Beef Bourguignon and Braised Beef Short Ribs

I love to cook.

I especially love to try out new recipes.

One recipe in particular has been a goal of mine for quite some time.

That recipe is Beef Bourguignon.

It sounds so fancy for such a simple hearty comfort food. This is the kind of stick to your ribs goodness that makes people smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm pretty sure that world peace could finally be achieved if we only had a bowl of Beef Bourguignon big enough to feed us all. However, with a sad heart and a full belly, I'm sorry to report I've none to share with the rest of the world cause I've already eaten all the leftovers.

Here are some pictures from the event...

We lit the vegetables on fire after adding Cognac. I always let Christian do the bits involving fire. He's so talented with flames... smiling on camera not so much but fire... he's a pro.

I highly recommend you all make this! It really is that good!

As if that dish wasn't delicious enough...

Round two began the next day as I was still digesting the tasty bits from the previous evening. My sweet sister Kate-shine and I had decided to try making a dish from one of our favorite chefs. To us she is the reigning goddess in the cooking world... Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Her cuisine is delightful and delicious and her personality cheerful and radiant. Who wouldn't want to cook like her. Katie and I proudly presented our own bare feet into the kitchen and cooked up an Ina original of Braised Beef Short Ribs.

Katie is channeling her inner Ina...

Stewing in it's juices...

The final product!

Ok I can't decide on which one I like better so you'd better try making them both...

No excuses... go do it right now... Pretend world peace depends on it:)

Neverland

Christian will always be a Lost boy at heart. Sometimes it's just so hard to grow up. He has a special area that he loves to visit that he has named Neverland. Here are some pictures from some recent adventures. Bret has gone with him a few times and together the two of them get in some pretty awesome shenanigans.

I've gone to visit Neverland and enjoyed an evening of camping and relaxing. The scenery is postcard perfect and there are several rope swings put up throughout the trees. Bret and I had a blast reenacting the Red Door perfume commercials from our childhood on the big rope swing. When he asked what she wore it was always red door. So sensuous so alluring...

The bug life was pretty cool too...

We also participated in an apparently not so legal fishing operation. I caught a fish with my bare hands! I waited patiently by the serene shore of this pretty stream and waited until an innocent fish swam by. I quickly reached into the water and grasped its slimy body and squoze with all my might but he slipped out. I jumped into the stream so excited to capture a fish and almost face planted into the water as I lunged again for the slippery little sucker. Again he squished right between my fingertips. That last squeeze was perhaps too much love for the fish as he slowed his swimming and Desmond who was a few feet downstream from me caught the little bugger before he went further downstream. My fish was captured! Everybody in our party was able to catch a fish that day. Desmond then taught me how to gut and clean my sweet little morsel of food. Cleaning fish is pretty disgusting work but cooking them over a campfire was awesome. I stuffed my fish with some leftover breakfast sausages to infuse a smoky maple flavor. It was absolutely delectable.

Here are all the fish...

Here is Bret gutting his...

Here is the fish I cleaned...

We found out later that even if you have a fishing permit (which I don't) it is illegal to catch fish with your hands... and here I was thinking I was being all natural and stuff. Lesson leaned. But boy was it tasty!

Picture of my favorite meditation spot near the babbling brook...

We're so sad the summer is ending :'(