31 Days of Homemaking - Day 1 - Cooking Pork Stew

There's nothing more than cooking and the smell of a yummy meal that feels homier to me.  Since today is the first day of October and fall feels like it's here for good, I attempted my first batch of stew.  And it smells good!  My sweet husband was kind enough to go grocery shopping for me yesterday while I stayed home with the babe, so I was texting him my grocery list as it came to mind.  (I really need to work on making meal plans and grocery lists -- maybe that can be included in my 31 Days of Homemaking!).  I asked him to pick up a few ingredients that I thought would make a good beef stew.  Well, by accident, he got pork stew meat, so this is a trial run. :)

I took Paula Deen's Old-Time Beef Stew recipe and made it my own...

• 1 lb. Pork stew meat
• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Dash ground allspice
• 3 large carrots, chopped
• 6 potatoes, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 cans diced tomatoes

Brown the meat in the EVOO.  Then add the water, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice.  Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours. After the meat mixture is finished put it and the potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes in a crock pot..  Add about 2 more cups water.  Stir.  Spoon out 1 cup of the liquid and wisk in the cornstarch.  Then mix it back in with the stew.  Cook on high in the crockpot until potatoes and carrots are cooked through.

I'll be serving mine with corn muffins.  I'll let you know how the pork turns out. :)