Gone All Day Stew

I love finishing a cookbook and starting a new one. This is the first recipe out of a new cookbook. When I say "new" I do not mean that it is just recently acquired. I mean I just started making recipes out of it. I don't even remember where this cookbook came from, but it was next in line on my cookbook shelf. This is the perfect time of year to start it, too, because it's The Everything Soup Cookbook. I like making soup because it's easy, the kids usually like it, and I can usually freeze a bunch of it for another meal later. This one is called "Gone All Day," but who would leave their house all day with the oven on? You could easily adapt this one for a crock pot, I don't think you'd have to change anything except: put it in the crock pot. My mom used to leave lunch cooking in the oven all morning while we were at church, and nothing bad ever happened, so it's probably fine to do, but I think you should stay home if you try making this by the original directions. Don't want to be responsible for any catastrophes.

Gone All Day Stew
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1 cup water
1/4 cup flour
2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces (I bought the "carrot chips" that are already cut into the perfect size)
1/2 cup diced celery
6 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and quartered (that seemed like a crazy amount of onions to me, and nobody will eat them if they are cut in chunks that big...so I just diced one onion)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 cubes
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 275. In a bowl, mix together the soup, water, and flour until smooth. In a roasting pan with a cover (I used my Pampered Chef bowl/cover thing that I don't even think they sell anymore but is perfect for this, and chex mix, and beans and rice), combine this mixture with all remaining ingredients; cover and bake for 4-5 hours. Remove from oven and discard bay leaf.

Of course this made the kitchen smell great all afternoon. Everybody liked it. I have half of it in the freezer already. And the hardest part was cutting the beef into chunks. You could buy stew beef, and you do cook it long enough that it would soften it. So definitely one to keep!