Mom’s Beef Stew

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Brown the beef in 1-2T of oil. Add in the salt (and pepper if you prefer my family says no). Stir to ensure beef is browned on all sides.
2. Add the chopped onion, celery, vinegar, and beef broth. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally. 
3. Add chopped carrots. Increase the heat to medium. Cook 10 minutes. 
4. Add the potatoes cook until desired softness (~15 minutes). 
5. In a separate bowl mix corn starch and water. Stir until smooth.  Next add  thickener to stew stirring in well. If the stew isn’t to your desired thickness repeat this step with smaller amounts until satisfactory. 

So complete honesty, here. We put photos of my mother-in-law’s beef stew on the website. Then when I needed to put a recipe to go with it, I realized I had never actually made beef stew. I looked at Pinterest and google and then what every daughter with a cooking mother does. I called mom. She didn’t have a written recipe so she googled one and then told me everything she would change. So, I called my mother-in-law. She also doesn’t use a recipe. So, between the three of us we whittled down the amounts and my family ate lots of beef stew until I got it like “moms.” Ryan and I are so blessed with moms who are amazing cooks. Here is what I love about this recipe more than any of the ones I found online (I’m sure if you search long enough there’s one identical somewhere but promise I didn’t plagiarize) it's simple. Simple ingredients that I already had in my kitchen. It isn’t flashy or spicy or magazine reviewable. Simple warm beef stew perfect for a blustery cold day. Warm simple goodness that make me think about the moms and grandmas in my life. Hope this brings warmth for your family’s table and good warm memories too.