Experiment in the Kitchen - Beef Stew / Biscuits / Salad / Strawberry and Raspberry Shortcake

Tonight, for the first time since we moved in, we had people over! Yay! So, of course, me being the crazy person I was, I was determined that the dinner be as awesome as I could manage.

I started with stew - which is a staple of mine. I make my stew with the following:

• 1 Can Beef Broth
• 1 Can Golden Mushroom (Campbell's)
• 1 sm pkg Baby Carrots
• Approx. 4 Stalks of Celery (sliced small)
• 3 lg (or 6 sm) Red Potatoes (sliced into bite-sized chunks)
• Approx. 2# Beef Stew Meat
• 1 pkg (or equiv) Instant Mashed Potatoes

So, you get out your crockpot. I have found these amazing things called "Crockpot Bags" which are basically plastic baggies meant to go into your crockpot before you cook to keep food from burning and sticking to the bottom. They work wonderfully! I highly recommend them - especially for stew, as just a tiny bit of scorched food can ruin the flavor of the whole batch. The first thing I put in is the cans of beef broth and golden mushroom. Then you use one of the cans (I normally use the Golden Mushroom can to help get some of the extra bits that didn't come out when I shook the can the first time) to get 2 cans worth of water and pour that in. Then add your veggies and meat (you can chop the meat into smaller chunks if you desire - I did on this particular batch). Now put in the instant mashed potatoes and any spices you want (I use Mrs. Dash and whatever else strikes my fancy at the time - this time it was Garlic Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Oregano and some Dill). Now set the crockpot on low for 8 hours and then you'll have stew!

To complement the stew I also made some Pillsbury Grands Layers Biscuits and bought a Baby Spring Mix salad. For the salad I had Hidden Valley Ranch and Lighthouse Blue Cheese dressing available.
Now for the real experiment - the dessert! While I was shopping for the ingredients for the meal, I spotted some delicious looking strawberries and thought "You know what would be excellent? To make strawberry shortcakes for dessert!" This would have been normal enough - I've made strawberry shortcake plenty of times - but of course normal wasn't what I wanted! So, in addition to getting strawberries I also picked up some raspberries. I would make strawberry shortcake for the kids and raspberry for the adults!

The way I've always made shortcake is as follows:

1. Get strawberries (or, in this case, strawberries and raspberries)
2. Put them in a bowl (separate bowls for each fruit)
3. Add sugar until it looks like I've got a pretty good berry-to-sugar ratio
4. Let sit until syrupy
5. Serve on shortcake pieces and top with whipped cream!

This is exactly what I did. I let the berries sit overnight in the fridge and by dinner time they were super syrupy and gooey.

I served up the dinner tonight and it seemed to go over really well. One of our friends even had seconds of the stew! The dessert went well - the raspberries added a slight bite to counteract the sweetness. A good time was had by all the adults - the children were a bit crazy, but eh, whatcha gonna do? All-in-all, this evening was a Success and hopefully will only be the first of such evenings here in our new home.