The imperfectionist's guide to beef bourgignon

Sometimes, it's just worth winging it.

First, make sure your stew meat is thawed. Or, at least, mostly thawed. Pull your bacon, carrots and onions out of the fridge. Realize you can't find your mom's copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Hope you'll remember the recipe well enough.

Heat up your pot and slice your bacon. While the bacon is sizzling, send a kid next door to borrow a roll of paper towels, because you're out of those, too. Blot the moisture off your mostly-thawed beef.

Realize you're out of beef stock, and you let hubby take the car today. Figure you'll make do, even though it's kind of a critical ingredient.

Spoon the crispy bacon into a bowl. Brown the meat in the bacon grease in small batches, so as not to overcrowd and "boil" the beef. (Be grateful you remember this line from "Julie & Julia.")



Turn over the small pieces first so they don't get overcooked. (You've got this down!) Try not to burn yourself over the popping grease.

Chop a few carrots and slice a couple onions while the beef is browning.

Remove the browned beef into the bowl with the bacon as each batch is done. Then toss the carrot and onion slices into the pot with a little bit of oil, and stir. Salt and pepper. Realize you don't have thyme. Worry about that later.

Heat up the oven to 425 while the veggies soften. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of flour, some salt and pepper over the beef, and mix gently.

Dump the meat into the pot over the veggies, and look around for dish towels that aren't wet, since you still have no idea where you packed your potholders.

Move the uncovered pot into the hot oven to brown -- know you have exactly 10 minutes to find an alternative to beef stock and a bottle opener for the wine.

Run like mad next door to your parents' house where half your kitchen supplies are stored, find bottle opener but no beef broth. Run across the street (in your pajamas and apron), and ask your neighbor if she's got any stock or bouillon cubes. Rejoice when she hands you beef bouillon powder (it'll do!) and run home like mad before the beef is overcooked.

Pull the pot out of the oven. Turn the heat down to 300 degrees.

Pour a tall glass (because your only measuring cup is in the dishwasher) full of water, spoon in a random amount of bouillon powder (because the jar doesn't have directions), mix and dump into the pot.

Remember you haven't added any herbs. Dump the last part of a bottle of Herbs de Provence into the pot. Open the bottle of cab you borrowed stole from your parents' house along with the opener, and cover the meat with it.

Stir, and bring to a simmer. Cover, and put in the oven.

Whew. Dinner will be ready at 5:30. (Now you have three hours to paint the kitchen cabinets.)

Note: All's well that ends well. Or, dinner made a bit frantically can still be quite delicious!

Back in the kitchen!

The last few weeks have seen much accomplished in the new kitchen. Scott spent what seemed like every waking minute of his Christmas "break" working in there. Trimming the new walls with woodwork, installing the butcher block countertops, sanding, oiling, sanding, oiling, sanding... with a little help from his boys.

Last weekend a back-ordered part for the range hood arrived, and our dear friend Richie (who also gave us the cabinets) came over to help Scott install it. This week he installed the sink, and then the plumber came to hook up the sink, dishwasher and oven range!  Woohoo!!  We have an officially functional kitchen!!

Despite most of my cooking tools being still hidden away in boxes, I managed to gather what I needed to make a first simple dinner at home... minestrone soup.

This afternoon the boys hulled pecans from my parents' tree, and I tried a new recipe -- Pecan Pie Muffins.  Oh. My. Goodness.

Middlest wanted to make more before the first batch was eaten... which didn't take long, believe me!

It feels SO good to be back in our kitchen again. We still have plenty left to do, and no time this weekend to do any of it. But I know we'll get there.

I feel so blessed just to have a sink!

What simple things are you appreciating this week?

Camping at San Simeon State Beach

A few of us took a break from the remodeling chaos to go play at the coast last weekend. Scott decided to stay home and get s'more work done instead.

Our campsite had a lovely view of the ocean through perfect pines for climbing.

 

The boys made friends with our neighbors, as they always do, and discovered that they were also homeschoolers, and from our same city!

Our new friends shared our excitement when several gopher snakes came out of the brush to sun themselves in the grass around our campsite...

Of course, we had to visit the beach, too. My dad took the boys down to chase the waves on Saturday. On Sunday, the boys and I explored the tidepools...

 

We spent lots of time just hanging around the campfire, reading, making s'mores, roasting hot dogs, and cuddling up together from the chilly breeze.

We were glad for an easy, yummy hot soup to eat when the wind picked up. Here's my recipe:

Easy Black Bean Soup

4 cans of black beans
1 can of corn
2 cups tomato salsa (I used one carton of spicy salsa, and one of pico de gallo)
2 boxes of organic chicken stock
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Put your soup pot on your camp stove or grill. Drain and rinse the canned beans and corn. Dump everything into the pot, and stir. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with cornbread. (I made ours at home, and brought it with us, but you could try baking on the campfire!)

Second chances, summer seedlings

Last weekend we had a lovely spring rain, followed by the kind of cool, cloudy weather we usually see in February. It made me feel like our spring had been extended -- and I was being given a second chance at planting seedlings!

So I pulled down my basket of seed packets, and the starter kit that had been patiently waiting on top of the fridge. The boys were very excited!

We planted corn, beans, summer and winter squash, melons, herbs, chard, carrots and sunflowers. We still have a lot of prep to do to get the garden ready for them, but in the meantime, they're starting to peek their little heads out of the soil.

We've been having another minimal garden year around here. I planted quite a few perennials in April, but put off starting my veggies. I did finally get a few tomato and pepper plants in the ground, but that was it.

Last year I limited our summer planting because we were leaving for a month-long road trip at the peak of the season. This year, we'll be home, but without our kitchen. I'll still be able to cook at my parents' house, but I'll probably be too busy painting to do much canning.

Nonetheless, we love having our own veggies growing out back, and some of them will be still be producing in fall -- in time to eat them in our new kitchen!

Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year)!

I know a lot of people have already ripped down their decorations, but technically it's only the seventh day of Christmas, with five more to go... so I'm not actually late in wishing you a merry one! ;)

We've been cozying up at home all week, enjoying new toys and games and books and each other, after a lovely Christmas Eve and Day...

I caught the boys' cough and sniffles the day after Christmas, so I've done a lot of lounging, dreaming about renovating our kitchen this summer, making kindergarten plans for Littlest, and catching up with old friends on Facebook.

I think I was feeling a little manic (in my own lazy way) after the Christmas goodies I ate, and now I want to spend New Year's weekend just knitting and reading... and maybe a little reflecting on 2010. (Scott wants me to give up baking for Advent next year, but I swear we didn't eat that much sugar! And aren't these gingerbread reindeer the cutest?)


But tomorrow's a new month and a new year, so this cold needs to go out with the old!!

We'll get no help from the weather -- we woke up to frost this morning, the coldest morning of the season so far. We already traded in Christmas cookies for frozen fruit smoothies, but now it's time for hot cider and chicken noodle soup!

How are you spending the last day of the year?