I have made this stew twice now, and both times it was a hit! The first time I made it we had surprise company and I was nervous about serving something I had never made before, but NO PROBLEM! Everyone loved it.

This recipe is quite good, given a few of the ingredients may seem odd in a stew. I halved the servings. I also had to change or adjust ingredients based on what I had on hand and for taste. I still used the original amount of garlic called for and pizza spice instead of thyme (didn't have any). Instead of waiting to mash the diced tomatoes in the stew I tossed them into the food processor to do the work for me. Didn't have any beef broth or bouillon cubes so I decided to use a sachet of onion roasted garlic soup mix with water to substitute the amount of liquid required. Just used regular vinegar as I never have the red wine variety- Would have been good to use balsamic if I'd had some though. For the orange juice I simply pureed the orange I took the peel from and dumped it in- Was definitely more than 1/4 cup. Used two cups of rotini pasta. It needed additional liquid so I added water as necessary. Made the rest of the recipe as-is, except I mixed everything together before putting it in the baking dish. Stirred it halfway through cooking. I'd probably use yellow onions diced and sauteed with the garlic and thyme next time as I don't think it would take away too much from the dish. Served with "Beer Muffins" from AR.