Crock Pot Beef Vegetable Soup

My husband's favorite! I use canned and frozen homegrown veggies from summer
but fresh and canned ingredients are also excellent.

Ingredients
• 1-2 lbs beef short ribs or boneless chuck roast*
• 3-4 c beef stock
• 1 can diced tomatoes or stewed
• 1 1/2 c chopped onion
• 1 t dried parsley (or 1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish)
• 1 T dried Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 t celery salt
• 1 T marjoram
• 1 t dried thyme
• 2 T seasoned salt, plus extra for seasoning as desired
• 1T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic (or 1 large), minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 can sliced green beans or fresh equivalent
• 1 can corn kernels or equivalent
• 1-2 large potato, diced
• Chopped fresh parsley leaves
• ½ -1 c red wine or a soft rose
• (opt) 1 c peas, frozen
• (opt) 1 c barley

Directions
Trim off excess fat from meat. Put all in large slow cooker. Dust meat with flour, shaking off excess. Then you can either brown all sides of the meat in a skillet with a bit of vegetable oil before placing in crock pot and deglaze the pan with wine to pick up any leftover delicious bits and add to meat in slow-cooker. Otherwise, just put meat dusted with flour in the crock pot with all ingredients, saving the stock for last. Put in as much of the stock as you can. Cook on low 6-8 hours or until meat starts to fall apart. Remove bones, fat, and skim the surface of the soup. (An alternative is to put the entire pot in the fridge overnight, and lift the hardened fat off in the morning. You can save the hardened fat to flavor other dishes if you’d like.) Add more stock if necessarily while cooking. Test for re-seasoning before serving and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

*The chuck roast will yield more meat, but the bones from the short ribs give the soup an incredible flavor.