Boiling water without burning it

First up, this is not a last minute dinner. This is an all-afternoon or all-day dinner. Plan accordingly. When you get a formulation you like, it makes excellent leftovers. This recipe is imprecise, and can be tailored to your personal needs in beef stew. This is how my mother made it, and it's still one of my favorite foods.

Ingredients:
Stew beef (not too much fat, cut in bite-sized cubes); you could use chicken but then it would no longer be beef stew -- in a quantity sufficient to let everyone have at least three good chunks in their bowl
a whole mess of potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and cut in chunks; about any kind of potato will do although I have not tried it with sweet potatoes -- about half a large potato per serving but you can fiddle with this.
Vegetable or vegetables of choice (I often use carrots and celery) cut in small pieces -- maybe 1/4 cup per serving but you can fiddle with this as you prefer
Onions in your preferred form (fresh cut in pieces, dried, or onion powder)
Garlic in your preferred form (fresh chopped or pressed, or garlic powder)
Italian seasoning, or as many as you can find/as you actually like of its usual components (bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, savory, coriander [I personally loathe it], red pepper flakes, parsley)
Water
Oil (optional)
Salt (optional)
Soy sauce (optional)

Serving suggestion: with bread

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