To Crock Or Not?

Day four of Blogtober and already I am reduced to posting pictures of food. This was tonight's dinner and probably Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's as well. Good ol' beef stew, one of my very favorite things in the entire world. And dead easy. Stew beef, an onion, baby carrots, a few peas and some potatoes. Oh, and a little of that Bouquet sauce for color. Plus water. That's it.

I'm sure it sounds like the blandest thing in the world but for some reason it comes out quite flavorful. Especially when you cook it for four hours. Which brings me to the question of the day.

Is it truly possible to cook a nice meal in a crock pot? My answer, based on past experience, is NO. I have thrown away at least three crock pots after being faced with the most disgusting meals ever created. And yet, on Ravelry, there is a group devoted to crock pots who post these marvelous sounding meals. From their crock pot. I have been reading the forum for the last week trying to discover what the secret is. Some super secret ingredient or magical incantation to be murmured repeatedly as the meal is cooking. Please don't tell me to brown the meat first, I've tried that. Or not to have too much liquid. I did that. And still, ick. What is the TRICK?

Finally, don't forget to enter your guess as to how many squares I managed to produce in the last week. Contest closes tomorrow night at 6pm PST!