Great Fast: Everyone Wants to Know What's For Dinner

We begin Great Lent again.   As usual I am feeling very unworthy.  There are many bad habits which need correcting.  I am looking forward to living a life with more humility.  I'm ready.  I'm ready for my purification.  

Aside from deeper spiritual wants, I have entered upon this fast with apprehension.  I have been in the habit for the past year of eating too many sweets.  I never give up all sweets for Lent, because in the past I have viewed myself as having enough moderation in this respect.  

Last Great Lent I gave up fancy coffee creamer.  I drank my coffee with only honey, and kept it up for 7 more months after Lent.  But, as my sweets intake increased so did my intake of honey.  Eventually, I began drinking creamer again.  I was worried this morning that I would not be able to get through without sweets.  But, I think the grace of God has helped me through.  I pray that He will help me to the end of Lent.  This little experience of grace has helped me to see how deeply I am dependent upon God's grace for the small things as well as the great. 

The children colored the Last Judgement Icon this morning.  I have wanted to make a big poster for the kids to paint, but I have not found the time, so I figured that we had better get on with the Lenten lessons.  

I think Kristiana really captured the spirit of the icon. 

Alex added lighting bolts of death. Eek!

Tonight we are having something interesting for dinner.  I have never made anything like it before.  It is completing my original recipe.  But, it has lots of flavor and beautiful color.  In case you want to try something new, interesting and Lenten friendly, here's my recipe (and I will also be able to remember how I made it if I post it here):

Spicey Clam Stew

2 cans (6.50 oz) of clams

1/3 cup of celery, diced

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced 

1 potato, peeled and diced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

2 T cilantro

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

Open cans of clams and pour the juices into a 3 qt. pot.  Bring juices to a boil and add the raw veggies.  Let simmer until the veggies appear softened.  Add cilantro, tomatoes and clams and let simmer for 15-30 minutes.  Optional: omit jalapeño if you don't like the heat.  I did not add salt as the canned food already had enough sodium. 

The children are very picky.  Therefore they will be having slices of cheese, strawberries, carrots and likely they will drag out the goldfish crackers before dinner is over. 

 

Archangel Michael and All Angels (Casserole)

Remember Archangel Michael.  He fought Lucifer the Angel who defied God and cast him out of Heaven.  According to my Byzantine Eastern Catholic calendar, today, November 8, is the feast of St. Michael and the Archangels.  However, on the Roman calendar the feast is on September 29.  I missed September 29, because I was caring for our newly born baby.  So I am glad to have another opportunity to celebrate.  I often celebrate feasts choosing one calendar or another, depending on how our lives are going.  But I do not consistently choose only the Eastern, or only Rome.  We regularly attend a Roman church, because we are 1h45min drive from the nearest Byzantine church.  It just makes sense to celebrate Roman Catholic feasts unless Rome does not celebrate certain feasts and then we go Eastern.  Anyhow, I wanted to share how I celebrate this feast.  I developed this recipe that I think is lovely for the day called, “Archangel Casserole.”

This casserole is symbolic of Angels/Heaven, earth/humanity and Holy Spirit/Holy Trinity.  The chicken represents the Angels’ wings and Heaven.  The vegetables are earth and humanity.  The white sauce is the Holy Spirit, but also has triune ingredients making up the Trinity. (I’m a Catholic nerd. But, it’s a tasty casserole)

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients for Casserole:

• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 1 lb. / 16 oz. frozen California blend vegetables
• 3 ½ cups homemade Alfredo sauce
• ½ cup fine breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup parmesan
• 2 T. butter

Ingredients for Alfredo:

• 3 T. butter
• 3 T. white flour
• 3 cups milk
• ½ cup parmesan
• Salt and Pepper

Notes:

I use leftover roast chicken from one I made the night before, but for a simpler version you could use a 14 oz canned chicken breast or bake a couple breasts in the oven while you prep the other ingredients and sauce. The frozen California blend vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

Pre-heat the oven to 350^oF

Alfredo Sauce Preparation:

Pre-measure the 3 cups of milk and set aside. Melt the butter in a sauce pan (1.5-2 qt. pan) on high heat. Once the butter is melted and frothy, but not browned, add the flour 1 T. at a time whisking continuously until completely blended. Turn down the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the milk. Keep whisking to be sure there are no lumps. Slowly bring sauce to a soft boil. As the sauce begins to thicken add the parmesan and keep stirring. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Casserole:

Mix the chicken and vegetables in a casserole. Pour the Alfredo sauce over the chicken and vegetables. Cover the top of the casserole with bread crumbs and then cover with remaining ¼ cup of parmesan.

