Anybody who’s seen “Julie & Julia” knows that boeuf bourguignon was one of the uncredited stars of the show. It wasn’t terribly difficult to make, although it took almost four hours — some of the most excruciating time of our lives, while we smelled it cooking! This one recipe is totally worth the cost of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.

I don’t see how we can possibly make every recipe in this book, because we’re going to be making this one pretty often! Barb just finished the last of our Christmas leftovers, and she’s already hinting that she’d like me to make it again, preferably tonight.

I had been planning on making a longer-cooking chicken dish, so I started cooking that first. Big mistake! The chicken was ready quite a while before the other two dishes. I should have started the risotto first, then got the water boiling for the peas, then started the chicken.

I made the chicken with hot paprika, which was a bit too spicy for Caitlin and even Barb to a lesser extent. Next time, I’ll try half hot paprika and half normal.

Barb suggested trying shallots instead of onions for the chicken. And the risotto. And the peas. (Barb really likes shallots!)

I used 2 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of white wine in the risotto, came out pretty well I thought.

Last night we made our first two recipes from MAFC, and they were both fantastic!! I made supêmes de volaille aux champignons (chicken with mushrooms and cream sauce) while Barb was busy with gratin mornay de brocoli (broccoli with cheese sauce). Our timing was off–the chicken was done long before the broccoli, and it smelled too delicious for us to wait until both were done. Barb took pictures of each dish, which I’ll post later.

I’ve added “mafc” as a tag on this blog, and I’ll be posting our adventures with these books under that tag. I won’t be posting any of the recipes from MAFC, so do yourself a favor and buy these books!

The only difficulty I found with this design is the feedpoint. Stripping the insulation mid-cable is a little fiddly, but a sharp knife does wonders. When I soldered the coax (RG-58), I should have done the shield first–it was a bear to solder the (stranded) shield once the center conductor was already attached. A pair of “third hands” may have helped.

• 2 cans (~14 oz ea) non-marinated artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped
• 1.5 c mayonnaise
• 1 can (~5 oz) diced green chiles, drained
• 1.5 c parmesan cheese
• (optional) 4 jalapeños, seeded and chopped

Mix all the ingredients and add to a buttered casserole dish. Bake in a 325˚ oven for ~30 minutes.

• Make stuffing
• Get mac-n-cheese ready for the oven
• Make pie crust(s) dough
• Hard-boil the eggs for deviled eggs
• Make another pumpkin roll (Barb thought the first one would disappear too quickly)

And finish cleaning up the house!

• De-bone the turkey (which has been defrosting in the frig since Saturday)
• Make turkey stock with the bones
• Make the cranberry sauce
• Mix up the spinach dip
• Try the pumpkin roll recipe (in case it doesn’t work out, we have time to do something else tomorrow)
• Cornbread (for our stuffing tomorrow)

We also be making mashed potatoes with our dinner tonight, since we need some leftovers to make poppy seed rolls.

We’re holding steady at around 30 people, although some of them are only showing up for appetizers or dessert since they have other commitments for dinner itself. Some folks from last year aren’t coming this year, but we have some new people joining us! My cousin, Kevin, whom we haven’t seen for many years (decades?!?), will be bringing Robin to join us this year. The Benjamins, our friends from Caitlin’s gymnastics team, will be joining us for the first time, along with Emily (a friend of Caira’s).

Based on our experience last year, we’ve tweaked the menu a bit:

Appetizers

• Poppy seed rolls
• Artichoke dip
• Spinach dip
• Cream cheese and jalepeño jam
• Bread, crackers, etc.
• Stuffed jalapeños
• Deviled eggs
• Olives (Nana)
• Stuffed celery
• Pickles

Dinner

• Roast turkey
• Cornbread stuffing
• Mashed potatoes
• Gravy
• Cider baked ham
• Macaroni and cheese
• Cranberry sauce
• “Awesome strawberry stuff” (Nora)
• Cranberry relish (the Benjamins)
• Sweet potato casserole (the Benjamins)
• unspecified veggie dish (the Benjamins)
• Jellied cranberries (Nana)

Desserts

• Pumpkin pie
• Pumpkin roll
• Apple-cranberry pie (Emily)
• Mincemeat pie (Nana)
• Apple pie (maybe)
• Whipped cream and ice cream

• 1 c sour cream
• 1 pkg (1/2 lb) cream cheese, softened
• 1 pkg ranch dressing mix
• 1 pkg (10 oz) frozen spinach
• green onions
• parsley
• dill
• salt
• pepper
• garlic, minced
• 1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts
• 1 red bell pepper, minced

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate overnight.

Veal Mignonettes (serves 2)

• 3/4 lb veal
• 1/2 lb carrots
• 4 small zucchini
• 6 tomatoes
• 2 leeks (white part only)
• flat-leaf parsley
• pepper
• coarse salt
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• armagnac (cognac?)
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 pinch sesame seed

Cut the veal into 1-inch slices. Julienne the vegetables. Heat olive oil in a skillet and saute the vegetables over low heat until al-dente, about 5 minutes. Add a pinch of coarse salt, the parsley, and pepper.

Remove the vegetables from the pan, add the veal and armagnac (~1 Tbsp?) and flambé for about 1 minute. Return to the burner and add a pinch of sesame seeds and the balsamic vinegar. Serve with the al-dente vegetables.

There were some errors in the recipe which I’ve done my best to correct. For instance, the veal and carrots were given in “ld”, which I presume was supposed to be “lb”. Also, the armagnac is never referred to in the instructions. A 1-inch thick slice of veal seems a bit much — in the movie, it looks more like 1/2 or 3/4 inch.

I’ve never been successful with flambé. For some reason the pan never lights for me. Anybody have a suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong?