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We occasionally have a pot-luck at my work. Everyone brings something and we all share. Last Friday, we decided to have one in honor of two young men from Baku Azerbaijani who were working at our store for the summer. Friday was their last night with us.
These guys were so nice and such hard workers and we all fell in love with them. So, in honor of our friends leaving, we decided to feed them a good old American Style pot-luck supper.
Now, I’m not known for my cooking abilities. I cooked everyday, two or three times a day, when my children were young, but now I work full time so anything I do cook is fast and easy. Poppy is a great cook and I depend on him to cook on the nights I have to work. So this was an occasion for me to make something and show off to the gang at work. We have about 30 folks working overnight and I wanted something easy to fix that would be enough to feed everyone. I got with Motherhubbard and we decided that the easiest and most transportable dish would be Cowboy Stew. I love Cowboy Stew and it is something I thought most of the gang would like. It’s fast, easy to makje, and easy to transport. And they’ll eat just about anything if it’s free. So I buy all the ingredients and brown three pound of ground beef and load everything up and take it to work with me to put together there. We have a large electric cooking pan there that holds about 3 1/2 gallons. Cowboy Stew is the easiest dish I’ve ever made. And it’s right up my alley as far as cooking abilities go. It is simple but it makes the best stew (or soup)! So I fix about 3 gallons of this and leave it to simmer for about 4 hours. The whole break room smells wonderful. Everyone is waiting for lunch. Everyone else brought stuff they had to make at home. We had some very good spaghetti and meatballs, some delicious French bread, pasta salad, other Italian pasta dishes. I had Cowboy Stew and saltine crackers. At lunch, everyone started on the pasta dishes. The young men we were having the lunch in honor of were chowing down on pasta and I was afraid there would be no room for my stew. So I worried about what I was going to do with 3 gallons of Cowboy Stew at the end of the night. Well, finally someone asked if the stew was ready and I told them it was. They filled a bowl and ate, then went back to work, not saying a word about it. Then a young man took pity on me and got himself a bowl and sat down at the table with me and the guests of honor. As he ate, the boys watched and asked questions about whether cowboys really ate the stew. I explained that cowboys had to be able to transport their food easily so they did eat such stews on the trail. Well, that’s was all it took. The two guests of honor decided to try some Cowboy Stew. They loved it!!
Everyone else started eating it, too. And all that tried it loved it. I was a hit, or at least my Cowboy Stew was! There were folks coming back at break asking if there was any left. But all 3 gallons were gone. Everyone was taking about my Cowboy Stew, wanting to know the receipt for it. Would I write it down for them? The guests of honor were excited to be able to tell the folks back home that they had eaten real Cowboy Stew. I was very pleased and happy that it was appreciated. So, if you have a lot of people to feed and need a fast and easy dish, here’s how to make Cowboy Stew:

Brown ground beef. The amount will depend on how much stew you are making and how many people you will feed.

Into a large soup pot, or slow cooker, add and equal number of the following; canned kidney beans, canned chili beans, canned minestrone soup. Heat and simmer till you’re ready to serve.

I almost hated to tell how easy it was to make. There is one thing everyone should know about Cowboy Stew. All the beans may have a side effect. I will say no more except that everyone worked very hard the rest of the night. There was no standing around and talking among the associates. They basically stayed away from each other and worked till they were out of gas!!!
I will miss Gadar and Natig and hope they come back to visit us someday.
Oh, they also learned a traditional American song.
Beans, Beans, the musical fruit