Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon




I have a confession to make. I fell into the "Julie and Julia"" movie trap. Jenny and I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" the day after it opened in the theaters. Promptly after the movie was over I persuaded Jenny to drive me to Borders so I could buy Julia Childs "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I must preface the next sentence by saying I LOVED the movie and would recommend it to anyone, male and female, for a laugh out loud, no one gets naked, feel good when you leave, movie. But Borders has a great marketing person who knew me and people just like me would march right out of the theaters ready to become the next Julies' wanting to work our way through Julia's cookbook.

Ok, so I really don't want to work my way through that humongous cookbook, but they made the food that Julie, in the movie, cooked look SOOOO good that I, of course, had to spend $40 to buy the book to try those one or three recipes that I salivated over while sitting in a dirty movie theater chair smelling stale popcorn.

So, after special ordering a slab of bacon with the rind still on from Millers Brothers grocer in Lodi (thank you Mr. Meat Dept. man), and buying not one, but two packages of mushrooms because I didn't make the recipe in time and let the first package go bad, I finally made Boeuf Bourguignon tonight. I even purchased a pan that I could use on the cook top and put it directly into the oven, just like in the movies. I started the meal at around 3:30 this afternoon actually enjoying using so many pans and relished washing yet another dish. I patted the beef dry, just like the book said, and seared it perfectly. I was so proud of my nicely browned stew beef even though the entire time it was browning I was being splattered with hot oil mixed with butter that had precision aim. Oh the pain of my seared arms and face and....well, you get the picture. Whats a little pain in light of the ohhhs and ahhhs that will be said around the dinner table while eyes close in delight of such a wonderful meal?

By the time I finished making the pasta to serve this wonderful meal on, we finally sat down to eat at 8:00 pm this evening. There is a sentence in the recipe that says "Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavor when reheated." I think that was Julia's subtle way of saying, if you want to eat at a decent hour, make it the day before and nuke it the next night when you're ready to eat.

The anticipation had been building for two whole weeks and when I didn't hear Dave's "It's good hon" shortly after we began eating, I knew the recipe was doomed to never be made again. It smelled so good while it was simmering in the oven for almost 3 hours. Don't get me wrong, it was good, just not that good. Not 5 hours in the making, two burnt fingers, hot oil holes in my skin, way too many calories and dish pan hands good. Sorry Julia.

Comments

  1. lol thats a funny story...ur such a good writer...you made a story about making dinner a "page turner"...or in this case a "mouse scroller"...love you! hope the next recipe is worth the work!

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  2. careful you still might just get the fever

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  3. Thank You for sharing this with me Mindy I thoroughly enjoyed the read and felt as if I were there. Please tell Dave I say Hi.

    Love
    Uncle Gary :>)

    ReplyDelete

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