boeuf bourguignon and burned crab rangoon.

i already made the boeuf bourguignon, and felt very much like amy adams in julie & julia as i did so...mainly because i shattered my pyrex casserole dish, causing a near meltdown. i loved that casserole. but i wasn't about to let that shattered dish keep me down! no no! a casserole dish couldn't defeat me!

so i started over. this time i used a skillet for the stove-top work. it worked much better, though i do wish i had a cast-iron casserole dish. i think i will have to search out a salvation army. at any rate, around 2 in the morning i had finally and successfully made boeuf bourguignon! i felt like such a success. and then by 1 o'clock the next afternoon, it was gone. we loved it so much that we ate nearly all of it that night. i was supposed to bring some to a friend who had helped me to shatter the pyrex dish, but i was too selfish, and decided to eat it all with my husband instead. julia child, you were an amazing woman.

now tonight, i am very content with my burned crab rangoon. i am running out the door soon to study, and somehow i feel so fulfilled by the thought. studying isn't a chore to me. i enjoy it once again, which is a great relief and a giant "a-ha!" to the last two years of my life, when i thought studying was similar in experience to dying. or at least, i was sure that it must be.

i think of my great-grandmother a lot while i'm cooking. would she have done it this way? i'm not sure. probably not. she was brilliant in the kitchen. every little thing she concocted tasted absolutely amazing.