Blues-Bustin' Beef Stew

It's February, which means it's time for the Superb Owl, Valentine's Day, and snow. Lots and lots of snow.  Lots and lots of snow.

There's a car under there somewhere. Damn you, Mr. Freeze. To combat days such as these, my buddy Matt came up with this bangin' beef stew to lift up your spirits, so without further ado...

Blues-Bustin' Beef Stew

Source: Matt's very own recipe blog, where you can find other delicious dishes.

Ingredients:

- 1 to 1 1/2 lbs cubed stew beef
- 2 medium yellow onions, diced
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil (I used olive oil)
- Salt and pepper
- Various other veggies (I'll explain later)

The Cooking:

First things first, throw your olive oil onto a 12 inch skillet, and heat it up to medium. Once it gets hot, dump in the beef.

While they're cooking, separate them if you can. This'll make flipping them over less of a hassle. Also toss some salt and pepper on top of them. How much is up to you, but I like my meat with a bit of kick, so I threw on lots and lots and lots of pepper. After about 2-3 minutes, flip them so the browned side faces you.

Close enough. Salt and pepper them again while the other side browns. DON'T cook them the entire way through, just enough to brown 'em. After another 2 minutes or so, throw the beef into your crock pot and drain your skillet of excess fat. Now throw the diced onions into your skillet

We're gonna let 'em brown for about 20 minutes on medium heat. Make sure an eye on them though, lest you want to end up like me and damn near burn the stupid things.

Whatever, they still tasted just fine. When they're sufficiently browned, toss in your garlic and cook for another two to three minutes or until you can smell the garlic. When that's all done, toss it in 'ye olde crock pot. Keep that skillet handy, because now we're going to toss in the diced tomatoes and the cup of red wine.

Blech. I used an extremely cheap Aussie cabernet sauvignon that tasted atrocious, which means it's perfect for cooking! Bring it to a boil, but for fuck's sake don't reduce it! When it's done throw it all into the crock pot.

Mmmmm. Matt said all this looked a little lacking for a hearty stew, and I'm inclined to agree, so I followed his lead and threw in some potatoes, carrots and celery. Make no mistake, you can throw in pretty much any ridiculous veggie you like and it'd probably taste delicious, so do it!

Now that's what I call pod-racing! Give it a quick stir, turn the heat in the pot to low and let it cook for 7-8 hours.

SMASH CUT

Ohhhhhhh baby.

So tasty. So filling. So easy to make. Comfort food at it's finest, especially when you're fighting off the cold from hell. Great for entertaining or if you just want to feed yourself for the next week with leftovers. You should go make this. Like now.

10/10

Pollo Colorado (Chicken in Spicy Red Chile Sauce)

Look, I'm smack dab in the middle of finals, so this is gonna be pretty brief. I probably shouldn't be doing this at all, but it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than looking over my Evidence outline again, so here we go.

P.S. If any of my pictures look strange, it's because my camera's been acting wonky since I spilled coke and vodka all over it a while back. Don't ask.

Pollo Colorado (Chicken in Spicy Red Chile Sauce)

Source: My slow cooker cookbook. Shocker, I know.

Ingredients:

- 2 medium size yellow onions, peeled
- 2 medium-size red bell peppers, seeded
- 3 large or 4 medium-size individually frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Don't thaw 'em)
- One 28-ounce can hot red chile sauce, or if Giant Eagle is stupid and doesn't have one of these, just go for three 10-ounce cans. I win at math.

The Cookin':

Chop your veggies up into roughly 3/4-inch pieces. Toss 'em in the pot, then toss them around to mix well. Throw the chicken breasts on top. I decided to use four big 'uns (In direct defiance of the recipe) because, well, I wanted a lot of leftovers. Look, it's going to be a realllllly long week. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Finally, dump all the sauce over everything.

Cook this monster on low for 5-7 hours (I did seven because I wanted to be sure the chicken was cooked). While it's cooking, you could be like me and spend seven hours in LAW STUDENT HELL.

"You like finals, eh? WELL HAVE ALLLL THE FINALS IN THE WOORRRLD!"

Or if you're a sane person, you could do, I don't know, anything else. Anyway, seven hours later and the entire floor of my apartment building smelled of sweet sweet enchilada sauce.

The last time I made this, I had to take out the chicken breasts, slice them up, and put them back in. This time, though, they were tender enough for me to just mash with a spoon and make them fall apart.

Finally, time for some dinner. It was pretty good! Pretty spicy, which is nice when it's Hoth-esque outside, and it'll make for some great leftovers when I've lost all manner of sanity and can't cook for myself. But for now, it's time to kick back and rela...

Fuck.