You know those fall days you look forward to all summer long, when it starts getting chilly outside and the sunlight changes and you have nowhere to be but home? We had one of those days this weekend and it reminded us why we love this season so much.

We spent a lot of the weekend binge-watching Netflix’s new show The Haunting of Hill House. Have you seen it? It’s based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 book of the same name, though the TV adaptation differs a little from the original book. It’s also been made into two different movies, most recently the film The Haunting in 1999, though, again, the film is pretty different from the original source material.

The show is SPOOKY, and we scream/jumped so loud (twice!) that we’re pretty sure a couple of our neighbors heard us. We wouldn’t recommend watching it alone, but just know it’s sort of a family drama at heart, with chilling situations here and there, but it’s set in this gorgeous old house, so you know we were game from the start.

PJ had a taste for beef stew, so we went to the grocery store after coming back from visiting our land and stocked up on all the ingredients. He didn’t really follow a recipe, just kind of dumped it all in there. From what we can remember, it included:

Easy Beef Stew

1/2 bag of carrots
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 can of corn
1 can of green beans
1 can of peas
1 large chuck roast
7 gold potatoes, quartered
salt & pepper to taste
chopped garlic to taste
1 packet of beef stew seasoning from McCormick (though next time we plan on making this seasoning ourselves)
2 cups of beef stock

He dumped everything in the crock pot and put it on high and left it over night to really soak in all the juices and flavor and by lunch the next day, it was ready to eat.

PJ also has a love affair with corn bread so he whipped some up following the recipe on the back of the Krusteaz box. We didn’t have any milk, so he used sour cream instead and it tasted fine all the same. Does it get better than warm stew and corn bread on a chilly fall day? When there are windows to be opened and scary Netflix shows to be watched? WE THINK NOT.