Bake 45 minutes. Let stand uncovered for 15 minutes after baking.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who wander throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

“Pickle In The Middle”

Success! A snack that everyone enjoys. 
From my new favorite kids’ snack non-cook book “Pickle in the Middle”

HONEY FRUIT PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

6 graham crackers
3 prunes, cut up
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 Tbs. honey

Put the graham crackers in a sealable bag and crush them into crumbs.  Add them to a medium bowl.  Cut up prunes with child-safety scissors into the bowl.  Add peanut butter and honey; mix it with a spoon until mixed thoroughly.  Roll into 1 inch balls and let stand for 10 minutes.

 

 

Granola Ecstasy

2 cups of oats
1 bag of peanut butter chips
1/4 cup vegetable, or soy, or canola oil
1/2 cup clover honey
1/2 cup pumpkin kernels 
2/3 cup sliced Almonds
2/3 cup salted shelled sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds

In a food processer, chopped pumpkin kernels, sunflowers seeds, slice almonds and sesame seeds; set aside.  Add oil to a large saucepan, heat the oil on medium and slowly add peanut butter chips.  Fully melt all the chips and stir in the honey.  Turn the heat down to low.  Fold in the pumpkin kernels, sunflowers seeds, almonds and sesame seed mixture.  Once they are covered completely, fold in the oats.  Keep folding until all the mixture is covered.  Cover a baking sheet with wax paper.  Turn out mixture onto the baking sheet (if you like sweet and salty, this is a good time to spread honey and salt over the top); spread evenly; cover the top with equal amount of wax paper; press with another baking sheet.  Let it sit over night.  Use a spatula to spoon granola into a container or zip lock bag for fresh keeping.

(Can’t eat peanuts? Use white chocolate chips.)

An Old Fashioned Valentine

For our St. Valentine’s Day celebration we had a private celebration of our love and a little more French cooking.  It was a cooking collaboration, but I think my darling husband had the more difficult portion. We made sauté veal with a mushroom cream sauce, risotto and blanched broccoli.  It was so rich we could hardly finish it and we chased it with chocolate covered strawberries.  It was a pricey home-made meal, but it still cost less than half of what we spent at a ritzy restaurant last year (although I do miss the wine pairing). 

Andrew began his cooking endeavor with an Old Fashioned.  He touted it as his best Old Fashioned yet and therefore, he took a picture to commemorate it (he also insisted I post his picture).

Then he prepped his ingredients and he was pretty proud of those results too, therefore he took another picture.  I think he was really starting to get into it.

It was the first time I had ever made risotto.  It tasted like pretty darn good risotto to me.  I do not recall having had a better risotto.

 

Bon Appétit!

Smothered

I think that is one of the most exciting, comforting, loving, overwhelming words in  the English language.  When what is being smothered is food with cheese, there is no greater form of love—cheese dripping over and loving every crevice of edible morsel.

Around 4:00 p.m. Friday, I received a phone  call from my husband, “What are you doing with these scallops I see defrosting?”

“I don’t know. I was going to figure that out when I got home.”

“Don’t you want to do something out of ‘THE’ cook book?”

“I don’t know? Why?”

“There’s a recipe here. I am going to go ahead and make it.”

“Okay, go for it.”

What I arrived home to was 100% pure love broiling in the oven. Andrew is very good at following directions, and there were many; sauté,  sauté, chop, sauté, flour, sauté, reduce, cover in cheese, broil; results: perfection! Soft, sweet mollusks oozing with melted cheese. Heaven—pure heaven—procured for consumption by my loving husband. Amen.

Three Monastery Soups

So I received this cook book earlier in November just in time for the Nativity Fast.  While there are many soups that have meat and cream, there are also some good all vegetable soups. These are the one’s I have tried so far.  All turned out pretty delicious. We had plenty left-overs for me to take for my lunch. I love soup, especially when it is cold like it is now. But, still there seems to be something lacking.  Maybe my husband is right, soup really isn’t a meal in itself, especially when it’s all vegetable. It needs bread and butter and meat and cream.  I feel very monastic.  If any of these soups intrigue you, email me for the recipe.





Swiss Chard and Lentil Soup – a full bodied soup, yet forgettable.  It is also stinky. But, I was excited to use Swiss chard, because I had never used that leaf before.  The chard was one of the good parts of this soup.
 

Broccoli Rabbe and White Bean Soup – Soft, mellow flavors—very comforting.  This soup was an unexpected winner.


