Was It Worth It?

Good question.

Yesterday at lunch was the REAL test of the boeuf bourguignon as the flavors had more time to mellow & blend & whatever else they do, AND I decided to serve it as Julia said to--the part about being over potatoes, not the part about serving it with buttered peas (what is the deal with all the butter??????).  I cooked a potato in its skin rather than boiling it--I mean, let's try to have SOME nutritional value here--and I have to say, it was wonderful.  The potatoes soaked up and maybe mellowed much of the liquid, and together it was something that had to be eaten slowly to savor the amazing complexity of flavors.  I can't think of anything I've ever had like it, but then again, American food is more about cheap, easy, fast, and able to be produced in a chain restaurant by teenagers.

HOWEVER, you might have noticed that--aside from Sunday--when I talk about food it's generally a little more on the "low-fat" variety.  Just so we're clear about how much fat was involved in making this

yeah, that would not be dust.  Now, however much of the fat was airborne, imagine the amount of fat that stayed IN the stew.  Now imagine that fat hitting a stomach that has eaten unprocessed, low fat, mostly vegetable-type things for, say the last 15 months.....not pretty.  For dinner we had antacid and salad--in that order.  By 2:00 AM, I loathed Julia Child.

So, was it worth it?  I think so.  I did learn a lot, and I think it might be able to be done without the bacon & with a LOT less butter, and I am glad that I did it.  And the stew is pretty amazing, though today I packed up the leftovers to throw them in the freezer

as neither of us are willing to go near the stuff again in the near future.  I think our future will be more along the lines of