Pretty Sweet Little Stew

You may recall that we had a little lamb left from the shanks that simmered all day in our crock pot - I was planning to make curry with it so I saved the meat and the rich brown goozly broth from the bottom of the pot.

I wanted to make something similar to a Thai curry, thick with chunks of potatoes and carrots like they served at the Thai restaurant near my workplace; now that I'm retired, what I miss most aside from my students and coworkers is the variety of restaurants nearby. I had a couple of fresh carrots, half an onion and two big red potatoes but, when I opened the vegetable drawer, I noticed that I had half of a small kabocha squash as well, and to my combination of parsimony and taste memory that sounded pretty good.

I peeled and chunked the veggies and coarsely chopped the lamb and plopped them all back into the goozle, warming the meat and simmering the veggies. When I lifted the lid to add the curry part I was struck by the beauty of the stew with its fall colors, and the scent that wafted up was pure winter heaven. It smelled richly of lamb and sweetly of onion and squash. I decided not to mess with perfection.

I just scooped it all into bowls, added a few slices of sour baguette, and called it dinner. My Beloved and I had one of those moments where we taste, meet each other's eyes and grin. Pretty sweet little stew, indeed!