A delicious stew

Winter's here, and that means one thing: stew. Stew for dinner, stew for lunch, for breakfast, brunch, midnight snack. Stew in your stocking, stew in the bathtub.

No, not really. But there are few things better than a good hot stew on a cold night, and you can make a big pot of it and eat it all week long, or freeze it for later. Full disclosure here: I don't actually know anything about stews. This particular one is based on a recipe my friend Andrew makes all the time, and I don't know if he got it from somewhere or if he just made it up. But it's hard to screw up, and totally delicious. You'll need:

A big pot
Lots of time
A big onion
a big zucchini or two small ones
Two carrots
A couple celery stalks
Butter
Garlic
Four or five big potatoes, any type
Chicken stock
Spicy uncooked sausages, 4 or so
Roasted tomatoes

Chop the onions, and brown them in butter or oil, with garlic, for quite a while... 20 minutes or so, until almost black. Andrew swears this is the key to a delicious stew. Add the celery partway through.

Then, add the zucchini, potatoes, and carrots, all chopped fairly small, and add chicken stock and water (half and half or so) until the veggies are just covered. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook for a good half hour. Add the sausage, keep simmering until the sausage is cooked and and its juices have permeated the stew. Note: whatever sausage you choose will totally flavor the whole stew, so make them good! Add the tomatoes at the very end.

That's basically it. Feel free to add/remove veggies you like/don't like. This stew tastes better when it's cooled for a bit, so when it's done, take it off the heat and let sit for 20 minutes or so.