Man, if I came up with a “hearty beef stew” scented candle, I’d be a billionaire. There’s nothing like a scent like that to make a house feel like a home. (I really don’t “like” that I used the word “like” three times in that previous sentence, but, like, whatever.) We didn’t actually get to have it yesterday as I started it too late so it wasn’t ready until well into the night, but the wafting aroma has been keeping me hungry.
I told a friend I was making stew and we started discussing recipes. I tend to be a “seat of the pants” sorta cook where I have less of a “recipe” and more of a general guideline about what I’m planning. For instance, here’s my stew recipe:
Darian’s Stew
Ingredients
Couple pounds of stew meat
Veggies (potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery, mushrooms)
Broth/stock/juice
Herbs/seasoning (rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, seasoning blend)
Directions
Brown meat in pan with seasoning then put in slow cooker
Prep veggies and layer in cooker by heat requirement
Cover with broth/stock/juice
Season to taste
For the stew meat, I prefer to use a fatty roast and cut the pieces myself, but I’m lazy so I usually just go with whatever pre-cut stew meat the butcher has on hand. The veggies listed are my go-to ones but I’ll use whatever is available. When adding them to the cooker, I’ll but the root veggies in right after the meat (potatoes then carrots), and layer based on how much heat is needed – if feeling froggy, I’ll sometimes add some of them later in the day (who likes mushy celery??). I typically use a beef stock for the base, but I’ve recently been adding vegetable juice as well (wife eats like a picky five-year-old so I gotta sneak veggies into food). For thickening the stew, I don’t use cornstarch or flour, I use instant mashed potatoes. I don’t measure anything out specifically, and just sort of eyeball everything – and lots of taste testing as I dial in whatever seasonings I’ve chosen (I use a LOT of rosemary).
That’s it, that’s the “recipe.” Personally, I think we need more “recipes” to be like “guidelines” and for cooks to be more creative and experimental in the kitchen. Unless you’re trying to exactly reproduce grandma’s cookies or something, experimentation is the way to go. That said, I also know that growing up with these types of foods turn them into “comfort foods” that may be hard to reproduce years down the line, so once I’ve dialed in a recipe from an experiment to a reproducible dish, I do make it a point to write down a more accurate and specific recipe.
After all, I wouldn’t want to deprive my wife of my biscuits and gravy after I pass.
Interesting Tidbits
Song of the day: Hard Times by KISS
Ace Frehley, Kiss cofounding guitarist, is dead at age 74 – “The guitarist was on life support following a fall in his studio in late September”
The Unabomber Was Right: How a Terrorist’s Warning Has Become Our Reality – “Thirty years after Ted Kaczynski published his manifesto, many of his predictions about technological dependency resonate eerily with the state of AI in 2025.”
Reddit’s CEO Says Much Of The Internet Is Dead – And Redditors Agree – “A big conversation is taking place right now about how much of the internet is actually still human. People have been circling around this topic for a long time, but Reddit co-founder and CEO Alexis Ohanian has recently lent his voice to the conversation, sparking renewed interest among members of the community.”
This experiment could end all life. Or it won’t. Should we try it? – “Our reality could have a mirror image — and it has some serious risks and benefits.”
Gen Z TikToker Breaks Down In Tears After Learning What The Early Internet Was Like—And We Get It – “That includes the early internet days that Gen Xers and Millennials experienced before social media became the central focus of our screen usage.” This is one of the reasons I rebooted – I miss how the internet used to be before social media, and I chose to take action rather than just complain about it.
A Recipe Engraved on a Gravestone Helps to Remember the Dearly Departed and Keep Part of Them Alive – “Culinary epitaphs offer a point of connection to the deceased’s descendants and anyone else who comes across them”
Fifty Years Later, Science Could Finally Solve the Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald – “Fifty years later, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains embedded in cultural memory, in large part because of the Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote a song about the ship’s final voyage that became a top 10 Billboard hit in 1976.”
This classic video game is helping guide the future of autonomous driving – “For more than 30 years, Nintendo’s Mario Kart has been one of the world’s most popular racing games. But safe driving in the game doesn’t necessarily mean winning driving. So, can the program be reengineered to help autonomous driving systems learn how to drive safely?”
ICE Agent Who Took Upskirt Photos of Flight Attendant Says It Wasn’t a Crime Because He Was Sneaky – “Olvera was convicted in federal court of interference with flight crew members and attendants. He appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, arguing that he should be acquitted because he was sneaky about his attempts to photograph A.G. and didn’t intend to interfere.”
Scientists find rare plant species, unseen in almost 70 years, in middle of California park – “The plant was found on private land that the park district has been managing in part by deploying cattle to graze on dead material and non-native species, according to SFGATE.”
Just why are some producers so obsessed with tape? – “Analog tape machines have played a central role in music production history. But why, in today’s digital domain, do some still lust after the sound of tape?” I’ll admit it, I tend to prefer recording analog then converting to digital (though I don’t have a reel recording setup… yet) but definitely see the benefits of digital recording and mastering.
Cat Survives 8,000-Mile Journey from China to Minnesota in Shipping Container – “Xiao Mao the cat was found malnourished inside a shipping container from China — now she’s on the mend in St. Paul”
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