Venison stew and a new piece of hardware!

Picky bought me a beautiful Le Creuset oval French oven in flame, to match my collection.

I am supposed to be studying, so I decided to stall by making venison stew. My wonderful, generous hunter neighbor shared some wild boar and some venison shoulder with us. I roasted the boar shoulder intact, but I boned the two venison shoulders, and decided to try to make a stew.

I pieced together some recipes and this is what I ended up with. Pictures and a review to come. Right now it is just stinking up the house with lovely smells.

I put a few T of oil in the French oven (any heavy lidded oven safe pot will do)
I made a roux with some flour (next time I may wait to add the flour)
I added the cubed venison and browned it
I added two onions, thinly julienned, let it cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally
Added about a cup of chopped carrots and three stalks of celery, chopped, and cooked a few more minutes
I added two cups of red wine, two cups of chicken stock (I would have used beef if I had it) and two cups of water. I scraped the lovely brown bits with a wooden spoon
I added a few T of concentrated tomato paste, a few springs of thyme, and four peeled, whole garlic cloves
I let the whole thing come to a boil, and put it in a 300 degree oven with the lid on for two hours
I am making egg noodles to spoon it over. Hope it's a hit!

Edited to add: It was a big hit. Dee-licious. It wasn't especially photogenic. I may add the photos at some point, but I haven't uploaded them yet, and I really really should study.