Quick meals

Tomorrow we're doing a drumstick meal similar to last week but we're using a mango sauce instead of lemon pepper.

Tonight I sautéed beef cubes in Saffron Road harissa medium simmer sauce and added green peppers and carrots.

Looks great:

This was fabulous! The Saffron Road harissa simmer sauce was perfect for my family's desire for a not spicy harissa. I drowned mine in spicy harissa from Tunisia.

Today's chicken turned out fine. I'm still not a fan of drumsticks but I love the vegetables marinated in the same sauce.

Beef stew

Today we're making some beef stew. I pulled some beef cubes from the freezer and coated them with garlic pepper, barbeque rub, parsley and Italian seasoning. I poured the a few dollops of oil and some strawberry basil vinegar into the bottom of my cast iron skillet.

I seared the meat on high heat and then added some tomato and store bought beef broth. I transferred it to the crock pot, added more broth, and dumped in about 3/4 pound of baby carrots.

After a few hours, my husband will probably lower the heat and add peas.

I don't have red wine to really do it right.

Garden Taco Night

I am happiest when I am cooking. I don't mean that when I cook I become happy, I mean that when I am happy I cook. And I do good stuff. Not the eat for survival stuff. 

The chicken sitting adventure is going well. We got 18 eggs today and rushed home and made thick egg sandwiches on rye before school.

I whipped up some soft taco filling: ground beef, beans that I made today not from a can, the last batch of corn preserved from a local farm last year and diced pepper from the lady who owns the chickens.

Spices for the batch include paprika, cumin, chili powder, hot chili powder and garlic powder. I use a lot of each, to taste.

Valentines Feast

I got my stitches out today. I'm almost back to where I was before this whole debacle started-- toothless for the #29 slot but healthy-- thanks to my diligent periodontist. We try again June 14, giving my jaw plenty of time to heal.

In the meantime, I have a healing hole on the right side of my mouth and a molar that needs repair on the left. Doesn't leave me much options for chewing, but that back left molar is my dentist's project for next Tuesday.

My husband had suggested picking out a cake from Wegmans for Valentine's Day. So, armed with the remaining $37 on the Wegmans gift card from my mom and a $50 gift card I had hanging around I decided to find something to cook for dinner.

What did I get?

Keep in mind, today was a splurge day, and it was cheaper than going out to dinner since we didn't eat all of it tonight.

- 4 of Wegmans perfect portion sirloin steaks, organic and grass fed, 2 per pack, one pack $10.26, the other $9.90
- 90-10 ground beef, $5.15
- club pack of boneless chicken breasts, $11.02
- port salut cheese, $4.20
- medium Brie, $6.37
- 9 croissants: 3 plain, 3 chocolate, 3 almond, $1.25 each
- baguette, $2.25
- Wegmans ultimate white cake (the small one), $6.50
- watermelon chunks, 10 ounces, $3.49
- French blend bagged salad, $2.50
- baby red potatoes, $3.99
- one pound organic carrots, $1.19
- Wegmans raspberry cherry vinaigrette dressing, $3.29

Total $81.36

THE MENU
1st course: watermelon
2nd course: pan-seared sirloin with roasted potatoes and carrots
3rd course: salad with mandarin oranges, dried blueberries, dried strawberries and the cherry raspberry dressing
4th course: cheese platter of baguette with port salut and brie
5th course: ultimate white cake

Market Pantry Broccoli & Beef

Today for lunch I made black bean burritos, but I totally ran out of steam for dinner. I feel like we have eaten way too much red and fatty meat the last few days, but we can blame the storm. And the fact that it's the end of the month. My freezer is still stocked with meat but we ate all the fresh and frozen veggies.

The final budget for August came in at $350 for groceries and $110 on dining out. My goal for September is to shave $100 off that-- from either/both categories. I think it's doable. We have lots of meat, juice and soup so this will help reduce the grocery budget. We may splurge for husband's birthday and go out...

