Stews and casseroles are among the most comforting of winter foods and the most forgiving; once you\'ve done the preliminary preparation, they\'ll happily cook by themselves. Most of them also freeze well (the exceptions are seafood and some vegetable stews) so you can cook a big batch at one time and know that, after a quick defrost in the microwave, you\'ll have a delicious warming dinner waiting for you when you get home. Seafood stews and vegetable stews feature here along with the more traditional beef, lamb, veal, pork, chicken and duck.