I saw a great movie the other night - Julie and Julia. It was very entertaining and Meryl Streep was wonderful as Julia Childs. If she isn't nominated for an academy award, I'll be surprised. Amy Adams was also very good as Julie, the young woman that decided to buy Julia's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and take one year to cook all of the recipes. I highly recommend this movie. There was only one BAD word in it. This movie actually inspired me to, believe it or not, COOK. I don't do a lot of cooking these days, having succumbed to the lure of frozen entrees. I wanted to cook Boeuf Bourginon but the recipe was too involved for my time constraints; I decided to fix beef stew instead.
It took forty-five minutes to get all of the ingredients in the pot. It took nearly as long to get the pot out of the cabinet as it's one of those heavy black pots that weigh a ton.
I used three-quarters of a stick of butter to brown the stew beef chunks. I would normally never use butter because I am always aware of calories and fat, but I decided to cook it like Julia would. Julia always said, "you can never have enough butter." It took awhile to brown three pans full of beef. I also peeled and cut up carrots, potatoes, celery, and mushrooms, which I placed on top of the browned beef. On top of all of this I added two cans of organic, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. (I also added a little water to the pan drippings and dumped this in the pot.)
Needless to say, the meal was delicious. Even I was surprised, although I used to be a very good cook when my children were younger. I took the dinner to my aunt's house and we ate with another aunt and a cousin. They all highly praised my efforts and ate the leftovers today for lunch.
It's getting late and time for bed. More news tomorrow. Nana
This might go through this time. Thank God. I have been trying to comment to you for some time. I think I have set up an account. These words just blow me away.
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