I know, you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seats throughout my beef stew in the slow cooker drama. You can catch the exciting conclusion Wednesday in my Loaves & Dishes column in your Erie Times-News. Or you can just read it here.

Basically, I put the stew on for 4 hours on high instead of 8 hours on low. Came out a lot better. But there’s more. Check Wednesday for the full story.

I had some other thoughts that I didn’t have room to share in the paper. I think it would also work to cook the broth and vegetables all day and brown and cook the meat cubes in a pan on the stove just before dinner. Then stir them in. It’s worth a shot. To make the most of that flavor, you could deglaze the meat pan with some wine or broth scrape up the brown bits (fond) and add that mixture to the stew.

From what I can tell, the reason meet can get so dry in the slow cooker is that broth can actually draw liquid out of meat, as it often contains salt and vegetables that soak it up. For what it’s worth. I will continue my fight for the right to slow-cook successfully.

Meanwhile, I made those chocolate peppermint pinwheel cookies I put in the Sunday food page Sunday, Dec. 12. I don’t know if it was me or the recipe, but they were a pain in the patooty and didn’t come out all that well. They looked promising, but the cookie dough just didn’t cooperate. Maybe I over mixed it or something. If I had the energy to try them again, I would, but that’s not going to happen this week.