Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister!
The best and most terrific person in the world!!!
LOVE YOU MEGS.
Forever and always and ever and ever.
XOXO.
Archives for October 2010
FALL SALE
October 21, 2010
Ah yes, my favorite time of year.
Fall sale at J.Crew. Here are some of my favorites…
I think this tissue turtle neck would looks great with light khaki corduroys. And a simple long gold necklace. A practical piece for fall.
I have this sweater in periwinkle and it is SO soft and SO comfortable. Looks like a sweatshirt but is actually a sweater!
Well aren’t these earrings just fancy pants! So cute for a night out to dinner!
Meg has this sweater. SUPER cool. I love the side zip and the color. Very hip and stylish. Looks great with black ankle pants and flats!
I’m a sucker for colorful cords and these are so totally cute for fall! I think they’d look so cute with an ivory sweater or a navy blue shirt. ADORE!
And last, but certainly not least, I LOVE these flats. A girl can never have too many black flats. I love the toe on these too… a little different than your average ballet shoe, but still 100% classic.
Happy shopping!
spice up your life.
October 21, 2010
Don’t you think these bowls are just the cream of the crop? I think they’re pretty snazzy. What a perfectly adorable addition they would be to my kitchen. Someday I hope to have an all white kitchen with glass cabinets so you can see all my colorful dishes and bowls.
These bowls, from anthropologie obviously, would just about brighten anyone’s morning. Pour your milk and Corn Pops into a bowl like this and you’d be starting your day on top of the world. MMmm. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Bon Appetit FEAST.
October 19, 2010
I DID IT. I really truly did it.
I, AEB, made Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child.
It was laborious and it was time consuming.
But also, it was DEVINE.
A true masterpiece.
YUM.
First, I had to go to three (yes, three) grocery stores to gather all my ingredients. I probably could have accumulated everything I needed in two, but only Trader Joes sells wine (a STAPLE ingredient) and I could not find pearl onions at either Stop and Shop OR Whole Foods. Tragic. I had to go with the cute little boiling onions and luckily, they worked just fine.
After gathering the goodies I set to work…
First, I placed one tablespoon of olive oil into my glorious new dutch oven.
How adorable is this measuring spoon? (THANKS Aunt Heidi!)
Then, I cooked the bacon. MMMMM BACON.
Bacon is like home to me. That smell just takes me right back to Saturday morning in the Cuse. Chocolate chip pancakes anyone? Yes please…. OH WAIT. Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes, the Boeuf.
Anyways, before you actually cook the bacon you need to simmer it for 10 minutes in 1.5 quarts of water (that’s 3 cups in case you ever decide to take on this expedition yourself). This was a little strange to me… seeing the bacon floating free in all that water, but I went with it. What Julia says, I do.
After the bacon was fini I set forth drying the meat. I patted that meat as dry as it would go with about a zillion paper towels.
And then after I had finished off at least one whole roll of paper towels, I browned the meat in the leftover bacon fat. YUM.
Next came the carrots and onions. Julia says to use only one carrot but I say PISH to that. I LOVE carrots! I didn’t want to stray too much from the directions though, so I used two. A worthy compromise I thought. And then one onion. Chopped and thrown into the pot.
And then, everything goes back into le creuset at 450 degrees for 4 minutes.
Then take it out. Add a little salt (1 tsp) and pepper (1/4 tsp). Add a little flour (2 tbsp). Back to the oven for 4 more minutes.
Then comes the wine. Loads and loads of wine.
3 cups.
That was almost the whole bottle.
Almost. The remainder I happily had in a glass.
The dutch oven then went into the oven at 325 for just about 3 and 1/2 hours. A nice simmer to soak everything together. Simply delicious.
While the meat and veggies were immersed in a wine bath via the oven, I tackled the mushrooms. You know what Julia says about this one: “Don’t crowd the mushrooms!”. And so that’s exactly what I didn’t do. I let my mushrooms breathe. And they bubbled and browned just perfect.
Then I cooked up my boiled onions in butter and olive oil and let them get soft for about 10 minutes…
Until they were oh so tender and soft…
And now, for the very final picture…
Put it all together aaaaand… VOILA!
(Julia says to discard the carrots here, but I left them in for taste and texture.)
BON APPETIT!
I served mine over egg noodles and it was just perfection.
A long days work but well worth it.
YAY!!
And for dessert we had peanut butter and nutella pillows. My own twist on Joy the Baker’s creation. But that post will be for another time…
Au revoir! Good night!
