinty.