I write this while thinking:
"Who am I kidding? Everyone but girlfriends and wives hate Valentine's Day (and even some of them do, too!)"
I used to be one of those girls -- Not seeing the point of Valentine's Day -- still expecting flowers and cards any way -- "Its a hallmark holiday" -- so on and so forth. But ever since Matt and I picked our wedding date to be only a two short days after this "Hallmark holiday" -- it has held a special place in both of our hearts. I write both with absolute certainty that Matt enjoys this special day, too. And I will explain why later on.
Last year (on Valentine's Day), I walked into work at The Little Gym to a beautiful bouquet of roses waiting for me.
Of course, I kept the card that has written "Only two more days!! I love you!" in it. Its tucked away safely in our wedding binder upstairs so that one day Matt or Jaclyn Junior will be able to look through it when they're planning their special day (yes, I think about these things -- crazy, I know)
Well this year, I walked into the kitchen after a long day of work (on the 13th) to this beautiful arrangement:
Flowers and wine -- he knows me so well. To be completely honest -- the card (and what was written in it) was my favorite. I received my special Valentine's Day gift the day before because on that Friday, Valentine's Day, I would be off work and Matt would be stuck at work. No way to create a surprise when we drive one car.
It was still very special, and very beautiful, and absolutely perfect.
So on that Friday -- Valentine's Day -- I dropped off Matt at work, ran a couple errands in the morning, and came back home to start the dinner for the evening. We decided that we would not be going out to eat because we were leaving for Vegas only two days later and we wanted to save all of our "extra spending cash" on our trip. Yes, we have a budget and yes, we stick to it. As should everyone. (<--unsolicited advise? Sorry.)
So in order to save a few bucks, I decided I'd make a nice home cooked meal. We could stay at home, watch movies all night, and enjoy a nice, quiet evening together. But what ended up happening was SO MUCH better. It was, by far, the best Valentine's Day we've ever had.
It didn't take long to decide what meal to cook. After all, I am a huge fan of "Julie and Julia" -- the movie that brought Julia Child's name back to the surface and made her boeuf bourguignon even more famous than it already was. Plus, I just got "Mastering the art of French Cooking" written by Julia Child for Christmas a couple months ago from my beloved Mama Fennel and was excited to start cooking from it.
A couple weeks prior to Valentine's Day, I read the recipe and tried my best to make sense of it. A lot of ingredients were things you couldn't find easily in a regular supermarket or had ever heard of before (after all, it was a french cookbook) and a lot of her explanations were so obscure that it left me to scratch my head and think "Uhm... what???"
I read it a couple times more, googled a few of the ingredients, and eventually went shopping for the groceries. And if I haven't said this before, I'll say it now so that everyone knows. Matt is THE BEST grocery shopping buddy ever (except when he gets random cravings for food we do not need). He can find any ingredient at anytime in any store. Plus he can reach the things way up high. He's the best.
I was surprised at how much the recipe cost. I mean -- it did call for THREE POUNDS of beef, bacon, wine, and much more. But after everything was said and done, we ended up paying around fifty bucks. At WOODMANS. I was surprised but totally didn't care after tasting it when it was finished. It was worth every single penny. More on that later..... So that Friday -- after running errands -- I did every single thing I could have possibly done at home to prevent me from starting the recipe. I cleaned. I brushed Ernie and Lulu. I cut my nails. I started the laundry. Anything I could do, I did it. I was very nervous. And super intimidated. Why?
I have no clue. I guess its that I haven't cooked a very difficult recipe before and that I had told everyone and their Mom that I was making it: posting it on Facebook (twice), posting it probably on this blog, telling everyone at work whether they cared or not, and so on. So yes, I was nervous. What if I burned it? What if it was horrible? What if Matt didn't even like it? Although, he'll eat mostly anything -- a great husband to have when learning how to cook or trying a new recipe.
So I put it off. For as long as I could.
I contemplated even watching Julie and Julia before starting to cook. I mean it was a day off work and the house was as clean as it could get. Maybe the movie would give me inspiration? Meryl Steep plays Julia Child so well and Julie Powell reminds me so much of myself. She loves cooking, blogging, her husband and her cat. AND works in a call center and doesn't get home most nights until 8pm where she has to start cooking dinner around 9pm. Hello Jaclyn Fennel!
So I thought about watching the movie then looked at the clock. 12:30pm. I opened the cookbook and reread the recipe.
Cooktime: 6 hours.
Uh oh.... I had to pick Matt up at work at 5pm and the dish needed to be taken out of the oven before I left the house. I couldn't put off the recipe any longer. It was now or never.
The first step of the recipe involved the bacon:
"Remove rind, and cut bacon into lardons. Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry."
Boil the bacon? Weird, but I'll do it........ I guess........
"Saute the bacon in oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you saute the beef"
So I boiled the bacon pieces in water for ten minutes then put them back in the pan to brown.
"Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon."
I removed the bacon. And started to dry the stew beef. A couple pieces at a time.
Drying individual pieces of 3 pounds (aka 3 packages) of beef - took - forever.
I seared a couple of pieces at a time browning the beef on each side. Bacon fat, beef fat, oil, butter, and all juices were flying everywhere. Grease was on my stove, my shirt, the wall, the oven, the floor, everywhere.
"In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sauteing fat."
Sliced vegetables? What sliced vegetables? I knew the recipe was served with buttered sauted mushrooms and buttered sauted onions, but they were two completely different recipes! What vegetables if she talking about?
I turned back to the first page.
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
Luckily I always have extra onions on hand (I always, always cook with onions)
Carrots?? I don't have carrots!
I frantically opened the fridge while the beef was searing on the stove. No carrots.
"No, no, no Jaclyn!!!"