Dinner tonight will be meat and processed. Against the grain of this blog. But my freezer has all breakfast food and nothing for a tired mom to whip up. I was thinking homemade pizza or spaghetti and then I remembered we had stuffed shells/ziti last night.

I chose Market Pantry broccoli and beef. It was on sale and I had a weak moment. Nutritionally it meets my nazi mom standards:
- low fat (4 grams total per serving, 1.5 saturated)
- adequate fiber (thank you broccoli, 2 grams per serving or 8% RDA)
- 25% RDA vitamin C
- 12 g of protein
- 10% RDA vitamin A
AND
- 8% iron

But before you ask, sodium is 870 mg or 36%.

Surprisingly, the ingredients look read-able. I'm not seeing MSG, but it does contain wheat.

 It was good. Non-offensive. More flavorful than I expected, but I like my Asian cuisine on the spicy side so I found this bland.

Taco 'clearance' feast

We started taco beef in the Le Creuset skillet for our taco 'clearance' feast (so-named for all the goodies we got at Target.)

This is the taco post, though I didn't use beans today since we have refrieds instead of whole.
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/07/tacos.html?m=1

Yesterday we got the following items on clearance or at a reduced cost:
- refried beans
- multigrain tortillas
- Spanish rice
- salsa
- avocado
- bagged salad

Cheesesteak soup

Today, I will make the transition from chicken soup to beef soup.

I prepared a pound of chip steak in the Le Creuset skillet with extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, garlic powder, oregano and a few tablespoons of Pacific Foods Organic Creamy tomato soup.

In the crockpot I mixed:
- a cheap can of condensed vegetable beef soup, with 1.5 cans water
- about 10 (?) ounces creamy tomato soup
- 32 ounces wegmans culinary beef stock
- 3/4 of the meat, with cooking juices, chopped ridiculously tiny
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- more than 1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar

I did it!!! It tastes like a cheesesteak!

Steak stuffed with feta and apples

This is what I'm attempting for tonight's dinner with my dad and stepmom:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-flank-steak-stuffed-with-apple.html

Of course, being me, I have deviated from the recipe.

It's 7 a.m. and I have just set 4 pieces of sirloin tip steak to marinate in the crock pot reservoir in the fridge. I made my marinade with:
- somewhere around 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I came home about 12:30 and embarked upon the stuffing. Her recipe calls for one golden delicious apple, "one half block" of feta, something like 1/3 cup chopped almonds and two cloves garlic. I had more steaks than her, but she said she had leftover stuffing. Now, my stepmom doesn't like garlic...

So I mixed:
- About 3/4 cup feta (instinct says I should have used more)
- two gala apples
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- about 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic (the jar kind)

And I eliminated the nuts. Cheese and meat are enough protein. The nuts can't add that much texture...

I rolled about a large handful and a half of stuffing into each steak and returned it to the juice in the crockpot and put the crockpot on high. Then I tossed some extra stuffing on top. I planned to reduce the heat to low when I get home from my meeting, which will probably be after school at 3:30.

There was also a lovely raspberry, spring mix, feta, raisin and sesame stick salad...

Once a week?

I don't know what has happened that I haven't cooked... I made a pot roast in the crock pot yesterday with a combination of beef broth and vegetable stock. I didn't like it. The family loved it.

Today's school lunch:

• Leftover beef with jus in the thermal container
• raisins and chocolate covered dried plums
• carrots
• 100% juice fruit punch juice box
• A slice of whole wheat processed sandwich bread with butter

Breakfast was milk, banana cake with almonds and an apple.

Mango Basil Meatballs

Looking at the week ahead, I opted for some red meat for dinner. Local beef from a nearby dairy farm, but hamburger nonetheless. Meatballs. Served as? Not sure. But it won't involve red sauce or pasta since we had that for lunch and it's too late in the game to make brown rice.

Betty Crocker's Meatball recipe is this:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 egg

Mix. Make 1.5 inches balls. Cook in 13x9x2 inch rectangular pan at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

But we all know I can't follow a recipe. I swapped the rectangular dish for my Le Creuset skillet.

Here are my ingredients:
- 1 package (I hope it's) 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup crumbled Matzoh
(now my meat was frozen and I thawed it in the microwave and it got juicy, then the Matzoh was too big, so I tossed it all in and improvised)
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup mango coconut pepper sauce (to replace the milk, but I misread the amount)
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- 10 leaves fresh basil from the garden, torn
- 1 egg

They "feel" "right."

Will keep you posted.

They were incredible!

Tacos

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make tacos.
I made the homemade tortillas this afternoon and found this site:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/tacorecipes.html

QUOTED FROM THE SITE:
Ground beef
(I prefer ground chuck)
Salt
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder or 2 cloves
Bell pepper
Onion

Instructions for taco recipe:

Let's take 2 pounds of ground beef in 2 quart sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili power, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of paprika. Enough water to cover meat.

Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat about an hour. I will check in about 15 minutes take a potato masher break up the meat a little don't want it to cook up in lumps.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 more times. Also make sure we don't run dry of water. Add water if needed. Hour over already!

OK, add 1/2 medium chopped onion, 1/2 medium chopped bell pepper, continue cooking 20 or 30 more minutes.

MY VARIATIONS:
I used 1/2 ground beef from a local farm and 1/2 black beans (the ones I made in the crock pot over the weekend.)
I omitted onion, and used one green pepper from my garden.
I turned up the heat a little on the stove, not the taco meat, because I didn't start early enough.

And I'm using my Le Creuset skillet instead of a saucepan.

Experimental Stew

So, I do it every time. I start cooking the beef cubes in butter in my Le Creuset skillet for French-style beef stew and I don't check the cupboard to make sure we have stock.

I had chicken stock and Thai stock. So I piled some chives and parsley from the garden into the skillet with the cooking meat, about a teaspoon of garlic salt and a teaspoon of four color black peppercorn. When that got done cooking, I added enough thai broth to fill the skillet. And basil. And more pepper.

Then I poured the broth, after about 30 minutes, into the stew pot. Then I added half a bottle of red wine to the skillet and cooked the wine in that. I combined everything and put the stew pot over the heat. I added the rest of the wine, and a wine bottle of water. I boiled and tasted. Too much red wine.

So I added a can of vegetarian vegetable soup (with alphabet noodles, classy, eh?) and some more basil and chives.

And set it to boil for about ten minutes. Added green beans from the garden.

Meat Bagel with sesame sautéed asparagus

For lunch today I fried some beef hot dogs in the skillet, with lots of asparagus spears from the freezer.

I cut the dogs in half length-wise so they would lay flat on a open-faced bagel sandwich, each sandwich requiring 3/4 of a hot dog sliced in this manner.

The meat itself was a gift from a friend.

I toasted a half bagel for each of us, put ketchup on it for the child and husband (horseradish mustard for me) and put the slices of meat on top. Then I sprinkled on some shredded "Mexican blend" cheese and warmed it slightly in the microwave.

I removed the meat from the skillet (it had been cooking with the asparagus) and added about a teaspoon sesame oil to it. I also sprinkled four color pepper and garlic salt on the asparagus and cooked it until thoroughly hot and brown on one side.

Despite the perceived kid-friendliness of these open-faced sandwiches, my daughter thought they looked awful and smelled worse. She picked at them for a half hour and then announced she didn't like the beef knotwurst or whatever it was.

I have the only kid in America who loves meat, loves sausages, loves bacon, but hates anything remotely hot dog-ish.

Salads with beef

The beef last night, for my first roast, came out admirably. I have a few thoughts on how to improve it should I repeat the experiment.

For breakfast today, we had big bowls of cream of wheat made with soymilk and served with lots of sliced strawberries.

