I thought this brown stuff in a plastic container was the remains of the lamb stew from this spring, but after I defrosted it I realized it was the remnants of the one roast I've ever made, about a year ago. I got an order of bulk meat from FreshDirect, and they give you a roast as well as some steaks and ground meat. I stuck the roast in the freezer in anticipation of a dinner party, but time went by and the roast was still in the freezer. Finally I took a deep breath and defrosted it, bought an aluminum roasting pan, and started looking up recipes.

I was intrigued by one in a magazine at the checkout counter at the supermarket. I didn't buy the magazine but I sort of memorized the ingredients and tried to recreate it. It was cooked on a bed of onions and carrots and celery, I think there were some mushrooms in there too, and it had an egg glaze crusted with pecans. It came out okay, given that I didn't have a meat thermometer. The only problem was eating roast beef for days on end, and doing something with a lot of half-cooked carrots.

Which I put with the little bits of meat and other veggies and beef juice in the freezer and that's what I defrosted yesterday. It was very rich-flavored and made a delicious beef stew. It still had some pecan pieces in it, and I added some mushroom bullion, a few chopped calimyrna figs, and I wanted to add some flour so I could water it down and extend it a bit but keep the thick texture. I don't have any flour in the house, but I remembered I had some atole (Mexican blue corn flour used to make a beverage). I added a bit to the stew and it worked, and didn't disturb the flavor near as i could tell.

And I found in the freezer, also from FreshDirect, a parbaked dark pumpernickel which was just made to go with this stew, after being warmed in the oven. What a nice surprise for a snowy December day.