Things that are obvious in retrospect

I've always (since I got into cooking last fall) made my winter beef casserole with stir-fry beef strips, and cooked it relatively fast and hot. I liked the results, but the meat wasn't exactly the high point of any given mouthful. Today there was only 'beef for stewing', so I used that, and cooked it for two hours with the dial at 250 -- more like 350 in real life, given the vagaries of my oven -- while I watched a couple of episodes of Doctor Who on BBCAmerica. Result: beef chunks that were actually tender, rather than chewy little strips. It's a pity I couldn't find the pepper, though.