Boeuf Bourguignon

This Christmas I received a copy of Julia Child's "My Life In France". Seeing the movie "Julie & Julia had made me want to find out more about Julia Child. Yeah, I had known who she was forever, but I had never really watched her cooking shows on PBS and the only cookbook of hers that I had was "The Way To Cook" (which is fabulous).
Anyway, after reading "My Life In France" I decided I had to have a copy of Julia's seminal work "Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This first cookbook took Julia and her co-authors a little over 10 years to write and get published. The love of France and attention to cooking detail is all over this book. Julia loved good food, but she really loved to share meals with her husband Paul and her many friends. Cooking became an outlet for her feelings for her family and friends. I have to admit that I had no idea how much time and effort this book had been. I also knew by Julia's description of the work she had done that this book is truly a classic and that anything in it is going to turn out well.
What was my first recipe cooked out of the book? Why, of course it was Boeuf Bourguignon. This was the recipe that Julia's editor (Judith Jones) used as a test. This is hands down the best wine based beef stew you will ever have.

Boeuf Bourguignon

My friend Joan told me a story of seeing TV food celebrity Alton Brown at a lecture. Someone asked him: "If you could have anyone in the world cook for you who would you choose"? Apparently he answered immediately with: "My wife". Alton said that no one cooks for you like someone who loves you. I don't know about you, but I love that story. Valentine's Day is around the corner and you could do worse than to make this meal for someone special.