Lunch was salads of romaine, iceberg, beef, peppercorn ranch with no MSG, carrots, broccoli, raisins and for me, some hot wasabi bar mix. Washed it down with apple-raspberry juice. And we're finishing off the guacamole with some multigrain tortilla chips.

The Intimidating Round Roast

Uggh.

I am faced with a three pound bottom round roast that, thus far, has kicked my ass.

Let me preface this tale.

For most of my adult life, I have been a vegetarian. I probably spent eight years as such. I even spent about six months as a vegan. I do not like to cook meat. I do not feel meat is a daily necessity. I think it general Americans consume too much meat, and too much processed foods, and too much flat out junk. As this blog documents, I do eat meat.

It started toward the end of my pregnancy with the occasional turkey sandwich. I was on a gestational diabetes diet and after several months of eating protein six times a day, the vegetarian options were starting to get old.

Then, when my daughter was 18-months old, I got a high stress job and starting craving bacon cheeseburgers, even though I hate bacon. So once or twice a month I would eat one.

But all this time, I ate vegetarian at home. And occasionally I'd eat a tuna sandwich. I took vegan cooking courses. And, thanks to the gestational diabetes diet, I was very cognizant of mixing our foods to get protein, calcium, green veggies, orange veggies, fruit, etc. That's when my husband starting calling me the nutrition nazi.

I ventured into cooking some meat while working on the manuscript of my second (yet unpublished) novel. I had the main character cooking. And he's French. And they eat anything they can catch. In order to make the scenes work in the novel, I had to test the recipes. So I did. And I tried to put myself in my main character's shoes. And that's how, even today, I force myself to cook meat.

Now, someone I know who is concerned about us brought me some pork and a three-pound bottom round roast that he found on sale. (A $14 roast for $6) He read my blog entry about my last trip to Wegmans and I guess he feared we were too poor to buy meat (due to my recent unemployment).

I called my mother-in-law and asked how to cook it. She said put it in the crockpot with liquid and carrots. I thought I could handle that.

So my daughter peeled carrots, I got some water and some Wegmans vegetable stock, and the roast was WAY too big for the crock pot.

A facebook poll of my friends led to me cutting it. I added a cup of water and a cup of stock and a hearty few grinds of garlic salt. IT FILLED THE CROCK POT. No room for carrots. I sliced them and put them in my skillet, with stock and water, thinking about 30-40 minutes before dinner, I'll put some meat in there and roast in in the oven.

This better taste damn good. Because it took an hour to get this far.

Kitchen Alchemy: Beef Stew

I am making something that resembles beouf bourgogne... I chopped the stew meet and dusted with flour, four color organic peppercorns, and sea salt. I'm browning them with a touch of olive oil, a touch of the petit sirah (on sale for $5 at the liquor store) and a touch of French brandy.

The vegetable stock has been reduced by half, and lots of herbs added. In the absence of a true bouquet garni, I have added a variety of fresh herbs from the freezer and dried herbs. Dill, sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic pepper.

My husband has chopped a mound of potatoes and carrots, which one the beef had browned, I put in the beef juice in the skillet and moved the beef into the vegetable stock. I added some olive oil, some wine. I poured the rest of the wine bottle in with the beef, and then filled it half way with water and poured that over the vegetables in the skillet.

I let them cook for five or ten minutes in this mix before I incorporate them into the stew. Then I mix everything up, put it on medium and wait. My husband has chopped some fresh broccoli and cauliflower, which makes it more beef vegetable stew than beef burgundy, but it need to be used...

These vegetables will be added much later, closer to eating time.

Previous versions:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/beef-burgundy.html

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/boeuf-bourgogne.html

Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin

For dinner tonight, I wanted to make another meal in my Le Creuset skillet. I opted for steak au poivre, but I'll tell you, the cut of steak I picked (a huge sirloin of 2 pounds I bought for $10) had way too much fat for my liking and I ended up cooking it medium-rare when I really don't like my meat with 'red.'

