Boeuf Bourguignon

Well, after Bernie's inspiration at Julie and Julia, he decided that he did not have a proper pot, so off we went to Spoons & Spice, in Murray, and he bought a 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset round casserole with a lid, for about $225.00. Ouch!

While at Spoons & Spice, we decided to go to Anna's Restaurant (4700 S 900 E, Salt Lake City) and eat dinner (before preparing the BB). We have eaten there many times. It is basic family diner fare, with a bit of a Greek twist. The pricing is good, and you get a lot of food. Now, don't go there expecting haute cuisine, and don't go for the atmosphere. It is good homemade cookin'. One of the specials was a crispy chicken salad, that is what Bernie had, a huge plate of lettuce with some vegetables with crispy chicken fingers sliced on top. I had the chicken, bacon and pepper jack cheese sandwich. It ended up being a chicken breast on homemade bun, yes they bake all of their own, with bacon and cheese with some lettuce. Big sandwich, and great! The same bun that they use for the burgers. The chicken was cooked to perfection, juicy and moist. I had to bring half home for lunch.

Back to the BB. Bernie started preparing the recipe as Julia wrote it, but tried to do it all at once. I told him, having cooked from Julia in the past, you have to do everything in the order that she has listed, and everything comes out fine, and once he finally accepted that, all was good. He wanted to prepare this on his own, so I just played sous chef, and got all of his mis-en-place ready for him as we moved along. Then he realized that it had to cook in the oven for 3-4 hours, it is now just after 8:00 p.m. Soooo, we just baked it for 2 hours then turned the oven off and let it sit overnight in the oven. At 4:00 this afternoon, I warmed it up to temp, preheated the oven, and when Bernie got home, he put it in the oven to finish. It is now 5:30 and he is just finishing up the sauce. Then we are off to Terrell's with Bernie's baby.

For lunch today, I had to go see Lindy Overton, the new Food and Beverage person at Sundance Resort, so I called Terrell to see if she wanted to ride, she said sure. A nice day for a drive. I met with Lindy, Terrell wandered the grounds for awhile. We had lunch at the Foundry Grill, there at Sundance. I have always enjoyed my meals there, and this was no exception. Because we are having the BB tonight for dinner, we decided to eat rather light.

I had the appetizer portion of mac and cheese and a house salad. The mac and cheese rich and had bacon crumbled through it. The dressing on the salad was a sherry vinaigrette, and had golden raisins and walnuts, just delightful. Terrell had a grilled asparagus and portobello wrap that also had a roasted red pepper goat cheese spread, and radish sprouts, all wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla.

More later, off for the unveiling of Bernie's Boeuf Bourguigon at Terrell's.

Port is not for the very young, the vain and the active. It is the comfort of age and the companion of the scholar and the philosopher. -Evelyn Waugh