HAPPY NEW YEAR

Where have I been?  Where have YOU been?  What's going on?  I am hoping everyone had a fantastic Christmas season with their families and friends and were too busy to check in on me and what I was doing.  But now life has settled down a bit and we can get back to the business of life in 2011!!

I did want to tell you about one dish I made tho over the holidays.  This is a stew that I have made in the past for a special occasion - you might say - Beef Stew?? Blech - what's so special about that - but this stew is called BEEF BOURGUIGNON and even tho I can't pronounce it correctly I think you might like it - it is very rich and comes in one pot and nice to have when people are coming over for dinner in the WINTER!  The recipe is in Ina Garten's Barefoot In Paris cookbook.

This is what happened here - Number 2 son, Michael was home from Oregon and invited his lovely girlfriend, Mary from CT down for dinner.  I suggested to Number 1 son, Johnny that he bring his lovely girlfriend, Missy over for dinner as well and don't forget everybody's good friend, Hank, who was in from CA.......before you knew it we had a party.  We served the delicious Beef Bourguignon over whole wheat egg noodles along with a green salad and a french baguette.  I didn't have much in the way of deserts except for the ubiquitous oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.  This is when things got a little crazy because of course it's the Christmas season and everybody has off and we are celebrating - so what comes next?  WHITE RUSSIANS  - what else?  I think a good time was had by all.......HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Beef Bourguignon

1 Tbspn olive oil

8oz. good bacon

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck cubes

salt/pepper

1 pound carrots sliced in 1 inch chunks

2 sliced onions

2 chopped garlic cloves

1/2 cup Cognac 

1 bottle of good dry red wine

1 can beef broth

1 Tbspn tomato paste

1 tspn thyme leaves or 1/2 tspn dried

4 Tbspns unsalted butter room temp., divided

3 Tbspns flour

1 pound frozen whole onions

1 pound fresh mushrooms thickly sliced

Preheat oven to 250'

Heat olive oil in Dutch oven.  Add the bacon and cook over low heat till brown - remove with slotted spoon to large plate.

Dry the beef cubes and sprinkle with salt/ppr.  In batches in single layers, sear the beef in hot oil.  Remove seared cubes to the plate with bacon and continue searing until all beef is browned.  Set aside.

Toss the carrots and onions, 1 T of salt and 2 t of ppr in the fat in the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned.  Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.  Add the Cognac, STAND BACK, and ignite with a match to burn off alcohol (THE 1ST TIME I DID THIS - IT WASN'T PRETTY - THE FLAME BLEW UP BURNING THE UNDERSIDE OF OUR MICROWAVE!) Anyway....put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices.  Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat (I only add about 1/2 of the wine) Add the tomato paste and thyme.  Bring to simmer, cover the pot and place in oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and veggies are very tender when pierced with a fork.

Combine 2 T of butter with the flour and stir into the stew.  Add the frozen onions (I skip these sometimes if I can't find them) Saute the mushrooms in 2 T of butter until lightly browned and add to stew.  Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower and simmer for 15 minutes.

It was fun to have the kids back in town!