Stew

I made a DELICIOUS stew tonight. Here's my recipe that I made up myself, with help from a recipe I got from my mother:

Meat Cube Flavouring
1/2 C flour
1/2 tbsp Keg Salt (flavoured salt)
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Spice (dry) <- this is what I added this time that I never did before. MADE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!

Main Stew
1 eye of round, cubed, fat trimmed
1 package baby carrots
5 medium potatos, peeled if desired and quartered
1 cooking onion (whole if you don't like onions, or quartered if you don't have picky eaters for this stew)
2-3 cups water
4 tbsp veg oil (or so.. to coat the pan)

Dumplings
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup milk

1. heat oil in a pan on medium
2. toss the meat cubes in the flour mixture and brown them in the oil (get them a little crispy if you can, it doesn't matter if they're not cooked through tho)
3. put meat, carrots, potatos, and onion into a slow cooker
4. pour a cup of water into the pan and stir to get all the good crunchy bits off the bottom of the pan (this is "de-glazing")
5. pour some of the hot water into the rest of the flour mixture and whisk thoroughly to make a thin-ish paste.
6. slowly add the paste back into the pan, stirring continuously.
7. slowly add more water (1 or 2 cups) until your gravy is not too thick (it will thicken in the slow-cooker)
8. strain the gravy for lumps if desired.
9. pour gravy into the slow-cooker, until all the meat and veggies are covered. A little higher if there's room. Add more water if you need to. At this point doing that is ok cuz the gravy isn't fully cooked yet. If you DO, make sure to stir it tho.
10. cook on high in the slow cooker for 5 hours or so, stirring once or twice if the veggies aren't fully covered. Otherwise, don't stir.
11. mix bisquick with milk and drop into the liquid in little single-serving balls. If you don't have enough room in the slow-cooker, remove some of the stew and eat it. You didn't have lunch, it's okay.
12. let cook for another 1.5 - 2 hours (don't peek because this will let all the heat escape and slow the cooking time)
13. when the tops of the dumplings look cooked, it's done! Serve and eat. Don't burn your tongue.