Mom's Stew

The scouts went camping last weekend and had a dutch oven cook off. Big Chubb was assigned to make some stew, so I decided this would be a good chance to use this recipe. I ended up making it because Big Chubb had less than an hour between when he got home from school and when he had to leave to go meet at the church. We don't eat stew often because we never have beef. I used some of the venison Dad gave us at Thanksgiving. Plus, if it turned out gross the scouts would be eating it.

I'm not sure which Mom this belongs to, but I don't feel like we ever had stew like this.

Mom's Stew

2 pkg. stew meat
1 green pepper
1 onion
celery
potatoes-4 big
carrots-6 good size
tomato sauce (big) 29 oz.
1 can water
salt
pepper
6 TBLS tapioca
2 bay leaves

Put in lg. casserole. Stir to mix. Cook 5 hours without opening lid. 350 degree oven. Makes a lot!

So it would have been fairly easy to assemble, but we don't have a huge casserole. And, I wasn't about to clean out the dutch oven Big Chubb got from church. So I used our huge stock pot. It seemed to work fine. It started getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, but it was right when Big Chubb was moving over to the Dutch oven to take it, so it didn't get burned. I also had to cut up the venison, which took for ever. Plus, Baby Chubb was screaming at me the whole time, and Little Chubb had been sent to take a nap for being naughty. It was a pleasant afternoon.

Anyway, it was well received by the campers. The leaders all enjoyed it, and some of the scouts (all deacons) who poorly planned their meals were very happy to have some. Big Chubb said it had a very tomato-y base, not like a regular stew that has a much more beefy base. I had forgotten that we were out of celery because Big Chubb ate it all, but he said it wouldn't have changed the flavor profile much.

I forgot to snap a picture before Big Chubb took it away, but just imagine all those veggies in a red broth. It did look pretty with the green and orange and white in the red.