Easy Cabin Crock Pot Stew

      The last time I got to the cabin was back in September.

     And thank God for high school football because it was the only reason I got up here it all in the fall.  My godson played a team only thirty minutes from here, so we all spent the night after his team dealt a Friday Night Lights thrashing ~ only to have to get up and leave the next morning to get back for my son’s Saturday Night Lights match-up. 

    It was a short-lived stay, but I am grateful for any bit of time I can spend here, surrounded by the beautiful Amish-crafted logs, up high above and away from “the real world”… a place where I wake up to a blazing orange sun pronouncing a new day as it rises from behind the mountains in the distance.

    So this past week, I got a chance to escape for a few days and see those glorious sunrises.  I hung up the Christmas cards I love to receive each year from family and friends, snapped a few photos, watched a string of movies, smacked a tennis ball around for my dog, picked at a thousand-piece puzzle, built an outdoor fire, baked some chocolate chip cookies, made some new playlists, checked out the stars, fed about twelve deer, enjoyed the “altar boy hour” it takes me to light the cabin candles, and made some Easy Cabin Crock Pot Stew.  Here you go:

Easy Cabin Crock Pot Stew

Stewing Beef (2 to 2.5 pounds cubed)

Tomato Soup (26 oz. ~ I use Campbell’s Family Size)

Dry Onion Soup Mix ( 1 packet ~ I use Lipton’s Recipe Secrets Onion Mushroom)

Frozen bag of Vegetables (I use this Hanover’s Vegetables for Soup, full of peas, corn, potatoes,

     carrots, green  beans, lima beans, onions, cabbage, rutabaga, and okra ~ and, btw, who does

     not think of big John Coffey in The Green Mile when you hear the word, “okra?” I don’t think

     I knew what it was before I watched that movie.)

Water (1 cup)

Salt (1 tsp.)

Pepper (1/2 tsp.)

     Turn crock pot on low, and pour in tomato soup, onion soup mix, one cup of water, salt, and pepper.  Stir, and mix in beef.

     Cook on low for three hours before adding a quarter cup of water with the frozen vegetables.  Let the stew cook at least another another two hours on low.  Serve over rice or pasta, with bread, or all by itself…all good in these cold days ahead.

     The scent of this easy little stew filled the cabin the past two days while I had the chance to be away to enjoy God’s beautiful creation and some peaceful, quiet time. I will be leaving the cabin today and heading back home for a New Year’s Eve celebration ~ and, best of all, the promise of a brand new day to become a better human being.

     Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, safe, and wonderful Saturday, & a great New Year J