Winter Warmup: Beef Stew with Dumplings

I gotta admit: I love cold, rainy weather. Even being outside in it. When I truly love this type of weather is when I'm digging into a hearty meal that warms you up from the inside out, and if you're looking to do that this winter season, this recipe will definitely fill the void.

I'm not a huge beef eater. I also hate cooked carrots. Blech. You're now probably wondering why the heck I made this meal, then? Well. It never hurts to expand the ol' horizons. I'm glad I did. This would be a perfect Christmas Eve recipe...simple, extremely tasty and will please the masses. This particular serves about 6 (in reality, if you have two hungry men in the house like I did, then it serves roughly 3).

The Best Beef Stew
courtesy of Paula Deen

2 pounds stew beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Dash ground allspice or ground cloves
3 large carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Brown meat in hot oil. Add water, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

2. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Add carrots and celery. Cover and cook 30 to 40 minutes longer. To thicken gravy, remove 2 cups hot liquid.

3. Using a separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch until smooth. Mix with a little hot liquid and return mixture to pot. Stir and cook until bubbly.

Dumplings

You can add the dumplings into the pot with the stew to cook during step 3.

1 1/2 cups Bisquick mix
2/3 cup of milk

Mix until a soft dough forms. Drop by rounded spoonful into stew and cook for 10 minutes on low. Cover stew and let sit on low for another 5 minutes.