Julie, Julia, and Me-- Boeuf Bourguignon

Top Three Things Accomplishments in my Life-- One--Met and married (finally) a good man, Two--Gave birth to three beautiful children that I like as well as love, and Three--Made Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon.
I saw Julie and Julia two times. LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie. Of course, I had to have Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol 1, which I received from Amazon this week. The food in the movie looked soooooooooo good. And looking through the cookbook, I saw several things I wanted to try, but the first one I had to make was Boeuf Bourguignon. Oh Julia. You're awesome, Lady.

I bought whole button mushrooms, a bottle of Merlot, lean stew beef, pearl onions, and unsalted beef stock. Everything else in the recipe I had. I spent fifteen minutes chopping and measuring before I began. Then I cooked for an hour or so. And here comes the hard part...I had to wait the two hours it simmered in the oven, when the aroma of the food made me want to eat it straight from the hot pan, and not dive in face first.

Finally, it was done...one more step- reducing the sauce, and it was ready. Break a french baguette, smear with a little butter, and use the rest of the bread to sop up that sauce...Oh God. Heaven. My husband said it smelled fantastic, and that if it tasted half as good as it smelled, we had a winner. Well, it tasted better than it smelled. Yes, there are simple recipes for Beef Burgundy-- but I bet it won't taste like this.

I've lived 53 years through a lot of meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, and cornbread. But I never knew something like this existed. If Julia Child were still alive, I'd hug her neck. I love you, Julia.

Now, what I learned...when you saute mushrooms..they soak up the butter from the pan immediately and they look so dry. But wait...keep stirring and after a couple of minutes they begin to glisten as the butter rises out of them, and they brown beautifully.

I learned to dry my meat before browning, and it actually does brown better.

I learned to crush my spices before dropping them in.

I learned to clean my mushrooms right before using, or they soak up the water.

I learned that I don't have very good cookware, and need new. I also learned that a cook as good as this who could make this heavenly dish needs new knives, too.

And I learned that "quicker and simpler" doesn't mean it will be delicious. Good maybe, but not drop dead lust over food like this recipe.

Oh. Julia. We wondered how you got your husband, Paul, to chase you around the bedroom daily. I bet the smell of this was in the air, and he was so turned on, he took it out on you.

As my granddaughter says....YUMMYYYYYYYYYY.