Oven Easy Beef Stew. Mrs. L. Price, Salem's Favorite Recipes

Attempt 1
... edible. I guess. Let me put it this way, neither of us went for seconds.

Recipe:
1 1/2 lbs stew meat
1 small onion
2 stalks of celery cut into pieces
4 carrots cut into pieces
2 medium potatoes cut into chunks
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flour
2 cups tomato juice.

Bake for 2.5 hours at 350.

I'll be honest with you... this recipe isn't worth trying. I believe my husband said it best with "Well... It tastes better than I expected it to... based on how it looked."

I like the technique of oven-baking a stew... but the sugar was off-putting and with that much carrot and tomato, you really don't need the supplementary sugar. What it *did* need was garlic, more salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaves.

I also think it would have done better at 300 for 3.5 hours rather than the hotter heat of 350. The beef was really just dried out, tough and gamy instead of flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth like braising it *should* have done.

Thus bringing me to a frustration I have...

I have been asked on a few occasions to submit recipes to various cook books (church, work and family collaborations). And I LOVE doing so, but when I put a recipe in a cookbook, you better believe that I've made it myself dozens of times and tweaked it and refined into perfection. It's something I believe is a showstopper, even if it's something simple. My Aunt Wilma's Salad is a simple as simple gets. But you know what, if we don't have it at every holiday, or get-together something just doesn't seems right. She's made it for years and years, and when you use her recipe it comes out exactly the way she makes it. So, if I don't think a recipe can be recreated by someone else and have it turn out fabulous, I don't pass it along until I've explained every step, every nuance so that when someone else attempts it, it turns out the way it's meant to turn out. This is one of the main reasons I have stopped watching Paula Deen's show. I have tried her recipes, over and over again and they're just no good.

But then again, that was one of the reasons I wanted to attempt this project... I wanted to take these recipes and learn from an older generation and then make it my own (much like I had to do with Paula Deen's "Chicken Georgia"... but thats a whole 'nuther story for another time).

So maybe in a week or so, I'll attempt this recipe again... only with some massive modifications... Stay tuned.