Steaming Stew on a Winter's Day

 Last evening, I walked into the kitchen as Mom was preparing vegetables for today's stew. She had been cutting carrots and potatoes and chopping celery (including the leafy tops) before I arrived.

 Carrots, by the way, seem the last of this ages great deals. We bought three (she used two) bulk carrots at a total cost of twenty-four cents. These are long, sturdy carrots, not the stubby thumb-sized ones I've been known to grow.
 And she liberally (too liberally, she says) sprinkled on hot pepper flakes to give the stew some zest.

 Here's today's finished stew ... hot and steamy, right off the stove. The pepper flakes gave it a real bite. Delicious!

 Mom was also cutting a green bell pepper and I stopped and admired the beautiful insides in the late afternoon light. Is there a more sensuous vegetable when laid open like this? I marvel at the shades of summer green, even now in the depths of winter. The ivory seeds, nestled deep inside, seem as though embarrassingly displayed.
 The bell pepper was used to flavor the scalloped corn, an absolutely necessary flavoring in my opinion.

 Yes, the scalloped corn, right out of the oven, has a spoonful missing. That was Mom's taste test. "It's too juicy," she said, but, as I was hungry and didn't much care, she served it anyway. Later she added some more cracker crumbs and we placed it back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes. That worked perfectly to absorb some of the excess moisture.

 In addition Mom heated some leftover baked beans. She baked a few buttermilk biscuits. I washed it all down with a mug of milk and then a cup of coffee.
 And dessert? I had a key lime Greek yogurt and then decided I was still a bit hungry for sweets. Two chocolate chip cookies filled the bill.

 OK, I'm done.