St. Nicholas Soup – reminiscent of vichyssoise, all the below ingredients became an orange puree. I am not sure that making it puree was the best way to bring out the marriage of these ingredients.  In the end, I added a little goat milk to it and it took on the flavor the milk, which is never a good sign.  Overall, I cannot really complain about it. It was, again, simply forgettable. 

St. Nicholas Day

We had a little party for St. Nicholas’ Feast today, but I forgot to take pictures of the kids enjoying.  So these are the pictures I took before and after the party. The children learned about St. Nicholas at the party, then they colored pictures and ate cookies and finally St. Nicholas visited and left them each a small gift of clementines, bells, whistles, candy and a St. Nicholas ornament (www.stnicholascenter.org). The children each brought a gift to donate to less fortunate children. (Side story--see below.)

Alexander helped me make my first batch of sugar cookies (first as in I have never made sugar cookies before). The decorating part was more labor intensive than I would have liked, but they turned out well. Then Alex could not go to the party because he had a little stomach bug. But, Kristiana went and I think that she enjoyed it the most of anyone. ;-)

  

Side Story – On Saturday, the Marines were outside Wal-mart in nice dress uniforms with a box for Toy for Tots. I, like any woman, love a man in uniform, and I know children like fancy uniforms too.  So, I took this for a teaching moment. I asked Alexander to look in the box and see the toys. I told him that he was going to go in the store and pick out a toy he wanted and he was going to put it in the box to give to another child. He liked the idea of picking out a toy, but not that he had to give it away.  I was very fearful of an impending meltdown, so as we picked the toy I told Alex over and over again that he was going to give it to another child.  When we left the store and it was time to put the toy in the box, I gave it to Alex, and told him to put it in the box. He took it and walked over to the box and tipped it in.  The marines cheered for Alex and we went on our way merrily.  I guess you had to have been there.  The chorus of men cheering for the little boy was so spontaneous, and I think it made it an happy, memorable event.

Glory to God – In the Form of Turkey

You may think that taking one of God’s creatures in all it’s glory and mutilating it into a shapeless mess is not doing it justice. But the beauty of humans is our ability to create and invent. I feel that after we were done with preparing this fowl for consumption we had infused it with the Good.

This thanksgiving day turkey was an adventure of another kind. We, my mother and I, de-boned our turkey following moderately humorous, instructions in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Then we stuffed it with my mom’s classic homemade stuffing. Why did we do this you ask? A couple of reasons—inspiration from the movie Julie and Julia; we thought that it would be extra moist and tasty; we had visions of slicing our turkey in rings; for fun.

The day did not start well. We woke up a little late. I was the first up and I went to pull the turkey out of the refrigerator. It was frozen! Tuesday night the turkey was soft. Today, it was rock solid and frosty. “Don’t panic.” I thought. “Great, dinner will be late.” I put the turkey in the sink with water and salt. Then, I went and glumly woke my mom. She said not to worry and I should add some warm water to the sink. It thawed in an hour and we were in business.

At first, Julia said, “the first time you try to de-bone poultry it may take 45 minutes due to fright.” It did take a long time. I did not clock it exactly, but about what was suggested. It was interesting—almost intellectual. We stuffed it and sewed it up. Then we cooked it. It was a twelve pound turkey and it took 2 hours to cook.  It came out moist, tender and delicious.  But the best part was how the flavors permeated the stuffing.  We all agreed that it was the best stuffing ever, which is a high compliment in my house because my mom is a gourmand.

We also made the traditional Clayton sides: sweet potato casserole, peas and asparagus casserole, riced potatoes, and cranberry relish. We all thought a boneless turkey might need to become tradition.

In the end, we gave proper glory to God in this meal. If they serve turkey in heaven, it tastes like this. There is much we give thanks for—too numerous to mention—as infinite as the Lord’s love.

The Nativity Fast Commences

And so it begins...So many of my Roman Catholic and Christian family and friends are often surprised that today, forty days before Christmas, we begin a fast. They are normally surprised that there are meant to be Christian fasts during times other than Lent. My response to them is usually, “Yes. What is a feast without first a fast?” As strange as it may seem, I look forward to these fasts. It is an opportunity and excuse to step back and examine my life and the ways I have ventured into sin. I was raised as a Roman Catholic and I was taught that Advent was a time of alms and being good (i.e., be good and Santa will bring you gifts), therefore there is a celebration of bounty and giving. However, as an adult I do not believe there can be a true appreciation of the bounty without first purgation and purification. Truly, these teachings were there in my Roman Catholic upbringing, but in a different way.

