Easy Beef Stew - The Hillbilly Kitchen

In the Fall of 1944, my granny became the proud owner of a large, healthy Heifer. She couldn't afford to buy a cow or any portion of one. To make matters worse, food rationing because of the war was in full swing, so she had to do some trading to get it. There was a drought that year and the garden looked pitiful so needless to say, the whole family was getting rather thin because of it.

The owner of the heifer was none other than Mayor Otis McCray. Now Mayor McCray had a daughter named Estelle who was not exactly what you would call "Eye candy." She was gangly looking with a hook nose, bad skin and unruly red hair, but Mayor McCray thought her beautiful nonetheless.

Mayor McCray was scheduled to head up a war bond drive and Estelle would be paraded through town, exhibiting her beauty for all to see, in hopes that the townspeople would buy bonds that would help build weapons for our side and thus win the war.

Estelle needed a dress that would turn heads but there wasn't a dress shop within 200 miles. When granny got word that Estelle was in need of a dress, she made a proposition to the mayor. "I'll make your daughter look like a beauty queen in a hand sewn dress in exchange for your prize heifer" granny said.

The mayor was furious with granny because she made what he though to be a preposterous offer. He flew into a rage and started flinging things around his office and cussing like a sailor. Right in the middle of his tirade, Estelle walked into the office. I don't know if it was the way the light hit her face or the awkward way she was standing just inside the doorway, but for the first time in his life the mayor saw Estelle's shortcomings.

The deal was struck and granny got to work on the dress. It was fashioned from an heirloom tablecloth that was made from pure silk that granny had stashed away in a trunk. Granny worked on the dress for three days and three nights and she finished it just in time for the war bond drive.

Estelle proudly donned the gorgeous silken gown and took her place on a carriage which was pulled through a town full of curious onlookers. I wish I could say that granny's dress made Estelle look beautiful but it didn't. Nothing could make her beautiful, not on the outside anyway, but Estelle was beautiful inside. She knew that she was ugly and that the townspeople would gawk and laugh at her, and yet she did her part to sell war bonds to help win the war anyway.

Granny had the prize heifer slaughtered and she hung it in the smokehouse. She made us more than one pot of beef stew out of that prize cow. This recipe for beef stew is hers.

Ingredients:

Beef stew meat
Carrots
Potatoes
Onions
Peppers
Salt and pepper

Corn starch and water to make the gravy

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New Tazewell, TN 37824
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