Cranberry Beef Stew

It has been terrible and rainy lately. Yesterday morning Alex and I walked to work in the pouring rain, and I spent the day at work thinking about what to make for dinner. I decided on a beef stew, with cranberries, for this blog event:

So I bought all my supplies I needed at work, and headed out into the rain. Surprise to me, it had stopped raining, and was sunny and warm. (The picture was taken the day before). Not to be deterred, I set about to make my beef stew. It was delicious, but a little sweet, so I cut down the sugar in this recipe. I liked the mushrooms in it, but Alex didn't. So, up to you!
My tomato plant, by the way, is still flourishing. It's November in 3 days. I used these and some more that I found in the stew.

Cranberry Beef Stew
1 1/4 lb stew beef, cubed
1/4 c rice flour
salt and pepper
2 T butter
2 T sugar
1/2 c water/juice
1 c cranberries
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 c crimini mushrooms (optional)
1 t rosemary, chopped
1 c water
1 T tomato paste
Preheat the oven to 275. Combine flour with salt and pepper, dredge beef. Melt butter on medium high heat, then add beef, cooking on all sides until golden. Meanwhile, combine sugar and juice, and heat to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, cook until they start to pop. Put beef and cranberry sauce in a casserole pan. Deglaze beef pan with other cup of water and rosemary, stirring to get the chunks off the bottom. Mix in the tomato paste, pour over beef in pan. Add onions,tomato and mushrooms, cover, and cook 2-3 hours until beef is tender.