i.e. this makes a lot.

Fall is here and it has us food fanatics dreaming. Mulled cider, ginger-spiced butternut squash puree, toasted pumpkin risotto … oh yes, we dream.

But when it comes down to it, this young lady has no interest in making any of the above delicacies.

It’s cold, I’m lonely, and I want beef.

There, I said it.

So let’s get it on, eh? You’ll spend about four hours on this one. But it’s easy. Once you got your meat in the pan, just ‘chop and drop’ … as my lady Rachael Ray says, adding ingredients as they’re ready. Stop over to skim the fat from the stew every while and again — then enjoy yer stew for the next, er, 7 meals.

Beef stew

… loosely adapted from Epicurious.com’s Irish Stew.
Click here for the Flickr slideshow.

###Go Shopping

Jess do it:
• 2 pounds stew beef
• 2 packages beef stock (8 cups)
• Tomato paste
• Veggies (as you like ‘em, I used): 3 potatoes, 5 stalks celery, 1 onion, 1 bell pepper, handful mushrooms
• Spices: 1 TB thyme, 1 tsp cayenne, 2 bay leaves 1 TB Worcestershire sauce, 1 TB molasses, garlic
• Beer

###Spice it up, Spice it up, You got it, You got it

Add to a handful of all purpose flour:
• 1 TB cayenne pepper
• 1 TB thyme
• 1 pinch sumac

###Dredge your beef

###Brown cow in olive oil

###Get down and deglazin’

My flour & fat starting getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, so I poured in enough beef stock to cover the bottom of the pan (1/4 cup) and deglazed … scraping up all those lovely “brown bits” from the bottom of the pan. Hopefully, this will help me stew to thicken as it cooks.

###A palm of garlic

Yeah, that never hurts.

###Liquify

Add 8 cups beef stock (2 packages here) and 1 beer. You should really use Guinness, but this lady loves her Bass (drinkin’ it now, dontcha know).

###The Zen of Spicing

Add:
• 2 TB tomato paste

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tsp. thyme

• 1 TB dark molasses

• 1 TB Worcestershire sauce

Kitchen tip! Clean sticky guck (like tomato paste & molasses) off your measuring spoon by dipping your spoon into the pot of stew … cleaning and seasoning in one easy step!

###Starchy, Smarchy

Add three chopped red potatoes.

###Onions & Peppers & My Hand, oh my.

Add one chopped onion & one chopped bell peppers. Make the pieces as big as something you’d wanna chop on.

###My Celery Darling, Isn’t it a bit too soon for us?

Add about 5 stalks of chopped celery. Be sure to rinse it, they can get dirty dirty. Eat the rest of the package with Texas Pete hot sauce and pretend they are Buffalo wings. You are so hungry.

Kitchen tip! Clean your celery in ice water! It cleans and crisps in one easy step!

##Cook, and cook, and cook …

###Urban Myth Debunked! Rinse your Mushrooms!

It’s a common myth that you can’t wash mushrooms — they’ll absorb water, they lose flavor, etc. Not true, says Harold McGee. And I believe him. He’s smart.

###Slice & Dice ‘Em! ( … the Mushrooms!)

And add to the pot …

##Cook and Cook …

###Skim the Fat

See that ick to the right of the pot? That’s fat, bubbling off to the top. Skim it off with a spoon …. it’ll look like this …

###Yeah, you don’t want to eat that

###Cook until you’re too tired to eat. Then eat.