A tasty, thrifty dinner inspired by friends - real, cinematic, and legendary

I made boeuf bourguignon from Julia Child's recipe last night, in the late evening.

Over the holidays we were invited to dinner by a friend who made an entire French meal inspired by the grande dame of American cooks, Julia Child.  Eileen and her daughter had been to see the movie Julie & Julia.  My girls and I had taken her daughter KT with us when it first came out and we all left the theatre that day actually sensing, smelling the boeuf bourguignon prepared in the film.

It was such a wonderful thing to experience with the kids.  It turned my little one completely onto more cooking - she's the one who goes to her friends' house for a sleepover and makes them crepes from memory, tasting and guessing at the adjustment of ingredients.  That's my girl!

Eileen's meal was, as always, spectacular and it left the girls and I wanting more.  Particularly more boeuf!

I picked the stewing beef up Friday for a great price at Whole Foods and that was it.  Off and running.  The only thing I didn't have to make it was a chunk of bacon (I have used salt pork before but I was planning to follow Madame's recipe so it had to be bacon) and the mushrooms.

Then, to the cooking.  So tempting, so torturous for my family.  They went out to a UofM gymnastics meet with their dad and friends last night and came home to find mother searing beef in bacon fat.  Can you imagine?

Then they tried to watch Night At The Museum 2 as I finished cooking the dish and put my pan in the oven to a low simmer for 3 hours.  Up for snacks every 10 minutes.  The teenager at two bowls of salad, a large turkey sandwich on Italian loaf.  The snacking went on and on and on.

All went to bed.  All snacked again before going to bed.  One snacked on a large helping of leftover mashed potatoes!  They were hungry all night and still likely dreamed of beef.  Clearly, there are no vegetarians in our house.

Finally, it was done.  I pulled it out - still just barely bubbling - at just before 1 am, I think.  I let it sit to cool on top of the stove for a bit and started to clean up the kitchen.  With all that done and dishwasher loaded and running, the pan was still a bit warm yet so to the laundry I turned for a spell.  And so I put the glorious meal - tasting no more than a tiny, tender morsel - into the fridge.  It will be heated up slowly today for dinner and served with some herb steamed yukon golds, sauteed carrots and French green beans from Whole Foods.   Salad with vinaigrette to follow.

It's just stew but with incredible French flair.  C'est magnifique!