Food! Specifically, Beef Bourguignon

One of my all time "favorite things" is food! I know this blog started out as a mommy's guide to baby and preschool items, but I will now also feature favorite recipes and restaurant endorsements (no bad reviews here). By no means will this become a food blog, but there are just some local restaurants that I have had great expierences in lately and I just have to share!

Today as I was making Beef Bourguignon I thought, "This is a really straight forward dish that a ton of people would love, but most would be too intimidated to make." Do not be intimidated!! You can ace this dish if you can:

• dredge meat in flower
• brown dredged meat
• chop things
  

The recipe I make is from Martha Stewart and was published in her Everyday Food magazine years ago. Even though the name is fancy (use this dish to impress guests) the methods are simple. Here is my quick run down. After cooking bacon, brown dredged meat in fat. Remove meat and add chopped vegetables. After these soften add back the meat (and bacon) and dump in wine! Let cook for 3-3.5 hours (while you visit with your guests). 30 minutes before dinner you can roast off some mushrooms and onions and add these at the last minute for flair!

Okay, there are a few more ingredients to this recipe, but I promise the steps are really that easy and you and your impressed guests will love it! I also serve mine with roasted potatoes that also go in the oven 30 minutes before dinner so that is easy! You could even make it a day ahead of time and just heat it up before your guests arrive.

For wine I suggest a Cabernet Sauvignon. In the past we have used the one from Biltmore, but today we picked up one from Chili (at about half the price) and it was really good. The most important thing when choosing your "cooking" wine is not to get a "cooking wine"! When wine cooks it increases in flavor, therefore you need to start with a wine that is good to drink to begin with.

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you thought of it! Also, what is a "fancy" dish that you love that is really not so fancy to make?