The menu:
Appetizer: dates
The meal: Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin, with bread leftover from last night's Italian dinner with family
The wine: a French Cabernet Sauvignon, selected by a French friend

First, for an appetizer, I sliced some whole dates to get the pits out and arranged two dates on each bread plate like a flower.

Steak au poivre (Steak with pepper)
from the Internet (I no longer have the source)

• 4 (3/4 to 1 inch thick) boneless top-loin (strip) steaks 8-10 ounces each
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (I use iodized sea salt)
• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns (I use organic four color peppercorns)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 1/3 cup finely cut shallots (I substitute fresh chives and tonight I omitted them completely, but I thought it was detrimental to the gravy.)
• 1/2 stick butter, cut into four pieces of one tablespoon each
• 1/2 cup cognac or other brandy
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Pat steaks dry and season both sides with salt. Gently crush peppercorns using the bottom of a heavy skillet and press pepper evenly into both sides of meat.

Heat a 12-inch cast iron skillet over moderately high heat until hot (about three minutes). Add oil. Swirl evenly. Sauté steaks in two batches, turning over once. About six minutes for medium-rare.

Transfer steaks to heatproof platter. Place in oven to keep warm.

Drain fat from skillet. Add shallots and half the butter to the skillet and cook the shallots over moderately high heat, scraping, until shallots are well-browned all over.

Add cognac. (It may ignite!) Boil, stirring, until liquid is reduced to a glaze, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cream and any meat juices from the platter. Boil, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half. Add remaining butter and cook over low heat until incorporated. Serve sauce with steaks.

The gratin is an adaption from a recipe that appeared in Wegmans magazine.

Cauliflower and Spinach gratin:

• 1 head cauliflower, stemmed and cut into nice serving pieces
• 10 ounces spinach (I used 1 package frozen chopped spinach, heated and drained)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
  
• Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzerella
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Combine the cauliflower, the spinach, the milk, the cream, the seasonings, and the mozzerella and half the breadcrumbs. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Add mixture to pan. Cook for 20 minutes at 350. Stir. Cook another 20 minutes. Combine remaining bread crumbs with olive oil. Sprinkle on gratin and return to oven for a final 15 minutes.

Beef cutlets in port sauce

My vegetarian friends will hate me tonight... We're having some cheap cuts of top round beef tonight, that I got at Wegmans for $2.50 (with one of their coupons for the meat department). In a skillet, I started a sauce of approximately the following:

1. 2 tablespoons butter
2. 1 teaspoon four color organic peppercorns
3. 1 tablespoon olive oil
4. between 1 and 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
5. About 1 tablespoon port

I have the meat cooking over medium, trying to slowly cook the meat. I'm thinking of serving with potatoes.

I only had two potatoes left, so I chopped them and tossed them in boiling water. I opted for Green Giant Immunity Blend steamed vegetables: cauliflower, orange and yellow carrots, and cranberries in a light butter sauce (which I thought could also lubricate the potatoes).

Beef Burgundy

My recipe for beef burgundy should come up if you click French. It might be listed as "beouf bourgogne."

I've decided to make this for lunch. It's 90 degrees and humid, but I've been dying for this for days. Hence, why I'm making it for lunch and not dinner. It's hot.

I have never made this dish with a good wine. I've never been able to justify buying a good bottle of wine and pouring it into a skillet. But now that I think about it, if I pay $6 for 2 bottles of cooking wine, I could probably find a nice American red that would work for the same cost.

I have some beef cubes from a local farm in the skillet. I cut them small, because 1. I have a small child and this saves interruptions to my meal later and 2. I believe meat should accent the meal, not be central to it.

I cooked the meat slowly with chives from my garden and a few drops olive oil. As the meat cooked, I added some red cooking wine. And topped the meat with four-color pepper, freshly ground.

I poured more wine, a whole lot of vegetable stock and whisked in two tablespoons flour. That was tricky because I let it get too hot before I added the flour so it was a booger to get the lumps out. My daughter peeled five carrots for me, so I chopped them and added them. I'll let them bubble for a bit on medium before I transfer the whole thing to the big stew pot.

