There's A Storm A Brewin'

There's a big o'll snow storm brewing on the east coast and I for one am so ready for one!  I'd like to get snowed in for a couple of days (with my family, electricity and plenty of food of course).  Chances are we'll get less than predicted snow and there will be no such snowing in here but for those of you closer to the coast...look out.  When you head to the store for milk and bread, throw some ginger, stew beef and some Ro-Tel in your cart, you can let this cozy crock-pot meal cook away while you play Monopoly and watch movies.  Slow-Cooker Caribbean Beef Stew from Food Network Magazine is a new twist on your usual beef stew.  I typically make mine with stout beer or red wine but this one has ginger in it (that's new to me anyway).

There are not a ton of ingredients here.  The usual carrots, potatoes and beef along with fresh ginger, thyme, white pepper, allspice and Ro-Tel.

First you'll mix together some flour, chopped thyme leaves, allspice, salt and white pepper.

The recipe calls for 2 lbs of stew meat.  You can buy it chopped up but you can save a few bucks by cutting it up yourself if you've got an extra 2 minutes.

Add the beef to the bowl of flour and spices.

Toss the beef to fully coat in flour.

Next you chop up some carrots (I always go heavy on the carrots) and potatoes, ginger and garlic and toss it in the crock-pot with a couple of sprigs of thyme.

Next you put the meat right on top of the veggies.

Then you whisk a 1/2 cup of water and some Worcestershire sauce into the flour left in the bowl from coating the beef. Add it to the crock-pot

and open up a can of Ro-Tel (I really like this stuff).  This is the original flavor which is the tiniest bit spicy (my kids had plenty to say about that!) but it also comes in mild.

Plop it right on top and you are done for the next several hours.

Just like that, check dinner off the to do list.  Just walk away and let my retro-cooker do all the work.  Such a lovely concept, I do need to find more really good slow cooker recipes.

There you have it.  We had ours with a little rice and a nice hit of Siracha for good measure.  So if you're looking for something easy to warm your bones over the next couple of days, click the link for the full recipe and enjoy!
Caribbean Beef Stew