This is just your standard beef stew (or just "stew" as we call it), nothing fancy at all about it, just good hearty eatin'...
Mandatory (for me, explanation to follow):
couple pounds stew meat or cubed chuck steak (ETA: any cheap beef, that's the point, keep it cheap, like brisket, you're gonna cook it low and slow, it will tenderize itself, but you can go fancy if you want) , throw it all in a gallon baggie with some flour, enough to coat it all
throw flour-coated meat into skillet with some vegetable oil until browned on all sides, may need to do in batches, when done dump into crock pot/dutch oven/soup pot, what have you
(ETA: drain any oil from the skillet, but definitely take all that browned flour, bits of meat left and either scrape right into the crock pot or deglaze it with some of the beef stock below, pour all that goodness into the pot as well)
add a can of stewed tomatoes, chopped up
throw in a few cut up carrots, as much as you like, I used about a 1/2 pound in this batch, three large carrots
throw in about 1/2 large onion, cut up in decent chunks, no need to get fancy with dicing or anything like that
throw in a pound or so of cut up russet potatoes (I love potatoes so used 3 decent sized russets, probably 1 1/2 pounds...)
pour in enough beef broth to cover everything ( I use a couple packages of cheap, 75 cent stew/au jus mix and a few cubes of beef bullion in about 4 cups of water, I also add liberal amounts of salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, however much you think is enough, add 10% more, the veggies will soak it up)
cook all day long (I go from about 10 in the morning til 7 at night, turning up the heat the last our or so to boil) if using a crock pot, otherwise you can make this in a couple of hours, on constant boil, I personally like the slow cook, seems to tenderize the meet better (ala a brisket)
Optional (which is what I made):
a can or two of sliced mushrooms
a can of corn ( I personally like the "mandatory" recipe above, basically meat, potatoes and carrots, that's what I grew up with, but my wife loves corn so I threw it in to satisfy her, to me it takes it from savory into a little more of the sweet area and also veering more toward vegetable soup than stew..., but I just compensate by adding more salt and pepper to my serving...)
Cornbread is just your standard jalapeno cornbread recipe (although my mom always called it indian cornbread, or squaw bread), corn meal, cream corn, jalapenos, grated cheese (another weird one, we use longhorn cheddar, but my family grew up calling it rat cheese, my wife still asks me about that one...), etc....