I made Ina Garten's Beef Bourguignon last night. As I sauteed the mushrooms I crowed, "Don't crowd the mushrooms", in honor of Julia Child.
Two batches sauteed so they would not be overcrowded.

On Sandy C's recommendation I went to Trader Joe's and bought some Two Buck Chuck.
and then I had to buy a cork screw.

There was a young man stacking boxes in the wine section and I took one look at the bottle and turned to him and said, "Does this have a ....er...." And he said 'cork'. Oh my. What shall I do? Hanging next to him was a cheap corkscrew. Which I bought and used without incident.

The dish, Ina's, took an hour and 20 minutes. Longer than I anticipated but a real success.

The sauce thicken nicely.

But guess what?

I did not use my pretty blue pot. I was afraid to put in on the burner.




***

Our darling French reader, Axelle, sent me a recipe yesterday afternoon. Here it is!!!

Terrific exercise to me, Donna ... To translate a french recipe in american words ... gulp ... I've got my huge dictionary on my legs and the recipe in front of me ... READY ?? ... go ...

Let's try :

For 6 - 8 persons.
Time you need : 1 hour
Cooking time : 2 hours
Marinade : the night.

As PW do : The main characters

2 kgs of beef for stew.
500 grammes of "lardons" (I think bacon would be good too).
5 carrots
4 shallots
1 big onion with 2 cloves stuck in it.
3 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
2 sticks of thyme
The zest of 1/4 of one orange
1 spoon of persil
1 spoon of vinegar
5 spoon of olive oil
salt / pepper

AND THE PRINCIPAL : A bottle of red wine. In france, we use a "Côtes de Provence", but you need a good red wine, a little bit strong, powerful. A wine that you could drink.

... 14 minutes to write that ...

Let's keep on ... ;-))

The Day before : La marinade.

Cut the beef cut into pieces (size : as you like. Remember the most you cut little pieces, the quickest they will cook, of course. I cut pieces like a little apple, for example),

In a big dish, stir together those pieces, one carrot entire and peeled, the onion with his cloves, the orange zest, the 3 garlic peeled and flattened (??), the thyme, the bay leaves, the wine, the vinegar, 2 spoon of olive oil.

Let this for all the night in your fridge.

The D-Day :

Strain the beef, KEEPIN the marinade, of course.

In your wonderful cocotte ... with the rest of olive oil, make the beef brown.

When it's good, get out the beef and in this "juice", let brown during 5 minutes, the "lardons" (or bacon), the shallots in pieces and 4 carrots in pieces too.

After 5 / 10 minutes, put the beef in your cocotte and add the marinade. Now, the more you let it cook gently, the better it will be. This is a dish you can "forget".

I mean, in general, I cook it in the morning, and I let it cook gently for 45 minutes. And 30 minutes before eating, I cook it again. Always gently.

The day after, if you have rests, you can keep on cooking it, that's better.

You can serve it with potatoes or pasta. And a salad.



I do hope you can understand me and my awful translation, ;-))

I do hope you'll like this dish.

Very friendly,

Thank you Axelle! What a wonderful recipe! You did an excellent job translating!



****

Today is shopping and cooking day for the workshop tomorrow.
Yesterday was cleaning day.

Those who are in town early are meeting at Michael's custard this time!
That should be fun! Then I'm off to pick up Emma from the bus station.

We will need the extra set of hands tomorrow. Katie has her first Children's Choir class and a volleyball game
in the middle of the day.

I await the morning to see if we will be blessed with sunshine.

Pretty please with a cherry on top, let there be sun. Pretty please with whip cream and a cherry on top!



***




Taken yesterday around 4:00.
Instant fave.


Wishing you all a fantastic fall weekend. High tomorrow 55 degrees.

Welcome to Wisconsin.



Encourage one another,
Donna