Julie/Julia - and Ina

I went to see Julie & Julia with my mother yesterday. It wasn't quite like the book - I know movies seldom are - but I would have liked to have seen a little more of Julie struggling with Julia's recipes. Yes, I am a sadist.

One thing highlighted in the movie was Julia Child's Boef Bourguignon so I decided I wanted to make that for our dinner tonight. I googled the recipe because I don't own "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and it turns out that numerous people have felt the need to update this recipe. I found the original, read the instructions, and now understand why numerous people would update it. For one thing I can't even get bacon such as Julia describes. Plus there is a seperate recipe for browning the onions and blah, blah, and if there is one person I trust in the kitchen it's Ina Garten and she is a huge fan of Julia Child, but has updated a few of her recipes for modern cooks. So Julia may be a big rock star, but so is Ina.

I'm making Ina's Beef Bourguignon. I would post the link, but the Food Network removes recipes from it's site periodically and then re-adds them as the shows air. Look it up yourselves. So far everything seems okay, except that I don't have any cognac, so I'm skipping that part. I hate skipping parts in new recipes, but I thought I had cognac and I don't, and it's Sunday and here in Texas you can't buy liquor on Sunday. You can buy beer and wine, but not 'spirits'. Go figure.

I have high hopes - everything smells heavenly. Will update later....

Update: It did turn out delicious and I will probably make this again, but with some alterations. I browned the mushrooms as the recipe recommends, but when you throw them back into the stew to simmer you can't tell that they were browned at all. Next time I will either allow them to cook with the beef the whole time in order to soak up the beef juice, or I will brown them and throw them in just before serving.

I won't serve this over the bread again. I'll either make potatoes, rice or noodles and serve the bread as a side. Maybe it's because I'm a Texas girl, but I missed the starchy side.

Half as many pearl onions would be plenty. They taste just okay, so I can't see the need to have quite so many. My family picked about half of them out. They do add good flavor, so let's not omit them entirely.

All in all, very good stuff. Especially considering that I'm serving stew for dinner down here in southeast Texas where the outdoor temperature is slightly cooler than Hell.