"I don't have time for this!"
"How could you forget this?!"
Just then, I saw an old bag of baby carrots in the back of the fridge. I quickly grabbed the bag and saw about 10 baby carrots left in the bag. Expiration Date: 02/15/14.
Whew!!
I chopped the onion and poured the baby carrots into the pan.
"Return the beef and bacon back to the casserole and toss with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set the casserole uncovered in the middle position of the preheated oven for four minutes. Toss the meat and return in the oven for four minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers meat with a light crust) Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees."
It was right about here that I got confused. Was I supposed to remove the veggies and bake just the bacon and beef? Or do I keep the veggies in with the beef and bacon? I decided to keep them in the dish and bake it all together.
Spoiler alert: I did it wrong.
It was also right about here that I tasted one of the cooked onions......
Mind you, these onions didn't have any seasoning except salt and pepper. They were cooked in the juices and fat of the bacon and meat, but that was it.
Oh my God.
The simple sauted onion was so good, it took everything I had to not shove the entire pan in my mouth. It was the BEST sauted onion I had ever eaten and the dish was still two hours away from being complete.
*Fun Fact: For those of you who have seen the movie "Julie and Julia" -- this is the exact step where Judith Jones (Julia Child's editor-to-be) tasted the dish and said, "YUM" then put the entire spoon in her mouth
*Another Fun Fact: For those who haven't seen "Julie and Julia" -- Judith Jones was the editor who eventually decided to publish Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and in order to "test out" the cookbook she made Julia's boeuf bourguignon.
"Stir in wine, and enough stock so that meat is barely covered. Add in tomato paste, garlic hebs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so that the liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily"
The recipe called for three cups of full bodied young red wine.
There was still some left in the bottle so I decided to start early that day and pour the rest into my glass.
Do I like red wine?
Not really.
Did I drink it anyway?
Of course.
NO WINE GOES TO WASTE!!
"While the beef is cooking, prepare onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed."
The dish cooked for two and a half hours while I folded some laundry and cleaned my grease covered kitchen from ceiling to floor.
I made the "brown braised buttered onions" recipe that called for 18-24 small white onions (about 1 inch in diameter) that involved me peeling all 18-24 of those small white onions = ANNOYING
(The bouef bourguignon recipes called for the brown braised butter onions to be served with the beef).
Sidenote: These onions are cooked in about three tablespoons of butter
So fattening..... but so worth it.
After two and a half hours, it was time for me to go pick up Matt at work. I quickly set up his "surprise" and left for American Family.
And now, I'm going to take a little bit of a cooking break to go on a little rant. Scroll down if you don't want to read it.
It drives me a little crazy when girlfriends or wives get all pissy because their boyfriend or their husband didn't treat them to a fancy day or buy them an immaculate gift for Valentines Day, their anniversary, birthday, or anything other special day WHEN the women don't do anything as equally special for their man in return. You are not a princess. Or a queen. Or any other higher being than your husband or your boyfriend. If you want to be wooed or treated special -- you should probably do the same for your guy. Also, if you want something -- ask for it. Guys are not mind readers and they speak in a completely different language than women. They listen to what you say, not what you mean. Its not rocket science.
And too many girls do this.
That is why Matt loves Valentine's Day -- because I treat him special, too.
Stand by your man. And treat him well.
Rant over.
So this year, I got Matt moonshine, chocolates, and a card. And he loved it!
Confession: I ate most of the chocolate.
And drank some of the moonshine......
After my chocolate and liquor halftime, I started to make the sauted mushrooms in what other than more BUTTER.
Yuck.
I should probably also explain that Matt and I both equally HATE mushrooms.
In fact, one of the times we ate at Ruth Chris' steakhouse (only our most favorite and the absolute best steak house ever), we ordered sauted mushrooms thinking "if we're going to like mushrooms at all, its going to be at Ruth Chris" and we still hated them.
So, why did I cook them?
Because the recipe called for it. And you don't mess with Julia Child's recipe. At all.
In fact, in most of my recipes, I don't measure anything and more so guesstimate the amount of ingredients I put in it. Well, on that day, I think it was the first time I did every measure to the exact amount the recipe called for. I even used my measuring spoons!
^ BIG DEAL, YA'LL
I should also mention that these mushrooms were cooked in three tablespoons of butter.
After the mushrooms were done, it was time to eat.
To save all of you from any bragging I could do, I will just simply write what was said while eating the meal:
Matt: Oh my God, this is so good.
Oh my God, I love you so much.
Oh my God, I have the best wife ever.
This is best meal you've ever made.
How am I supposed to thank you for this?
Me: Just buy me a huge diamond.
Matt: After this meal, I might just have to.
Following the meal:
Me (talking to my Mom and Dad on the phone):
"I'M A CULINARY GENIUS!"
Matt (texting his Mom):
Jaclyn just cooked beef bourguignon from the Julia Child cookbook you bought her... it was so amazingly fantastically delicious. I can't even begin to say in a text how good it was.
You guys!
It was so good.
It was the BEST meal I have ever had (restaurant dishes included)
THE MUSHROOMS WERE EVEN GOOD!
If you like cooking at all, then cook this meal.
For real.
(But the book is better to go off - in all honesty)
We ended the night with the hour and a half long Frank Sinatra special on Youtube that we streamed through our Bluray player to the TV.
I sang and danced with the songs throughout the entire show.
I even screamed when Frank came on stage like a girl from the 60s when Elvis Presley came on.
Matt laughed at me as he sipped his whisky and enjoyed the show.
It was the best night ever!!!
How will we ever top this Valentine's Day?
Easy.
Make boeuf bourguignon an annual Valentine's Day meal.
A new tradition!
More wine and more delicious food!
Yes!!
