Possibilities for beef stew?

[nancylebov]

I made beef stew (soup?) today, and it occurred to me that I've been making roughly the same beef stew for about 20 years. Now, there's nothing wrong with beef, onions, ginger, garlic, thyme, rosemary, hot pepper, carrots, celery, red wine, salt (possibly need more of that), mushrooms, and tomatoes, but today it seemed like one time too many. Any recommendations for beef stew that goes in some direction other than basic veggies and herbs?