US meets UK

We rented Julie & Julia from Redbox the other night, and I was sorely disappointed. As much as I love Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, I couldn’t love the characters. That’s unfair, I liked Julia Child and I identified with her as a trailing spouse and an expat – but i couldn’t stomach Julie Powell.

I was however, inspired to attempt boeuf bourguignon. The reason cooking beef and other meat dishes is difficult for me is that I have no frame of reference. I’ve never had boeuf bourguignon, so I have no idea how it’s supposed to taste, or what the final product should be.  I wanted to use the Julia Child recipe, but I also wanted to cook it in a clay pot. Clay pots (romertopfs) are amazing, if you cook meat (or even veg) you should certainly invest in one. It cooks the food faster, infuses it with more juice and in general enriches the flavor of your food.

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Which is how I came to make the boeuf bourguignon as if Julia Child were actually from Africa, and used a clay pot. I also put more veggies in than she called for, one carrot?! Pish posh, put in three.

(not my boeuf bourguignon… my carrots were smaller…)

So, in case you want to make my franken boeuf bourguignon this is how it goes. There are no pictures, because I was too concerned about messing up to take them. I also used cornstarch instead of flour because my mother can’t consume gluten. So, feel free to change that. I made the beef stock the night before, using 3 lbs of soup bones, some carrots, carrot tops, leeks and onions that I roasted before sticking in a slow cooker, I may have added wine to it as well, I can’t remember anymore!

In case you’re getting into making your own stocks you should know this. Chicken stock is waaaaaay easier to make than beef stock. It isn’t that beef stock is complicated per say, it’s just that Chicken is easier. Or rather, that beef is more involved-you need to be involved with your beef stock.

So,  let’s pretend your stock is made and skimmed and in the fridge awaiting your return. And yesterday you put in your 3lbs of beef cubes in a bag with red wine. Or do it that morning because your forgot… it’s your choice. You’ve also soaked your clay pot for at least 20 min.  Grab a burgundy wine or, a pinot noir, pour yourself a glass.

Clean and chop your carrots into little circles, and strip your pearl onions of their skins. Rub your mushrooms, remove the stalks and chop in half. Put the carrots and onions to the side, put the mushrooms to the side, but separate.

Cut your bacon into tiny strips, Julia says to take the rind off, but this caused me to massacre the bacon, in the future I won’t be derinding. Cut them into lardons, aka sticks. Pat your beef with paper towels and then in small batches powder them with cornstarch (or flour). Plop in 2Tbs of olive oil to your pan and bang the bacon, with some of the powdered beef cubes in as well. Let them brown on all sides and remove to your clay pot. The flour/cornstarch allows the beef to create a little crust.

Once you’ve finished with the beef braising, toss your onions and carrots into the pan you’ve just been using.  Add more bacon fat or butter as needed. Season your beef with salt and pepper. Add tomato paste to the clay pot/beef, about a 1/2 tablespoon. Crush 3 cloves of garlic, and add a teaspoon of fresh thyme to the pot. Crumple a bay leaf while you’re at it and pop a clove in.

Once you’ve browned all the onions and carrots add them to the clay pot. Repeat with the mushrooms, but use more butter instead of bacon fat. Pour in 2 cups of the red wine, and 1 cup of the stock.  If you have room, add a bit more stock – I did not have room. So now I have lots of extra beef stock, gluten free french onion soup perhaps?

Stick it in the oven at 450 for an hour and half. Julia Child’s recipe calls for several hours, but I’m into instant gratification and an hour and half is about all I could wait for. Nick roasted potatoes, my mother made a fantastic field greens/berry salad and a brilliant pavlova to accompany the meal.  Our Sunday Dinners have stepped up to a new level.

What is a recipe you’ve challenged yourself with lately?

Not in the sense that I’ve never consumed beef. I did as a child, but I haven’t really had any for 10 years till recently. I’ve discovered that I’m not a big burger fan, but I’m very happy with a steak.  I think it’s because I know I’m eating a cow, and a steak is a clear representation of that. I’m clearly eating a slab of muscle from a dead animal. Burgers on the other hand? Ground beef is some strange flesh mush – and it freaks me out.

Maybe one day I’ll eat burgers again, but I’m just not there. I was very nervous to try cooking red meat. It’s  something I’ve never done, or even attempted! I have absolutely no frame of reference for how it should be done. What I know about cooking red meat can be summed up as follows:

It’s kind of like when you go for a hair cut, and the stylist is very careful not to cut off too much hair. They keep telling you, “I can always take more off, but I can’t put more back on”. That’s how I feel about red meat. I only purchase high quality, grass-fed, pastured beef directly from the farmer. I can always add more heat but I don’t want to ruin it by over doing it.

This philosophy has served me well, because I made Pioneer Woman’s Steak Bites (using wine at the end) for my  cooking with red meat debut. They were delicious. At first, I couldn’t tell if my friends and family were just being polite because they all knew how nervous I was to cook with red meat. After they disappeared quickly, I was pretty sure they were telling the truth.

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So, the moral of the story is, don’t be afraid to try something new. What have you tried recently?

ps. Sorry I don’t have any of my own pics, I was too worried about the steak to take them!

This is what gets my feathers ruffled about the CBS/Focus on the Family/ManCrunch ad issue. CBS denied an ad in 2004 promoting gay acceptance. CBS accepts an ad in 2010 from Focus on the Family. CBS has said that the 2004 ad would be accepted today, but it’s oh so very easy to say you’d accept something when you’re not faced with it.

