Attempt at stew

Spring is barreling forward here, more flowers burst out each day, and bird song is greeting the dawn from the nearby willow.  House turn-over and full cleaning of freezers, fridge, and cabinets.  It feels better, and it's more welcoming for someone coming in to have their own space and not have to wait.  It also helped to take stock of what's been lingering in the back.  Found I'd been hoarding frozen meat.

Made a stew last night, cooking down on the stove while we played a game night with the household (half the house is down with a virus, only one sat out, too sick to join in. I've been wiping down every door knob and faucet with disinfectant.)

The idea was that I wanted to use dried, sour cherries in a stew.  I looked up recipes, found one, but didn't have all the ingredients for it, so made one up.

1 lb of stew meet (beef, in this case)
3/4 of a yellow onion (diced)
1 stalk of celery (chopped)
1 clove of garlic (diced)
Dried thyme
about 10-12 dried sour cherries, chopped into halves or thirds
Good red wine
Chicken bone broth
Water
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon

Heat pot, add some olive oil, brown meat in batches to not crowd the pan.  Salt and pepper.

Remove browned meat from pan.

Add onion, celery, garlic to pan, add more oil if necessary.  Soften.  Add thyme.

Add cherries, stir.

Add splash of wine to de-glaze pan (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup?)

Add meat back in. Stir to mix everything.

Add bone broth (8 fl oz) + equal amount of water.  Add cinnamon (maybe 1/2 tsp?)

Cover and simmer for 2 hours.

By the time I'd come back to check it, the liquid had almost evaporated, so I added a little more boiling water, stirred, and then turned off of the heat.

I had not realized the cinnamon container had such a wide opening as it did, and it dumped out into the pot.  I attempted to spoon it off before it blended in.  The whole house smelt of cinnamon while it cooked, and I thought it would taste bad.  I'll have to try it again, to see if I can make it the same, and measure out the cinnamon.  (Part of this is making stews/soups/sauces without any nightshades in them, since my immune system over-reacts to those.)

The stew was crazy good.