Cold carrots can't cook

Note to self: When refrigerating meat and potatoes in the crock pot and intending to make a stew the next day, remove said cold crock pot from fridge in enough time. Early in the day. Something like that.

Otherwise, the addition of raw carrots a mere two hours before dinner becomes the addition of ... well ... the crunch is not a pleasant addition to a stew.

However, the Burgundy marinated beef from Trader Joe's, cooked with lots of mushrooms and some small white potatoes, does indeed turn nicely into a stew with the addition of some carrots, most of a bottle of vegetable juice rinsed out with red wine, and a bit of pepper and concentrated beef broth. Or, ... it does once the whole refrigerated pot warms up enough for the cooking of the carrots.