My family said this recipe was a 'keeper'...the best stew they had ever had...and I was amazed that my son ate parsnips and turnips and said they were delicious!

We decided to try this stew based on its name alone. My boys are quite into pirates. After reading Tristan's mom's review, I used a very loosely packed 1/4 cup of brown sugar, but otherwise followed the directions. Instead of chopping the veggies (I thought it would never hold up in a stew), I cut them into chunks. My four year old had two helpings of the stew (and this is a kid who would never eat a parsnip or a turnip if he had a choice), as did my husband and myself. My 2 year old said it was too spicy for him. We didn't find this to be too sweet at all...a nice flavor, with a teeny kick to it. We will probably make it again at some point, but I might increase the sweet potatoes and decrease the parsnip/turnip pairing.

This is VERY VERY VERY sweet. The sauce tasted like something you'd put over a dessert, not stew meat. It's a great idea and could possibly be redone to be edible, but not in this incarnation. I did get cute pictures of my son eating it in a pirate hat, but even he only ate one bite. Thank God the ingredients were cheap.