INGREDIENTS:
little olive oil
couple cloves garlic
about 1 lb stew meat, cut into 3/4" cubes
some beef bouillon cubes
parsley flakes
coarsely ground black pepper
4 or 5 potatoes
4 or 5 carrots
about 1/4 c flour or cornstarch
about 1/3 c water
1/2 c milk
2 c Bisquick
1 lb bag of frozen peas

DIRECTIONS:

Press garlic and saute in olive oil briefly in stew pot. Half-fill pot with water, bring to a boil, then add meat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs with a couple of bouillon cubes, some parsley, black pepper. Periodically stir, skim scum off surface and discard. While meat is boiling, peel and cut potatoes (into roughly 1" cubes) and carrots (into coins).

Add potatoes and carrots to pot and boil at a low temperature for ten minutes. While they are cooking, mix flour and water into thin paste in a separate bowl and prepare dumplings in a third (stir half of milk into Bisquick, keep adding milk slowly while stirring just until it becomes doughy -- make sure your Bisquick has not expired or you will have problems with dough that won't turn into dumplings and sits on top of your stew being sad and gooey).

After the ten minutes is up, add paste in portions to the stew pot, stirring steadily and giving it time to thicken before adding more paste. Consistency should be thicker than gravy. Depending on the amount of broth, you may need to make a second batch of paste. Taste stew and add more bouillon or pepper if needed. If flavor is too weak, try adding gravy starter (like Kitchen Bouquet) or soy sauce or anything brown you can find in your spice cabinet. MSG works too. Sazon Goya is probably a bad idea.

Stir bag of peas into stew and turn heat up to medium. Spoon dumpling dough on top of stew evenly (don't worry, it will grow). Cook for ten minutes covered and then fifteen minutes uncovered. Or maybe it's ten minutes uncovered and then fifteen minutes covered. It says on the side of the Bisquick box. Actually, it says ten and ten, but that's never quite long enough for mine.

That's it. If you're in a hurry, you can skip the dumplings, but it's not the same without dumplings.