Parker's Beef Stew

This recipe makes a huge amount of stew as it starts with 2.5 pounds of beef. And browning all that beef is a not insignificant effort so I was kind of hoping this would completely wow me ... which it did not. On the other hand ... still really tasty thanks to the addition of sun-dried tomatoes (not sure about these but a really nice savory addition I think) and tangy Worcestershire sauce. And plenty of freshly ground pepper. Should be even better day two.

Two modifications -- I didn't have a can of beef broth on hand (and not driving on icy roads to get some) so I just replaced it with about two cups of water. And I skipped the addition of peas since neither my husband nor I care for them.

Ina says to remove 1 cup of liquid from the stew and whisk with 2 T. of flour and then return the thickened liquid to the stew pot. This did not result is as smooth a sauce as I would have liked and I think next time, I will mix flour with warm water and slowly add to stew pot and see if that works better for me.