What’s Cooking: A Very Simple Beef Stew

First off, I have to admit that I am a lazy cook. I will never be any good at — or have much enthusiasm for — elaborate gourmet recipes with a dozen or more ingredients. Where I think I pass muster is at simple recipes, ideally three or four additions.

Some years ago a childhood friend of mine, Miriam Owen, became publisher at Cincinnati’s Mosaic Press, an outfit that produced dollhouse-sized books. She asked me to share some of my streamlined recipes in a tiny book. Why would I do that? I asked. Well, the pay wasn’t great. I’d get a check for $25 and 20 copies of the book. In return, I’d have to agree to autograph several dozen copies and return them to MosaicPress.

Pressed hard to agree, I finally said “yes,” more intrigued than interested in the rewards.  I set to work to pick out which recipes to share.

The final result was a 1-inch by ½-inch mini-book titled Hasty Put-ins: Recipes for the gourmet in a hurry. The small size had been a challenge since there were — at most — just 16 lines to a page. I selected a bunch of recipes that stayed within that limit or appeared on two pages, space for 32 lines.

In writing the book, I included a sampling of popular dishes: among them an avocado dip, liver pate, spinach salad, Bouillabaisse Seattle, Zucchini Jeanie, Farmer Potatoes, Stuffed Tomatoes, and Sherry Cake. My favorite is Lazy Man’s Stew, a hearty dish that I still serve about once a month:

Lazy Man’s Stew

One pound of frozen beef stew meat

1 can cream of mushroom soup (Amy’s, if you can find it)

1 package of powered onion soup mixed with a cupful of water

½ cup of red wine (Washington varietal favored)

Mix and place all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Two hours before serving, add couple of handfuls of bite-sized potatoes and carrots.

Best served with mixed greens and garlic bread.

It’s true that I will never be invited to compete in a cooking show and I will never, ever earn the smallest sliver of the acclaim accorded Seattle’s famed chefs, experts like the Palace Kitchen’s Tom Douglas and Jeffry’s Renee Erickson. But I can still take comfort in bringing simple crowd pleasers to the table and in the knowledge of having once authored a cookbook.