It's Not Stew, It's Ragu

Like how I am paying homage to my girl, Martha, by keeping her signature "Robin Egg" color on my page (totally clashes with the rest of my blog)?  I love Martha!  I have loved her pretty much my whole life.  My nickname is even Martha Jr.  I have been getting her LIVING magazine for years, and Everyday Food Magazine for about a year now.  Seriously the best magazines...well, besides my weekly Holy Bible, US Weekly.  Everyday Food has never let me down.  I am always able to get at least 5 recipes out of the monthly issue that my husband loves.  Jacob will eat anything, so I don't really go to him for an opinion yet.  :) 



Anyway, while flipping through this months issue, I was looking for some easy crock-pot recipes.  Don't you love waking up in the morning, throwing 5 ingredients in the crock-pot, going about your biz all day, and then coming home to a wonderful smelling home of beef, onions and garlic (hmmm a questionable scent, I prefer my Mulled Wine Illume Candle).  Well, this recipe, Slow-Cooker Beef Ragu, is about as easy as it comes.  I was trying to impress my hubs by telling him I was making him Ragu (spoken with a very hot and sexy Italian accent).  He's like, "Laur, that's just a fancy way of saying beef stew".  I was seriously insulted!  

Regardless, he went back for seconds, need I say more!  

Beef Ragu



Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine - Slow-Cooker Beef Ragu      Barely adapted by: littlelichtinmylife.blogspot.com

Ingredients

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 8 oz  tomato paste (original recipe calls for 6 TBS. JUST DUMP IT ALL IN, great tomato taste)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves (or 3 teaspoons dried)
• 1 round roast (4 pounds), (original recipe calls for beef chuck roast - I think round roast has better texture/flavor)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 to 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

Directions

1. In a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker, combine onion, garlic, tomato paste, and oregano. Season roast with salt and pepper and place on top of onion mixture. Add 2 cups water, cover, and cook on high until meat is tender and can easily be pulled apart with a fork, 4 1/2 hours (or 9 hours on low). Let cool 10 minutes, then shred meat in slow cooker with 2 forks and stir in vinegar to taste.
2. I made wide egg noodles in a seperate pot, because I didn't have time to do the fried noodles (GIVE ME A BREAK, it was GIRLS NIGHT - picking out an outfit seemed far more important than clogging my hubby's arteries!)  BUT, if you have the time to fry them... then, after boiling the noodles, put them in a skillet, with a chunk of butter, and fried those babies up until crispy!  Finally, scoop a heaping pile of Beef Ragu over the noodles.  SO GOOD! SO EASY!  ENJOY!