So, what does this fast involve. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are strict fast in which we have 1 ½ meals. We cut out all meat, dairy and eggs, including meat and dairy substitutes. Sundays are always feast days, so we can eat meat.

On this week's fasting dinner menu:
Sunday – Saute Garlic, Spinach, Tomato and Meatballs
Monday – Greek Lentil Soup and Homemade Bread
Tuesday – Elbow Pasta with Marinara and Asparagus
Wednesday – Curry Chickpeas with Mixed Veggies
Thursday – Veggie Pizza (Okay this one has cheese, but it's the night of my Mom's group and I don't have time to cook. The next time this occurs, I will work to prepare something ahead of time.)
Friday – Pan Fried Tilapia and Herb Potatoes 
Saturday – (Happy Birthday Andrew) Orzo Soup

This is our especially designed by Anne, Jesse Tree

My favorite ornament for the tree is this censer, complete with bells on the chains. :-)

Mousse-tastrophe Redeemed

Amidst the chaos of this day, I decided to make chocolate mousse with a recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Let me begin with the chaos. I awoke at 5:00 a.m. to a screaming baby. She is the sweetest doll of a child, but if the littlest thing is not right, she screams her adorable little head off in a not so adorable, inconsolable, obnoxious way. I attempted to comfort her as she writhed in my arms. We laid down in my bed and finally after an hour or so later she relented and feel asleep, only after she relieved her bowels. The whole event  was particularly grating, because Andrew and I had been up late entertaining friends.  

I awoke hours later to a ruckus in the next room. Alexander had diarrhea in his bed and he was covered head to toe. My husband was beginning to clean him up. The odor made me want to vomit. I was dizzy and confused. I never sleep this late. It was almost 9:00 a.m. Oh yes, and the baby still had a full stinky diaper. What a morning!

We spent considerable time cleaning and bathing the boy. We thought this event was due to Alexander taking lots of asthma medicine for an episode this week. After we had breakfast, we all went to the store. When we came home, Alexander threw-up. This time he was self-aware enough to not throw-up all over the house, but to do it in a bucket. (We have all had some form of this virus this week. It seems mild.)

Alexander went for a long nap at 1:30 p.m. Even though I had many baskets of laundry waiting to be washed, I decided that it was time to make chocolate mousse. I thought it would be a simple recipe, alas there are no simple french recipes. In the list of ingredients it called for “instant sugar” with a note saying, “very finely granulated.” I used some very finely granulated sugar my mother-in-law had bought for her candy making. This is where my catastrophe began. 

I knew this was all wrong the instant I added the egg yoke. Instead of the yoke and sugar blending liquid it turned to a crunchy mess. After I melted the chocolate, my husband came in the kitchen to check the progress. I asked him if he thought Julia means powdered sugar. That is the only sugar that I could think would melt into egg yolk. I asked if he thought I should start over. He told me to continue. I did. It failed. Therefore, I made him go to the store for more chocolate and butter. I was not about to let this recipe conquer me so easily. I began again, with powdered sugar this time. Success!  

The rest of the recipe seemed to go off without a hitch. By the time I was putting the product into bowls for refrigeration (4 hours of almost continuous cooking with a baby on my hip. And I think that explains the intensity of my catastrophe--hours on my feet in the kitchen; did I mention Kristiana broke a casserole from one of the lower cabinets.), my sister had called. I explained to her my situation with the mousse and that it still didn't seem right. She scoffed and said, “Why do you go to the effort to make these difficult recipes out of THAT book?” I scoffed back, “They are worth it.” However, I was not looking forward to eating this one later. BUT, I am happy to report after it cooled and set in the refrigerator it came out as the perfect mousse—redeemed.

Kitchen Carnage

Beauty and the Beef

Well, here she is folks. This is my beautiful table. After writing my previous post, I took a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond, to look for table cloths. Surprise! They just happened to have a few tables cloths on clearance up front. Of course, it took a bribe of M&M's to get my children to stop misbehaving while I was in the store. Alexander took a couple laps of the store (I forgot my leash, which he did wear at the grocery store in the morning, and was fine with it. I was making excuses all over the grocery store, but mom's kept telling me, "Oh you don't have to tell me, honey. I had one for my kid."). Kristiana screamed her head off for five minutes when I got inside the store. I do not know what her problem was. I couldn't leave I needed a new trash can and cooking string too badly. But, they both sat in the cart quietly after I bribed them with containers of mini-M&M's. I am seriously going to pay for my rewarding bad behavior someday. Anyway, back to my pretty table. I bought this table cloth, which is yellow, as well as second pastel green table cloth. I do not normally use table cloths, because they always get dirty and I never seem to be able to get them clean. The cat also sits on the table and messes everything up (watchout, kittty, you're about to get squirted with water right between the eyes). Further, I only had one table cloth before this point. But, after having some sort of "Come to Jesus" moment over setting the scene for holy family meals, I am converted. Now, I will be collecting table clothes, place mats and candles suitable for liturgical, meal celebration.

