Keeping it going: Beef Stew with Shiitake Mushrooms post-mortem

I followed this recipe at epicurious, obvs, but with a couple of contributions from the reviews:

• substitute some of the beef stock for a couple cans of Campbell’s Golden Mushroom soup, which is apparently everyone’s secret beef stew ingredient.
• I substituted baby pattypan squash for butternut because what the fuck is baby pattypan squash
• I also cut down on the total amount of squash because I didn’t want it to be about the squash, you know?  Like, “Oh, this beef stew has squash in it” and then I have to be like, “Yes, it does,” and then we all just sit there looking at each other.  In the end the squash melts into the essence of squash, and I bet you didn’t even know there was squash in it, which I consider to be an enormous personal victory.
• I also cut down a little on the mushrooms because jesus christ
• a shiraz does work pretty well as the red wine for this
• I liked it that night, but it is, as promised, at least twice as good the second day, except the mushrooms were really rubbery