Beef Bourguignon

The hubby and I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History last week. It is a great museum; there are a ton of great exhibits. My favorite was the exhibit with the inauguration dresses of the First Ladies. My favorites were Jacqueline Kennedy’s (of course), Laura Bush (I loved the bold red color) and Michelle Obama’s. Michelle’s was just breath taking seeing it on television that night did not do it justice. It was gorgeous close up.

My other favorite exhibit was Julia Child’s kitchen. The museum made an exact replica of the one she used. I thought it was so cool being able to see where she cooked, I remember seeing the shows growing up but did not have an appreciation for cooking yet. I was so inspired by seeing the kitchen I decided to cook one of Julia Childs famous and favorite dishes, Beef Bourguignon.

I was worried the recipe was going to be difficult because Julia is known for her French cooking. I personally find French cooking to be one of the hardest cuisines to perfect. It has a lot of very specific measurements and ingredients. However, I found the Beef Bourguignon to be quite easy. The most time consuming aspect of the dish was searing the beef beforehand. Once that was accomplished the stew was placed in the oven and simmered away for around 3 hours. When the stew was complete I placed it over a bed of egg noodles. I think this dish is going to be one of our favorite winter dishes. It was very hardy. It warmed us up from the inside out. I will certainly be making this dish again once the cold weather really hits the DC area.
In this picture I was trying to show the mushrooms and onions. You can only see the carrots but trust me the onions and mushrooms were in there.
We could not wait for the stew to cool we ate it right away. I had to take a rest and stop eating. I was eating so fast the food was super good.