Beef Bourguignon and Bruised Beans

I'm being tricky with the title of this blog, but figured it was a clever way to work in the two topics today. If I do say so myself.

Let's start with the first. The Beef Bourguignon. I told you I was on a Julia Child kick since the movie. My family is loving this, my diet probably not so much. There's always next week, right? Ya. I think I say that with the utmost confidence and intention, every Monday.

So, I took an afternoon (literally) to whip up this Beef Bourguignon. I served it with potatoes as recommended, and a nice glass of wine. Once again, Julia was triumphant. My whole family loved it. My daughters both had seconds. I liked it too, don't get me wrong. The thing is, it's basically just a beef stew with a lot of booze. Not that there's anything wrong with a lot of booze.

The recipe was pretty time consuming, even with my normal cutting corners. I feel that the taste would have still been delicious had I omitted or added things. Ah well. Next time. I found many, many variations online as well, including one for the crockpot. So, there might be a time that I make it again, but in a shorter or less annoying way. The taste was worth it.

Now on to the Bruised Bean. This bean is covered with brown hair and has amazing, mischievous blue eyes. Yep, my youngest daughter. She went for a bike ride yesterday with my husband and her sister and some neighbours. However, while they all came riding victoriously in to the court, my youngest came limping sadly home while my husband carried her vessel.

She had gone down a hill too fast, and in an effort to stop herself, had put her feet down. This resulted in a scraped big toe. It also resulted in her falling off of her bike and scraping along her arm and hand. Finally, for the final "piece de resistance" to her grand feat, she smashed her chin into the pavement.

Her feet and arms are a bit red and bloodied. But her chin. Oh, her poor little chin. Her face is misshapen because of the huge, blue, bruised lump protruding from her jaw. It's also swollen and scabbing over. Today, she was looking into the mirror, and told me that she looked awful....because.......gulp............she was "damaged." Can I just say now? Broke. My. Heart.

All of this, in a repeat performance to last year's bike fall on the forehead, two days before picture day.

I know she'll still be smiling though. Damage and all.

Now you see why I need the wine in the beef, and on the side, too!!!