recipeLOVE: Cabin Stew

My chicken stew is a big hit with my whole family, and it was well-received at the cabin gathering a couple of weekends ago. I was asked for the recipe but kept forgetting, until now. Probably because I woke up to an abysmal grey morning and felt like a big ole pot of stew would make me feel better. This is the kind of recipe you can make a little or a lot of, but you'll probably want a lot of - the leftovers are great for freezing! (The recipe below will generously feed 8 people, or 4 people for 2 days...)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large chopped onion
• 1 minced clove garlic
• 3 or 4 chicken breasts, skinned and chopped into stew-sized chunks
• (if you're into bacon, you can add 3 strips of bacon chopped into little pieces)
• dill, sage, salt & pepper to taste, go heavy on the dill
• about 20 medium sized mushrooms, cut in half (brown ones have a much stronger flavour in the finished stew)
• 6 or 8 medium potatoes chopped into stew-sized chunks (I use red potatoes and don't bother peeling them, especially if I can get my hands on new baby potatoes and don't even have to cut them...)
• about a cup and a half (pick and choose your favourites) each of peas, corn, beans, broccoli
• about 3 cups of carrots, in stew-sized chunks
• (if you want to get fancy, slice, coat in olive oil, and grill 2 or 3 sweet red and yellow bell peppers under the broiler)
• 1L of chicken or vegetable stock
• *milk (I use skim)
• corn starch & water
• thick buttered pieces of warm crusty whole-wheatie bread with burdseed in it

Method: Melt the butter in a HUGE pot and sautee chopped onion, minced garlic, mushroom halves, chicken, and spices (I use at least a tablespoon of dill, about a teaspoon of sage, a crapload of pepper, and just a dash of salt) until onions are transparent and chicken is cooked through. (For those who dig on swine, you can sautee your bacon with this stuff.) Add all the other ingredients to the pot except for the milk. Once all the ingredients including the soup stock are added, you will pour in just enough milk to cover the stew. Bring mixture to a rolling boil and reduce heat to medium, stirring often. When potatoes are tender (this is a good time to put your loaf of crusty whole wheatie burdseed bread in the oven to warm...) make a runny paste of the corn starch and water (about 3 - 4 tbsp corn starch and maybe 1/2 cup water). Pour paste very slowly into stew while stirring constantly. When stew thickens to desired consistency (I prefer mine bordering on glue) reduce heat to low, butter your bread (needed for sopping up the gravy), and tell everyone to wash their hands - it's time to eat!