Baked Beef Stew

Baked Beef Stew for a crew. This recipe is so easy you just throw the ingredients into a roasting pan and bake. No need to brown the meat and it makes its own gravy. Now how cool is that! The meat is so tender and it is a nice hearty meal for a cold chilly day. Warm up your chilly bones from the inside out. Comfort food = Love.

Baked Beef Stew

• 3 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes in juice
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. Minute Tapioca
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. freshly grated black pepper
• 1 tsp. granulated garlic powder
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 slices bread, crust removed and cut into cubes
• 2 cups onion cut into chunks
• 2 cups celery cut into chunks
• 1 lb. bag of baby style carrots
• 8 cups of potatoes cut into chunks, skin on or small baby potatoes w/ skin on
• 4 1/2 lb. Beef Stew meat
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Meanwhile add first 10 ingredients into a very large bowl and mix well, make sure you break up bread pieces it is important. Then add the rest of the ingredients. I cut the meat into smaller chunks if they are really large and trim off  any membrane if there is any, the size of the meat and potatoes is your preference.

Spray a large roasting pan (17 x 14 x 31/2 inches) with cooking spray. Place stew mixture into pan and cover with foil, bake on center rack for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until meat is tender. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil, serve immediately. Enjoy!

This would be a perfect meal for the crew if you are on ski trip, hunting, cross country skiing, etc.  A great meal for a cold days activities if you want an easy to fix meal that will satisfy. This is a variation on a recipe that I found years ago in The Taste of Home magazine.

Whole Beef Tenderloin

 Whole Beef Tenderloin

• 1 whole beef tenderloin (about 6 lbs. or so)
• garlic flavored olive oil
• freshly ground sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• cooking twine
• paper towels
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• bar-b-q brush
• gas grill

About 1 hour before you cook the tenderloin remove it from refrigerator to clean the meat. I like to line a sheet of tin foil with a double roll of paper towels underneath the meat. You will need to pat excess juice from beef with paper towels. 

With a sharp knife remove silver like sheath on outer edge and all visible fat, discard. This will take about 20 minutes or so. You need to take your time and work on it moving meat around and following the silver like sheath and fat until there is nothing left but pure lean tenderloin.
On the thinner tail end of the meat fold over and tie the end together two times with twine so that meat is an even thickness for cooking. If thicker end of the meat has separated some tie that area as well but just once. 

Coat both sides of beef well with olive oil using a Bar B Q brush, also a  light coat of sea salt and black pepper. Let meat rest on counter until ready to cook, about 1 hour total from prep time to cooking time.

Preheat your grill to 450 degrees. Cook beef directly on grill for 10 minutes on each side, then 5 minutes on each side. Remove from grill onto a serving platter and let meat rest for 5 minutes before slicing into individual steaks. This is for a rare steak, cook longer if you want it more well done.

My family said this is the best Filet Mignon they have ever eaten.
 
Horseradish Sauce

• 1/2 cup Hellman's light mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. grated hot horseradish from jar
• 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper