oh la la!

I love Julia Childs. I loved her even before all the recent hype. I have her cookbook and read through it at least once a week. I treat it more like a novel than a cookbook. But, I think that isn't uncommon for people who love to cook.

Earlier this year I decided to tackle the epitome of french cooking...boeuf bourguignon.

According to Wikipedia:

Beef bourguignon (especially American English, pronounced /ˌbiːf ˌbʊərɡɨnˈjɔːn/) or bœuf bourguignon (especially British English, pronounced /ˌbɝːf ˈbʊərɡɨnjɔːn/[1] or French pronunciation: [bœf buʁɡinjɔ̃]), also called beef Burgundy and boeuf à la bourguignonne,[2] is a well known traditional French recipe. It is a stew prepared with beef braised in red wine, traditionally red Burgundy, and beef broth, generally flavoured with garlic, onions and a bouquet garni, with pearl onions and mushrooms added towards the end of cooking. Traditionally the meat was larded with lardons, but modern beef is sufficiently tender and well marbled that this very time-consuming technique is rarely used anymore. However, bacon cut into small cubes is still used to produce the initial cooking fat and added to the dish at the end.

The recipe take up 4 pages in the book and hours to prepare...I was immediately hooked.

We went all out for ingredients...

... European butter, prime cuts of meat, fresh vegetables and herbs and as much organic as possible.

I can't even tell you how delicious this was. The depth of flavor was amazing- well worth the time investment. I am including the recipe below and can't encourage you enough to try it.