homemade stew.

I have been dying to make a stew this fall. I finally got a crockpot a couple of weeks ago and I bought all of the ingredients earlier this week for my own recipe that I made up. I don't know how good it's going to be, but I'm going to list the ingredients right now so I don't forget and then I can make adjustments as necessary.

2 cooked, chopped up chicken breasts
1 big can of chicken broth
~3/4 that can full of water
~3 tbsp flour
~half a bag of mixed beans
a box of long grain and wild rice (this one had some crazy New Orleans seasonings in it so we will see what that is like)
1 leek (just the white part)
2 sticks of celery
half of a green bell pepper
half of a red bell pepper
~handful of mushrooms
~half of a white onion
4 sticks of green onions
~6 baby potatoes
~a quarter of a box of barley
some minced onion, minced garlic, basil, italian seasoning, black pepper, salt

I am letting it sit on high for probably 4-5 hours and then I might turn it down to low until we eat it. I am a little bit concerned about the rice and beans sucking up all of the water, but then I guess I can just add more water or something. there is a lot of stuff in it... so I am anxious to see how it turns out. I can't imagine it will taste bad, it might just be really chunky with vegetables and chicken, which isn't really a bad thing.

blargh, what a crappy day for going outside, but a great day for making a stew!
if only I didn't have to head to the library to grab some books. I am not looking forward to this week.

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I added a few more tbsp of flour after a few hours. also, it started boiling at some point and so I added more water and turned the heat down. I also added more salt and black pepper. the smell is totally consuming me and I can't wait to eat it. It is probably the chunkiest stew ever, but I think it will be good.

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the stew was delicious, but very hearty and chunky. most of the rice and barley and beans absorbed the liquid. next time I will leave out one of those things probably or just put less of everything in it total. I forgot to put in carrots I realized, but I am kind of glad because I generally don't like carrots in stew in actuality.

so for next time, a little bit less of all of the solids, maybe less grainy liquid absorbing things... :)