Mom's Beef Stew

Mom's Beef stew is just what I crave when the weather starts to turn wintery and cold. This year I jumped the gun a little and made it in the fall and it was still great. While this stew doesn't take a ton of hands on time, it does sit in the oven for five hours so you have to be home. It occurs to me, however, that this could be made in the slow cooker. I haven't tried it, but I think that it would work fine. I doubled the recipe last time I made it and had way too much (and it was almost too big for the pot). Start with one recipe on your first try, it serves 4-6 hearty portions on top of delicious mashed potatoes.

Mom's Beef Stew (1 hour prep, 5 hours cooking)
Ingredients
2 lbs beef stew meat
1/2 c white or rye bread, ~1 slice, broken into small pieces
1 c chopped celery
1 t. Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/2 T sugar
3 T tapioca
1 2lb can whole tomatoes
3 onions cut into bite sized pieces
6 carrots cut into bite sized pieces
1 t lemon juice
1 t Worcestershire sauce
dash allspice
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. garlic salt
48oz (or less) V8 tomato juice
Mashed potatoes, for serving

Combine all ingredients in a large oven-safe pot with lid (such as a corningware casserolle or le crueset pot or dutch oven). Cover, bake 5 hours at 300 degrees. Serve warm over mashed potatoes.