Beefy

This is the third and last installment of the potential disaster my neighbor Theresa averted by giving away her defrosted hoard of freezer meats. The beef ribs were browned and went into my crock pot along with some chunked onions and carrots and a cup or so of both beef broth and red wine with which I deglazed the browning pan.

They simmered and bubbled together for several hours, until the bones gave up their essence and fell out. This was a fairly fatty cut of meat so I refrigerated it while we ate the other two dishes, removed the congealed fat that had risen to the top and, a few days later, set it back into the base to cook for another couple of hours, adding chunks of red potato to the final cooking.

Spooned onto the plate next to some bright green broccolette, the stew was as simple as a wedge and deeply, richly beefy. The goozle I didn't use on the plate went into a container in the freezer - it will make the base for a wonderful soup later in the fall. Theresa's generosity has fed us five or six times in the past week - maybe I'll make her a coming-home gift of something to eat as delicious as the food she lost.

People Stew

My intention was to use the stew beef that My Beloved bought for Cora to make her a fancypants dinner to help her forget her sore ear. Heaven knows, an invalid's appetite needs tempting with some unusual treats and she has been milking us for sympathy ever since she got home from the vet.

But, oops!, when I told the vet my idea, he frowned. Not a good idea to feed dogs, especially recuperating dogs, people food. Nixed it. Phooey. Shoulda kept my mouth shut.

So, I made People Stew instead, a version of Beef Bourguignon substituting shallots for the pearl onions, adding lots of red wine, and simmering it in the crock pot after browning. It was okay, not great, although the goozle at the bottom of the crock pot was once again stellar. I didn't cook it long enough and I forgot the bay leaf. Onions would have been better than shallots in this case. But, it was edible and we edided it.

Cora had no complaints when I slipped her one little cube of meat - she wolfed it right down. Shhh, don't tell the vet!