Straight To Vegetable Stew Recipe

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When my children were young, we lived on an island farm in the Northwest, where my husband started a school. While money was scarce, the isolation made it a children’s paradise. Our sons and daughter were free to ride horses down to the beach, build magnificent forts out of driftwood, and investigate all manner of sea-life that could be found in the pools of a low tide.

My mother thought this environment would be a good influence on my thirteen-year-old brother, and sent him all the way from southern California for a summer visit. You would think having children of my own, a teacher husband, and such perfect surroundings; I should have been able to handle one more boy without losing my stride. But I knew I was in trouble before we even collected his luggage at the airport.

“Mom says, I don’t have to eat any vegetables,” was the first thing he said to me—not even a hello.

“Hmmm,” was all I could muster at the moment; considering most of my meals were comprised of fresh vegetables, this was obviously going to take some thought.

None of my own children were picky eaters. I’d like to say I had a hand in this, but I honestly can’t remember any special training or tried-and-true formulas I applied to get them that way. They seemed to all arrive happy and easy to please from the very beginning.

With Johnny, it was a different story. The youngest of four children spaced widely apart, he had been raised almost as an only child. Surprisingly, we had a very “sibling” relationship, in spite of the seventeen years between us. We talked a lot, but there was no particular respect for my opinion, which is why I was forced to invent “Uncle Shamus.”

Uncle Shamus was a “man’s man” who traveled the world as a cook in the US Navy. He was renowned for his ability to produce delectable meals under any condition—due mostly to a sea chest full of secret ingredients he collected from exotic places around the world. Only a few of these secret ingredients were still known, having been passed down from certain members of the family who were directly related to him—which we were.

Recipes with names like, “Oyster He-Stew,” “Sea Biscuit Chowder,” or “Hurricane Hamburgers” came with a rollicking good adventure story of just how Uncle Shamus came into the possession of each secret ingredient that went into them. They are what made Uncle Shamus, famous.

I cooked up many of these recipes throughout the summer. They usually coincided with whatever leftovers I had to stretch to make it until payday. My specialty became a hearty vegetable soup, made entirely out of leftovers that always had an overall wonderful taste provided by three “secret ingredients.”

Even though my children are long-since grown and grandchildren have taken their place, I still make “Famous Shamus Stew.” According to legend, it was so healthy you could live off it for days, which is just what the crew had to do during that terrible typhoon they ran into off the coast of Madagascar back in 1923. It follows in its entirety—without the story. But the secret ingredients are there, although I will have to leave the identifying of them up to you, as I have been sworn to secrecy by family tradition.

And by the way, that long-ago summer worked out well. My brother ate plenty of vegetables, due entirely to his Uncle Shamus, who, I am sorry to say, suffered a terrible demise only a few years later. It happened at a family reunion. An older Johnny (he was driving, now) came up to me and said rather indignantly, “There is no Uncle Shamus. Nobody here ever even heard of him.”

"I'm sorry," I replied, "I thought you knew I was making all that up. Sort of like Popeye eating his spinach."

"But he was my favorite relative."

"Well, I'm sure we must have had somebody in our family who joined the Navy at one time or another. Probably with more adventures than I could ever make up. Let’s just say we gave him a name.”

"I guess we could say that, especially if we keep eating his stew.” …Which is the truth about how some family legends are born.

Famous Shamus Stew Recipe:
Basic ingredient recipe*

2 cups each of previously cooked**:
• Pinto Beans
• Potatoes
• Red Cabbage (you may also use green, or mix some of each, but red is best)
• Beef or Chicken Broth (made either from bullion or stock)
1 cup each of previously cooked:
• Hamburger
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Chicken, Pork, or both
¼ cup each of:
• Bacon pieces
• Catsup
• Brown Sugar
• Cider Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste.