Slow Cooker Beef Stew

My slow cooker is tiny.. I think it might be 2 quart- er ? I used it quite a bit this week to make the most delicious fall apart beef dishes yet. The size is perfect for me... I also have another 5 qt slow cooker that I rarely use... it's just chilling on my closet shelf collecting dust.
You know what drives me nuts? Tough beef. I know how to get it tough, it's actually really easy... just buy a cheap cut of beef, pan fry it and voila, dry, tough beef. I love stews.. the thicker the better and the best part about the stew is that I can get away with buying cheaper cuts of beef. I let this one stew for 14 hours. I woke up and threw everything into the slow cooker and went to school. I came back for lunch and took out some liquid and added more wine and flour. I wasn't seeing the thickened stew I wanted to see... so I let it go... by 9 pm... the stew was ready... so nice and hearty... and wonderful. I served it with some no yolks noodles... and was quite satisfied before going to bed.
I didn't have a recipe for this. I just minced up some garlic, chopped up some onions, potatoes, carrots, and bought about a pound and a half of beef for stewing. I browned the beef before i put it in the slow cooker, then tossed it with some AP flour. I placed everything into the slow cooker, poured in some water mixed with beef bouillon powder (bought the no msg one) and added about 1/2 cup of the cheapest merlot I could find at safeway ($2.21! ... and it was actually drinkable for me... which is really rare because I'm not too much of a wine fanatic ... only dessert wines :) ) The acidity of the wine took awhile to cook off, and in the end I couldn't taste it at all. I probably added a bunch of spices included italian seasonings, salt, pepper, a bay leaf.. iono .. I just kept tasting it to see what it needed. I hate being confined to a recipe esp for this. I'm actually still eating this stew, it's been 2 days. I eat a bowl of it with some white bread... and that keeps be full for a few hours, the texture of the beef was amazing.