Community Chat

[Yuban3]

One of my co-workers was retiring, so we threw him a pot-luck "Happy Retirement" party at work yesterday.

On Wednesday, I had mentioned to another co-worker that I had made a batch of stew. He asked me if I had any left over, and I told him that I did. He asked me if I was going to be bringing it to the pot-luck. I hadn't thought about it, but thought that I could always throw together another batch, and bring that to the pot-luck. I didn't want to bring my left-overs, because there wasn't that much left.

So, after work, I went to the grocery store and bought my ingredients. On the drive home, I was figuring out whether I should make it at home, or just make it at work. Since I cook my stew in a crock-pot, I was wondering how was I going to get the crock-pot from the parking lot, to the office. Finally I decided that I would just make it at work, as that seemed easiest.

Once home, I sauteed the stew meat in my big 15 inch cast iron skillet, and then cut the pieces in to small bite-sized pieces, and put those in a container. I then diced my peppers and put those in a zip-loc bag.

Yesterday morning, I hauled everything in to the office, crock-pot, and ingredients, and threw everything in to the slow cooker, and set it for 8 hours.

As the day wore on, people were saying, "What smells so good?!", and "That smells so good!", as they would lift the lid, and take a whiff.

When it came time to eat, everybody was giving me rave reviews. "This is so good!" In the interest of full disclosure, I did put a little note next to it, saying that it was spicy.

There is still some left over today, but stew is always better on the second day, right?

Anyway, it made me feel so proud, and so happy and so good, to know that my co-workers loved my concoction!

Here's what I had in it:

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of red beans

1 can of white beans

1 can of pinto beans

stew meat

soup bones

1 habanero pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

cyanne pepper

ground black pepper

garlic powder

chili powder

chili flakes

Tabasco sauce

habanero sauce

paprika

2 bay leaves

On the spices and sauces, I don't measure. I just eye ball it. I sprinkle some on until it looks like enough, so I honestly don't know the exact amount that I put in.

My co-workers told me that while yes, it was spicy, it was still delicious. I asked if it was too spicy, and they said that no, it wasn't. I said that it's just spicy enough to keep your lips warm, but not so hot that it burns your face off.