White beef stew

So last night I made beef stew for the Hubby and I, and I nearly killed him as soon as he walked in the door. A little back story on this... My husband knows because I don't know really how to cook I get really antsy when its time to eat something I've made (especially if its the first time I've done so) and he has learned that no matter what he has to make me feel like I did well before he can offer any changes (he can cook, just doesn't). Now I've been working very hard on planning and budgeting and shopping and all these things, before I even get the meat thawed (which I forgot to set out before I left for work so it got a bath in the sink to help things along as soon as I got home). I made one of his simple favorites (corn bread) to go with the stew, AND because I was so nervous I babysat the business out of the stew as it was cooking (ok, so this wasn't his fault but mine). I greet him at the door with a kiss and he peeks in the kitchen and BAM! almost gets killed by his wife ( viricide is the -cide word for killing your husband by the way, I know because I looked it up ten seconds ago) He looked in the pot and saw the stew was white and in his shock just blurted it out. Now I know most stews are brown but I had to change a couple of things around in the kitchen to make this meal work for me. For the liquids I used milk and in replace of beef broth, some water. Why? Well a couple of reasons, 1 I forgot, 2 it wasn't in the budget 3 water worked just fine with the beef bullion seasoning cube.  But it did make it white, and the hubby is alive because as soon as he saw my face he immediately started to kiss me so I couldn't get mad at him (his plan worked out sadly well). Oh well I will give you the recipe of what I did last night but the best thing about stew is, anything goes. I had celery going bad and that's why that in there, but look through your fridge and sneak those left overs in the stew pot, I dare you.

1 Package of beef stew meat,
Vegetables (The bigger chunks the better, I used a mix of baby broccoli  cauliflower and carrots as well as the celery that was going bad.)
Potatoes (doesn't matter red or yellow, I used yellow with skins still attached because I like rustic potatoes and I'm incredibly lazy and didn't want to go through the extra step of peeling.)
Milk and beef broth (or water with beef bullion cubes)
Flour (to thicken up the stew, I meant to throw rice in there to thicken it up some more but yet again, I forgot)
Seasoning (Thyme, Salt <quite a bit in all actually but if you treat your arteries better then mine you can regulate this> pepper and I used some chopped cloves and Italian seasoning cause I thought they would go good with the stew <they did > )
This is where you add the Worcestershire sauce but I forgot that to (maybe I should rename this the Forgotten stew)
1 start cooking potatoes in a separate pot 2 Brown your meat (you don't cook it all the way through you just have to brown it it will finish cooking in the liquid) cover with your liquids, add veggies and seasonings 3 stir in flour,  4 as soon as  potatoes are soft drain them and add to the stew 5 cover and try your best to leave it alone so everything can mix together and blend (I already told you how well I did at this, do try to be better then me) And Ta-Da you have beef stew!

Why don't you make some stew and let me know what you added to it and how it turned out (it was pretty good if I do say so myself and John sure seemed to like it, though he was really excited by the corn bread)
Much love-
Elizabeth