Tuesday, October 27, 2009

No More Beef Bourgiunon

After seeing Julie and Julia, Anna and I decided to make beef Bourgiunon so I reviewed Julia's recipes in The Art of Fr. Cooking (1964). Very soon, I knew that all the recommended steps would take all day to complete: too many pots and pans and too much time. No thank you, Julia.

So I reviewed Julia's recipe in The Way to Cook (1989) which was simpler. (Evidentially, Julia learned by that year that most American cooks didn't want to spend the whole day laboring in the kitchen.) We chose to make the '89 version of the recipe.
Anna and I proceeded with the various steps, and we had fun talking and laughing while we sauteed little boiling onions.
Here she is sauteing again; this time it is the veggies which were combined with the meat in the roasting pan.
Whew, Anna needed a break during which she called Aunt Margi.
While browning the meat, she stayed at arm's length to avoid the spitting. (Anna looks like there was a large snake in the skillet, and she feared being bitten.)
Anna was a master with the big French chef knife. She cut the meat into cubes with great proficiency. (Look at that concentration.)
After it cooked for 2 hours and we shared it with family, we decided that we could cross beef bourgiunon off of our list of dishes to make in the future.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

war


We are fighting over organic honey crisps in this house.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

THIS PICTURE IS NOT BARF


Anna: I love you.... you  make me laugh and i can't wait to hear more.  Why are y'all going vegetarian for two weeks?  I remember when your dad and I were kids and  Nana tried to do that to us .  At that time, we had never really heard of being a "vegetarian..."  We thought it was creepy and I think that Nana had a hard time figuring out what to feed us. Mom:  what is your recollection of that?
Anyway, lots of vegetarians eat seitan, as a protein substitute.  I wanted to warn you vegetarians over on 10th ave.  that you decide to make seitan, knead it for 5 minutes.  I didn't.

middle

beef bourguignon

Last weekend me and my grand-ma embarked on a dangerous adventure. Two My parents surprise ( we are going vegetarian for 2 weeks) we made beef bourguignon.
Right now two thoughts are probably crossing your head. 1. Was it from Alice waters cook book? No
2. Is it simple? NO NO NO NO... My mom just called me but don't worry I will not let you down. I solemnly swear to finish this next week end. TO BE CONTINUED.........

p.s. cough cough please not to much home work next weekend please cough cough. - the youngest


here I am three weeks later... I am just going to pick up where I left off. I was at my Nana's kitchen table looking down on the Julia child cook book. There were so many steps to the beef bourguignon. WE decided to be cheaters we made the regular beef stew and added mushrooms and braised onions. Don't tell any one because its a secret. WE went into the kitchen and there sat tuns and tuns of big blocks of meat. My grandma instructed me to pull out one of the sharpest biggest knife in her kitchen and to start feroususly attacking the meat.