Stew and a Pear-Pomegranate Crisp

This stew was pretty easy, and the crisp was easy too- other than cutting up a ton of veg and peeling the skin off of pears.  A lot of pears.  We keep getting them in our produce box and I love to eat pears, but I'm the only one going through them.  The boys eat all the apples, but for some reason never touch a pear.

I thought they'd like pear crisp better, but they weren't very fond of it.  One boy didn't care for the ginger that I used.  Another boy didn't like the pomegranate.  Oh well...I thought it was delicious. 


Pear-Pomegranate Crisp

9 pears (peeled and sliced)
*I had both D'Anjou and Bartlett, so I used both kinds.
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
2 Tbs butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 Tbs cinnamon

for the topping:
4 Tbs butter (softened and cut into cubes)
3/4 cup oats (I like Bob's Red Mill thick rolled oats)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tbs cinnamon

Mix the filling ingredients together and put into an ungreased baking pan (I used a glass, square pan).  Mix the topping ingredients together until you have large chunks of oats - about pea to almond size pieces.  Spread the topping over the filling and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until the topping is brown and the pears are bubbly.  Cool slightly before serving. 

Sounds good, right?  What is wrong with those boys?


Stew

2 lbs of stew meat (we got some awesome grass-fed meat from a farm in Washington)
4 medium red potatoes - cut into large chunks
3 carrots (roughly chopped)
1 large parsnip (roughly chopped)
5 small garnet yams (cut into large chunks)
5 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 Tbs butter
2 quarts of beef broth
1 Tbs rosemary
1 12 oz beer (Guinness would work, I used Widmer Brothers' Brrrr)

Melt the butter over med-high heat.  Add the beef after the pan is really hot and brown on all sides.  Add the bottle of beer, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until it's fully absorbed.  Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Boil for just a couple of minutes, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the veg are softened.  The longer and slower you can cook this, the better...but on a weeknight you can get away with about 45 minutes.  Taste the broth and add more salt & pepper if you need to do so (you probably just need pepper). 

Yams are weird in stew, but I had them and didn't want them to go to waste.  They were the softest veg in the pot and thickened the broth, which was nice.  I didn't find them too sweet, but I could take them or leave them.  I don't think boys would normally eat yams by themselves, but they didn't even notice them in the stew...so I guess that's a good trick.  :-)