Take one of those big slabs of cheap meat (beef) with the big strips of fat running through it. Melt butter in a deep frying pan or anything else with a wide bottom, preferably flat, and highish sides--even a deepish normal frying pan is fine, but those extra deep ones with lids are perfect. Slap the meat into the melted butter in a half-hearted attempt to brown it on both sides. Chop an onion or two any old way and add. Add about six whole cloves of garlic (use as many as you want, really; some people use 1 or 2; I usually use a bulb and a half--six cloves should be good for people who like garlic well enough without it being that big a deal). Put black pepper all over the meat, then add about two cups of water (well, enough water to float the "steak": you want it fairly well submerged at this point. I'd say your water should be about four times as deep as your meat is tall) and some tomato paste, two tablespoons or so--we have these perfect little tiny cans of it here. Dump in an indiscriminate amount of Italian Seasonings or various constituent parts: basil and oregano is really enough, but the mix is good. Add three or four whole bay leaves. Cover. Go away, but check it every twenty minutes or so. Allow to simmer until water gets low, add some water and swish things around to make sure the meat isn't sticking to the bottom of the pan. Repeat this for 2 1/2- 3 hours, adding peeled whole potatoes for the last hour if you like. Two more little tiny cans of tomato paste, or +/- four more tablespoons, go in any time during the last fifteen minutes. When it looks like the meat is just right--or by default after almost three hours--take the lid off and stir the sauce around until it's basically thick gravy. Some of it will have burned onto the bottom of the pan--this is actually a flavoring, so it's OK. Some stews do better if that happens, too. Great with bread, preferably stokbrood... err, French bread or otherwise baguettes... to dip in the sauce. The entire recipe can be repeated exactly with a cut-up whole chicken (the skin is important; this recipe requires a fatty meat) instead of the beef, and then you can pretend it's Chicken Cacciatore. It's very good.