See the two figures in the middle. The one in the foreground is an angel holding a pineapple. It's a welcome angel, but in my family it represents my little brother who is now praying for all of us along with the angels. He brought the lore of the pineapple to our home. The other figure has it's arms crossed across it's heart. It's called "gracious," but it reminded my husband and I of how Byzantines pray. Crossing arms across your chest represents angel wings. Praying can be "gracious."

Bifteck Hache A La Layonnaise

Julia says, "Shock is the reaction of some Americans we have encountered who learn that real French people living in France eat hamburgers. They do eat them, and when sauced with any of the suggestions in the following recipes, the French hamburger is an excellent and relatively economical main course for an informal party."

Julia recommended buying the leanest ground beef for this dish, which is so, so funny, because then it is promptly drowned in a delicious butter and vermouth sauce. We have gone through a second pound of butter. Butter has officially been added to my weekly grocery list--so long as we are mastering the art of French cooking.

Andrew is the one who decided to make this entree and he prepared it all by himself. Of course it was the best burger ever. We may never go back to American-style burgers. Sure, we will partake at your every day, run of the mill barbeque, but I am not a huge fan of buns, so this is a great revelation. Bon Apetit!

Menu Planning and the Liturgical Year

As I have said before, I am doing a Catholic Mom’s book reading and Bible study at a nearby church. The focus of last week’s meeting was food preparation. There were lots of ideas for making the preparation process flow more smoothly and lots of tips on making food more central in bringing your family together to pray, share your hearts, and foster growth as Christians. One of the suggestions in the book was to make your table match the liturgical calendar in both settings (table cloths and candles) and in food. As Eastern Christians we already do this somewhat for major feasts, but to be honest we struggle to make our daily meals formal and holy.

In order to improve in this area of our lives I will be attempting to make our table setting more beautiful, to continue to plan meals, and to bring everyone together at the table for meals. By bringing everyone together at the table to share a meal, I hope that we can incorporate more Christian practices of reading Bible passages, saying prayers, and simply breaking bread together and conversing.

For a long time Alexander has insisted eating at the coffee table, because it is just his size and because he can convince us to turn on cartoons while he is eating. Recently, I have been placing his breakfast at the dining table and Praise be to God, Alex has not made a big deal of it is like he has in the past.

On Friday morning, the morning after our Mom’s Group meeting, I got up early and made everyone breakfast and placed it at the table and called everyone to breakfast. We don’t usually all eat breakfast at the same time. I usually make myself something before or after the kids and hubby. I’ll just eat fast while doing one of my other morning chores. Hubby just rushes about and either will eat what I make or just drink coffee and then come back to the house and eat something after his morning class. Needless to say, eating breakfast together was wonderful and is something I want to continue. Breakfast is the perfect meal to have together, because the kids are not grumpy and needy. I will try to not short change dinner either.

On to menu planning: below is this week’s menu for dinners (it’s a bad scan, click on it, it will get bigger), complete with liturgical feasts. The kids usually eat kid things--ravioli, sandwiches, etc. I have a picky eater. I have a calendar with the readings for the day, so we will attempt to do a short reading each day. My friend suggested reading from a picture Bible for the kids. I may try that. Although, our picture Bible is abridged (obviously), and it can be difficult getting the right message out of it.

Tuesday, we will go celebrate the feast of the Archangels at a friend’s house potlatch style. I think my Tuesday meal will transfer well.

…baby’s crying. That means no editing. (Your turn to post your menu, Eleri) Blessed cooking and homemaking to all!

Psalm 31

¹⁰ wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

For Mature Audiences Only - Some Scenes of Food Sex

Au jour d’hui, filets de poisson poches au vin blanc avec béarnaise sauce et champignons sautés a la bourdelaise.

