Boeuf Bourguignon a La Julia Child (Happy 2012!!!!)

Hi! Sorry It's been a while! 2011 was crazy, but hopefully 2012 will be more manageable.

For New Year's Day dinner, DivaMom and I decided to make Boeuf Bourguignon a La Julia Child (click the link for the recipe). 

This is a 2 person job! We had to make a few adjustments. I couldn't find solid chunk bacon, so we used regular bacon. We used 2 types of wine, both burgundy wines but one had 12% and the other had 14% alcohol. We used low sodium beef broth. We also doubled the recipe so we could take it to my grandparent's house to have dinner with them.


First we boiled the bacon. I'm not sure why this was necessary. I'm guessing it's to remove the nitrates.

  Then we took out our Dutch Ovens (we have 2 matching DOs) and put olive oil in them

 We dried the bacon.

Then we sauteed the bacon in the olive oil.

We removed the bacon from the DO and put in the stew meat (which had to be dried by hand so it got seared. I would have taken a pic of me drying the meat, but my hands were gross and I didn't want to contaminate the camera).

We removed the meat

and sauteed the carrots and chopped yellow onions. DivaMom likes carrots so we had lots of them.

 Once they were soft, we added the bacon and the beef back into the DO.

We added salt, pepper and flour then popped it in the oven (450 degrees) for 4 minutes, stirred, then back in the oven for another 4 minutes.

Time to add the wine!

and garlic, tomato paste, stock and herbs.  

It simmered on top of the stove, then it went back in the oven (325 degrees) for 5 hours (the meat was tough). 

I peeled an entire bag of potatoes to go with the stew.

After a few hours we started the braised onions (we don't do mushrooms).I pealed the pearl onions (what a pain in the butt!)

Melted unsalted butter in the skillet.

Added onions

Cooked them gently until they browned, and picked out the ones that separated because they got tough. Then added beef stock and herbs, and cooked them for about 50 minutes.

We then boiled the potatoes...well, over boiled is more accurate...

They were the consistency of baby food. There were a few chunks that were salvageable so when the stew came out of the oven we added the few chunks of potato to it. We also added the braised onions to it too.


after 6 hours....this is what we had: 

Since the potatoes didn't really work out. I made a package of frozen rice to go with it (after 6 hours, I didn't feel like making real rice).

poured the rice into a microwave safe dish, covered, and cooked it for 3 minutes and stirred. cooked it for another 3 minutes and it was ready!

The finished product!

(I have no idea why this pic is sideways, but you get the idea)

We've made this a few times before. This recipe is labor intensive, and takes a looooooooong time to cook. We've learned that the type of wine makes a huge difference. You MUST use a burgundy with a high alcohol percentage, otherwise you don't get the wine flavor to come through. You also have to use regular beef broth, not low sodium. This is not a diet friendly recipe, but for a special occasion, it is a tasty treat.

I cooked! - Baked Potato Soup

I tried to make potato soup before, and it was disaster! So when my friend Paula recommended this recipe I was leery.

I have a confession...I didn't bake the potatoes, I microwaved them for about 20 mins.

 The skins just fell off of them. I mushed them up in a bowl and started the soup. I put the flour in the dutch oven:

added the milk and whisked it all together:

when that started to thicken (it took about 15 mins) I added the potatoes, salt, pepper, and low fat sharp cheddar cheese:

once that boiled, I took the pot off the stove and added sour cream and chopped green onions:

stirred that up, put it back on the burner (not sure why the instructions had me remove it in the first place) on low heat, and cooked until it almost simmered:

I ladled it into a bowl, topped with more cracked pepper, cheese, and bacon bits (Oscar Meyer from a bag).

I'm shocked! It's really good! A little thicker than I'd like, but that can be fixed with a little more milk. It was relatively easy to make (took me little over an hour total).  This recipe is a keeper! Good Recommendation Paula!

Review - Bar Louie (Several States)

I had some shopping to do so I went to the Bar Louie in the parking lot of Genesee Valley Mall in Flint, MI. Bar Louie is an interesting place. Part martini lounge, part sports bar, part restaurant with an unique menu. This place has an identity crisis. I use to love Bar Louie when it was trying to be a little more like an upscale bar and grill with an extensive martini menu. Over the years it has watered down it's menu, becoming a lot more like a Champs or an Applebees.

They have a new drink this month called the Hot Chocoholic. It's Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Bailey's Irish Cream, hot chocolate, and topped with whipped cream. This sounded too good to be real, so of course I had to have one! I ordered my drink and watched. It took quite a while for the drink to be made, and once it was maid it sat on the bar for a couple of minutes. Once I received it, the "hot" chocolate was barely room temperature. I'm guessing the alcohol is chilled, then the sitting on the bar didn't help matters. It was NOT worth almost $10!

One of my pet peeves when I go out for food and drinks is when my drink is empty the server doesn't ask if I want another. I really hate that! If I want another, and the server doesn't ask, I won't order one, and that's affects his/her tip! If you are a server, take note! Always ask if the patron wants another drink!

For lunch I chose the Aged Wisconsin Grilled Cheese with fries. It's Cheddar Cheese, Tomato, and Bacon on multi-grain bread. I was not impressed. It wasn't what most people think of with grilled cheese, meaning that the bread wasn't buttered, and then placed in the pan with the cheese, et cetera, inside. This was merely a sandwich on toast, but the cheese was melted, for whatever that's worth. Very disappointing.

Bar Louie has had fabulous desserts in the past ranging from an amazing chocolate cake to fresh made donuts. They have gotten rid of all of those, and now have nasty, dry, store bought desserts. Don't waste your money.

Bar Louie use to be a good, if not great, restaurant, but they have made changes that are to their detriment. I hope that the management team will grow a brain and return the quality to the food and the selection that Bar Louie should be known for.

I Cooked - Potato Cheddar Cheese Soup

I love potato cheddar soup. I recently discovered this at a restaurant (surprise, surprise), so when I stumbled across this recipe I was excited to try it. It was a DISASTER!

Everything was going fine, until I boiled the potatoes. The recipe says to boil them for 15 minutes, and to use baking potatoes because "we want some of the potato to break down into smaller pieces and thicken the soup, baking potatoes are the perfect choice." Yeah, the potato broke down alright! It broke all the way down into mashed potatoes and absorbed every ounce of water in the recipe! Heck, there weren't even any potato lumps like homemade mashed potatoes are suppose to have! And why 4.5 cups of water? no milk, no cream, nothing to give it a smooth creamy texture like potato soup is suppose to have.  The only word to describe this mess is GLOP! To make matters worse, this glop has no flavor! I tried throwing all of the bacon bits in the glop to try and give it some pizazz, and nada! It still tastes like flavorless glop with bacon bits. I think the glop actually made the bacon flavorless!


So right now I have a big bowl of potato glop in my fridge. I am going to try to doctor it up, but I don't know how well that's going to go. I'll keep you posted.