Simplify, simplify, simplify...

A little culinary making-do might mean augmenting a fussy little recipe from a woman's magazine that might include Hungarian sweet pepper and Swiss chard into something I could throw together on any old weekend night. Real Simple has a "five easy dinners" segment that, this month, had a great stew. Only it wanted me to go buy couscous, chickpeas (a pointless food), baby spinach, toasted almonds, sweet potatoes (!) and dried apricots. The recipe reminded me of my house when I bought it--great bones, bad paint job. So, I decided to make it real simple (pun intended):

1.5 lbs beef chuck, cubed
2 red potatoes
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and juices
1 onion minced
2 slivered dried mangoes (a brief, bare nod to the apricots and wholly unnecessary)
2 tsp ground cumin
" ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
" cayenne
Kosher salt to taste

Throw it in the slow-cooker with a half cup water. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low 7-8. I paired it with sharp cheddar grits (yum) to replace the couscous (my party affiliation preludes me from keeping couscous in the house).

The kids love this. The stew called for whole stewed tomatoes and onion wedges but the smaller sizes work better for my palate. It was spicy in an aromatic (not hot) way and I didn't have to go out and buy a whole lot of ingredients that I might never use again.