That was a mouthful (ha, ha, no pun intended). Translation – poached fish (mahi mahi) in white wine with buttery wine sauce and mushrooms sautéed with shallots, garlic and herbs. From the beginning of preparation to the end of cooking it took a total of 35 minutes. This meal would be very easy for any novice cook to tackle and would be very manageable for moms. But this meal more than anything was sex on a plate.

Tonight’s dinner was an impromptu dive into Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Alexander woke up from his nap at 4:30 p.m. and he cried almost nonstop about one thing or another until we were finally fed up enough with him to put him back to bed at 7:30 p.m. We also put Kristiana to bed. As you can imagine it was a bit mad around here until then, so we were not able to begin cooking dinner. When they were finally asleep we were ready to kick back and release. Andrew asked, “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”

I thought about it and threw out, “Mahi Mahi.” It was on sale at the grocery store today. He asked,

“What else?”

We discussed it some more. It was a delectable meeting of the minds as we threw out ideas of dishes from MtAoFC. Finally we had come up with the meal presented above. We madly cooked. Andrew cooked the mushroom dish. I poached to fish and made the béarnaise sauce. We danced about the kitchen, chopping and mincing, seasoning and sautéing.

(I am so embarrassed to admit this...why am I posting this online.) The product of our tiny effort resulted in immediate food-gasms upon the first bite. We both let out enormous, guttural groans. The phone rang and we both looked at each other, like “Should we answer?” Andrew answered the phone, and we both looked at each other like we were doing something naughty. Each component went so well with each other. Each morsel melted into the palette.

Afterward, when we were cleaning up, I turned to Andrew and said, “I feel like I just cheated on you with another man.”

He quipped, “I feel like I just watched you cheat on me with another man.” Then Andrew turned on his heal, bounced to the door. “I am going to go smoke a cigarette and then go pick up a cappuccino.”

“Who cheated on who, Babe?” This is a bad precedence. This is becoming our Saturday night guilty pleasure. Further, we have used a pound of butter in one week. Strangely enough, we had both lost two pounds this week. And we had a lot of fun cooking together.

Bon Apetit!

Boeuf Bourgignon

---My first venture into Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The best description of the product is an exquisite stew.

This recipe was very labor intensive. I started by reading the recipe the night before and writing a grocery shopping list. First thing in the morning I was off to the grocery store. The damage for the ingredients was somewhere around $20 and it serves 6, which figures to about $3.33 per serving. So, it’s on the pricey end of a home cooked meal.

Later in the day when the children were down for naps I began prepping and cooking. By the time I started cooking I had read the recipe about seven times. It took that many times to simply comprehend all the tasks I had to complete. During the cooking I had to read the recipe a few more times. There were a lot of steps. After properly preparing the ingredients I had to sauté every thing in order to seal in the flavor.

Two hours later it was ready to go into the pot to simmer for four hours. Our friend of ours called to invite us for dinner. We had not seen her in a while so we accepted her gracious invitation. I turned down the temperature on the pot. Seven hours later (oops, too long), I had a somewhat overcooked, but still incredibly delicious stew. According to Julia, it will only be better tomorrow. I believe it. I tried it an hour after putting it into the refrigerator and it was fabulous.

Ten point scale ratings:

Degree of difficulty: 8

Degree of labor intensity: 8

Degree of Kitchen Carnage: 7.5

Likelihood of making it again: It’s complicated. At first I thought it felt like I might only try this on special occasions, but now that I am more familiar with the recipe and execution I feel I am may be able to accomplish it with more ease.

My Execution of this recipe: 5 - Yes, I made some substitutions. I didn't have a casserole large enough to fit the whole recipe, so I put it in my slow cooker and cooked it there instead the oven. There were too many veggies and not enough time, so I didn't saute the mushrooms. I used regular sliced bacon instead huge chunks. I used medium onion instead of small.

Degree of deliciousness: In comparison to you average "Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book" Stew MtAoFC Stew is a 10.

Notes: For mum’s with many kids running about, I think that this recipe could be done in stages—day one: shopping, day two: cutting, day three: cooking.

Did I mention once the beef made it into the pot for hours of stewing, what followed was an accidental nap with Kristiana. I never nap, but after all that work it just happened.

Next up, Coq a Vin.

Perfect day for cooking stew--Raining

Step One: Braised Onions

Step 18: Dry Beef with paper towels. (Who knew they had paper towels in 1961)

Step 21: Saute beef in almost smoking fat. Oops, mine actually smoked.

Step 22: Add to already sauteed bacon chunks

Step 25: chop veggies

Step 45: Add sauteed veggies to braised onions

Kitchen Carnage

Boeuf Bourgignon: Bon Apetit!