Saturday

When your daughter gets an invitation to go visiting and the inviters ask, "have you had lunch yet?" and your daughter says 'yes' even though she hasn't because everyone slept in and dad made breakfast at noon, you know your Saturday is getting off to a good start. That's my kind of Saturday.

I have another stew recipe, or rather a modified version of an old recipe. You can see the original, along with some good smoke alarm advice, on my April 28 posting. Here's the modified version:

Tim's Stew (sorry, the name hasn't gotten any more creative)

• Decide that you don't want to spend a lot of time cooking because it's one of those kinds of Saturdays, and think stew is just the thing.

• Take some stew beef, about a pound.

• Fry it in oil, in a cast iron pan at medium heat until it's nice and brown. (see old recipe for browning instructions).
• Pour water in the pan, enough to cover the meat. It will bubble and foam. Scrape up all that nice brown stuff that is stuck to the pan. It should turn the water nice and brown.

• Pour the whole shoot'n match into a pot, and put the pot on low heat.

• Add some garlic some salt, some soy sauce and a little Hoisin sauce. (optional)

• Get the tomato sauce out of the fridge, open it, look at it and think that's really weird tomato sauce, realize it's salsa and put it back in the fridge.

• Get the real tomato sauce out and put in a couple tbsp.

• Add a few squirts of Dijon mustard, and a dozen or so drops of tabasco

• Shake in enough basil to cover the whole surface of the stew, and then add a small amount of oregano.

• Find some fresh rosemary leaves that your wife bought for an awesome chicken dish that she saw on the Martha Stewart show. (side note: you can get the recipe here, and Erinn says you can cut the butter in half and use regular bread crumbs for the stuffing. An awesome recipe.)

• Chop a some of the rosemary leaves into the stew (I used scissors).

• Add some curry powder, maybe a tsp to start

• Add more water, enough to fill the pot 2/3 full.

• Add some salt and pepper.

• Cover, turn the heat very low heat and forget about it for a couple hours.

• After a couple hours, add as many diced potatoes and carrots as you think you'd like to eat.

• Add more of the above spices. Potatoes and carrots dilute the flavour.

• Freak out because you think you added too much rosemary, and worry that everyone will hate the stew. Stay calm and add some more salt, pepper, and garlic.

• Add some chopped mushrooms and red bell peppers near the end unless your kids object (mine do).

• Thicken (see old recipe or figure it out yourself).

This stew goes real well with Erinn's homemade biscuits. If you aren't into making biscuits, my world famous breadsticks are a good second choice. You can get the recipe on my September 30 posting.

A good choice for dessert is Erinn's pumpkin cake (don't try substituting breadsticks for pumpkin cake). You'll have to find your own recipe . . . just go to Google and type "pumpkin cake."

The stew was great by the way, and got good reviews from all members of the family. Except that Vanessa said, "Dad, how come mine has pine needles in it?" (Note: make sure you chop all the rosemary leaves well).