Beef Stew

One of Kate's fondest memories of her Dad is his beef stew. We have tried a ton of recipes trying to get the right match. No luck. Today we tried another. So here is the conversation:

I said "Kate, was this beef stew as good as your daddy's?"
"Nope," she said.
"Well, we will just keep trying. Can you think of anything we are missing?"
"Yes, the secret ingredient."
"Secret ingredient! What secret ingredient?"
"I don't know. He always made me leave the kitchen when he put it in."

At this point my mother and I look at each other dumbfounded. Then it hit me! I knew the secret ingredient!!! It was BEER! Jim's mother always put a can of beer in the beef stew. I died laughing. Kate and mom are looking at me like I had lost my mind.

I said, "It was a can of beer."

Mom and I laughed again and Kate just grinned really big. Then she said, "He said I couldn't know the ingredient until I was married." God love him! He didn't want her to know he put beer in the stew! Thanks for the memory Jim!

We also tried another recipe today. It is called Warm Strawberry Crumb Cake. Kate did it all by herself. Well, except for Cita micromanaging her every now and then. Here is it is. And it was good.