The original recipe for beef burgundy calls for a bouquet garni, which wikipedia defines as such:
"There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, thyme, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are also included in the bouquet.

Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a net, or even a tea strainer instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter and butcher twine can be used instead of leek leaves."

Today, I'm using some herbs from my garden, probably parsley, oregano, a hint of basil and maybe some lemon thyme.

After the stew simmers a while (about three hours) I'll taste the broth and dilute/add wine as needed.

BTW: I've decided never to use cooking wine again. It's real wine or nothing from now on, because the cooking wine is too salty to get the balance of flavor and salt... it either tastes super salty or like nothing.

Boeuf Bourgogne

For lunch today, we had PB&J on store-bought wheat. Something about PB&J requires store-bought bread. My friend Gayle says it requires Wonderbread. I think not. Today marked the first time my husband went to the grocery store in January. $30 for items like creamer, tomato sauce, bread, noodles, cooking wine, salad greens, apples, potatoes... I'm not sure what else. Hopefully parsley as I need that for my stew.

The potatoes were buy one get one free so my husband bought two, and sliced one bag into circles and fries to freeze in small portions so we can make our own French fries later. He must have been chopping potatoes for an hour!

Lunch featured a make-your-own PB&J bar. We had blueberry Trappist and organic red raspberry jellies, and apparently my daughter insisted on celery at the store. So she had PB & celery. Celery and onions are the two foods I detest. I even tossed in some Cool Ranch Doritoes. With a nice healthy stew for dinner, we can afford some decadence.

And dinner... Boeuf Bourgogne...
This recipe comes from the Internet, and I did not attribute its source. It was something to do with a particular wine, not a generic recipe site or a chef's site. It claims a pinot is the key to any beef burgundy... My French cookbooks have recipes for this dish, but they are more complex.

As copied from the 'Net:
Boeuf Bourgogne
3 to 4 pounds chuck roast is 2-inch cubes
1 bottle petite sirah (the wine folks developed the recipe remember)
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 cup flour
2 ribs celery (small dice)
2 medium red onions (one small dice, one chunked)
5 medium carrots (one fine dice, others 2-inch chunks)
2 lbs whole button mushrooms
6 cups beef stock
bouquet garni
salt & pepper

Their directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan, reduce beef stock by 50 percent. Reserve.
2. Add beef cubes to a large bowl. Salt and pepper generously. Dust with flour to coat.
3. Heat olive oil in stock pot or roaster with lid under medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of the beef and brown thoroughly (needs to be dark). Remove and do the same to remainder of beef. Remove beef.
4. Add diced celery, carrots and onion and two tablespoons flour. Cook stirring for five minutes.
5. Add wine, stock, bouquet, and put the beef back in. Reduce to simmer. Put lid partially on and simmer for three hours, stirring occasionally.
6. Add onion, carrots and mushrooms. Cook about 45 minutes, until these vegetables are tender and sauce thickens.

Like everything I cook I adapt this. I reduce the volume, for one. Today I used 1.2 pounds of stew beef from Wegmans. Normally I use beef cubes and then I cut them fairly small. I don't use beef stock, I use vegetable and add the drippings from cooking the beef. I used a handful of diced red onions today, instead of the amount the suggest. And I added them while I browned the beef. (I also threw about 3/4 cup browned hamburger into the vegetable stock while I reduced it. The hamburger was left over from the other day. I used 32 ounces of vegetable stock, which I cut with a cup of water. I used a small bottle of red cooking wine instead of sirah. One of these days, I hope to use real French wine, but I can't bring myself to cook with something I would rather drink. I do not use a bouquet garni, but a handful of fresh parsley. And instead of the celery and mushrooms, I use the more American cubes of potatoes. My family likes it, even if it isn't quite as French by the time I get done. So now it's stewing...