My New Rule of slow cooking

l.  If your recipe calls for vegetables put in with meat and slow cooked together for hours, don't do it that way.

2. Cut a large stalk of celery and/or other vegetables such as a small whole onion and place it with the meat. This way the flavor is in the meat and sauce.

3.  The rest of the vegetables, cut up and have ready for that final hour or so of cooking.

4. When the meat is ready, remove the large pieces of vegetables from the pot.  They should be easy to find unless they are mush.  I hate mush unless its really part of the recipe taste and texture.

5. Reduce the sauce as per recipe.

6. The flavor of the large vegetables should be in it and you can still see the other cut up pieces and they are not totally overcooked.

I wish I had done that with a new recipe for short ribs I made last night.  Results were lots of mush.