What does CBS consider to be responsibly produced? What are their standards? That’s what I’m most curious about with their new change of policy. Because like it or not, media outlets are exactly that – outlets. So what is aired by a major network (usually) has a farther reach than.. youtube. or this blog. So if only one viewpoint is stated, then it’s the only viewpoint that gets out. Forgive me for assuming that corporations have responsibility, I forgot about the SCOTUS ruling!

However, I’m certainly not promoting the idea that you must have opposing viewpoints to share a view point at all. That would be silly, ex. to air your pro life ad there must be a pro choice ad? That kicks too many things out of the arena. What if a pro cat organization wanted to run an ad, but there was no pro dog ad to counter? Then the cat ad couldn’t air? I don’t think that would work too well either.

Why is the Tim Tebow ad a-okay and the gay men’s dating site not okay? Why are there spots for PopTarts, but not ManCrunch?

In the end, all I’m asking for is a bit of transparency here. What are CBS’s standards for a “responsibly produced” ad? What makes the cut and what doesn’t?

I couldn’t stop making them. First I tried them the “That Wife” way, and they were good. Then I tried them the Brownie Points way, and they were (surprisingly) even better! It’s the covering of the pot that makes the difference for the sugar. I made a few for my bee friends:

(bee cutter available at Sur La Table)

Then for Baking Gals with Amy I made a vanilla batch and a peppermint batch. I *may* have used too much peppermint extract, it turns out I needed peppermint oil instead and didn’t run out to buy any. Whoopsies….

But they were pretty and delicious! I made 4 batches in 2 weeks. I think I’m over marshmallows for awhile. Have you ever made them? What’s your method?

Christmas is a difficult time for all couples, no matter how near/far your families are to you. My sister and her husband have to careful balance the gluttony of the day, because they’re often eating TWO huge family meals, three if you count our large breakfast. We have to pick a country and stick with it for the holidays, this year we didn’t have a choice as Nick wasn’t allowed to leave the country.

Since it was Nick’s first Christmas away from home I tried to blend our traditions. We still went to midnight mass (mine), but we had a a full English breakfast (his) with cinnabons (mine) on Christmas morning. I secretly ordered a bunch of Christmas crackers so I could surprise him, I baked Yorkshire Puddings, and my sister stealthily made his aunt’s pavlova. Except hers turned out correctly (unlike mine).

I think these traditions are here to stay. Everyone one loved the crackers

and wore their crowns with pride

The yorkshire puddings

and the pavlova rounded out the deserts perfectly.

How did you help your spouse to feel more”at home” on Christmas? Or did your spouse work to make you feel the same way?

Do you know what a pavlova is? It’s Nick’s favorite dessert, and I attempted to make it for him a few months ago. This is what a pavlova should look like:

This is what mine looked like before it went into the oven:

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

Pavlova FAIL. Instead of attempting it myself again, I’ve farmed out the work to my sister and mother. Both of their (non chocolate) pavlovas have turned out great. I’m still gun shy though – I don’t want to fail so hard again!

What’s been your biggest dessert (or cooking) FAIL?

It was a bad, bad idea. It was great meat from Polyface farm, grass-fed and pastured from a responsible farm. A few friends, Nick and I all journeyed down to Polyface 2 months ago (perhaps I should blog about that…) and toured the farm before grabbing some meat to take back with us.

I really wanted to go to the farm and I was pleased everyone agreed to go, but this post isn’t about the farm – it’s about the burger. We also picked up steak in addition to the ground beef from the other night and I thought I should try a burger before attempting a steak.

I managed to eat half before I felt sick, then attempted to eat a quarter more and eventually I had to quit. Then I went upstairs and wished I had just stayed mostly vegetarian*. Since the burger day, I have tried to eat a steak (also from Polyface) and it was the bomb. So, I’ve decided that steak > burger.

*by mostly vegetarian I mean that I eat mostly vegetables and sometimes fish. Recently, I tried bacon on my veggie burger.

Calling all MD/DC/VA metro area bees!

Join us for happy hour at Mar de Plata in Dupont Circle at 6:30pm tomorrow!

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You’ll see and

and

and Tulip’s baby bulb, along with several other brilliant and sassy ladies from the boards.  So go ahead, de-lurk and we’ll see you on Thursday!

ps. please comment on the board post or below so Miss Old Town VA will include you in the reservation!

I’ve been converted. When we returned home after the snowpocalypse  we (of course) made s’mores. Since Nick went shopping for the s’more materials he returned with these

and these

and oddly enough, strawberry marshmallows.  I didn’t feel like waiting for marshmallows to harden if I made them, so he tried to buy them at Harris Teeter – but they were all out! Except for Strawberry or Tutti-Fruti flavors and he wisely chose strawberry.Which lent an interesting, but not horrible flavor.

mmmm, decontructed posh s’more.

What do you consider your necessities for a s’more?

Well, there would be so many wedding related things I would change.  I was scoping out a wb reader’s blog and she posted about this beauty.  I would have definitely gotten a matching pair of these rings from metalsmitten for our wedding bands!

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Maybe I’ll still get one and wear it as a right hand ring, or a pendant.  Either way, I’m in <3

Where did you find your wedding bands?