project 365: week 100

I can’t believe I’m only a few short weeks from finishing my 2nd year of Project 365.  I’m trying to decide whether or not to continue it for a third year.  I’ve looked into some other similar ideas, and can’t decide if it’s time to try something new or if I should continue on with more of the same.  Decisions, decisions…

February 23, 2011:  This is Beanie’s new favorite place in the house to be.  She loves sitting on this quilt, playing with her little box of random baby toys.  Sometimes she’ll sit there for an hour, checking out everything in the box and chewing on everything!

February 24, 2011:  To celebrate my new freelance job, and having a tiny amount of money to spend on frivolous things, I bought myself this beautiful necklace from an Etsy shop I love – ALovellyDesign.  It has two peas in a pod – for my two babies – and each of the leaves is stamped with a letter – one with a “b” and one with a “k.”  It’s so pretty.  I am really pleased with how it turned out!

February 25, 2011:  This picture cracks me up.  It had been a sunny morning, unseasonably warm for February.  We were driving home from a play date, and I was so inspired by the warm weather that I decided to stop into Michael’s to buy supplies to make a Spring wreath.  While we were in the store, it started raining and hailing!  We got absolutely soaked trying to make it out to the car, and I took this shot of Bennet and I, looking like drowned rats!  So much for my Spring weather!

February 26, 2011:  My doughnut pan came in the mail, and I was so excited to bake doughnuts for our Saturday morning breakfast.  They looked yummy, but didn’t taste so good.  I need to research some better cake doughnut recipes for our next attempt!

February 27, 2011:  Another lovely day weather-wise, and the entire family went for a walk around our neighborhood.  Bennet refused to try to use the potty before we left, and peed his pants on the playground.  I think he learned that it’s always better to check to see if you need to go before you leave for a walk, because today we went for another walk and he went and used the potty before we left without an argument!

February 28, 2011:  Dinner – White Chicken Chili and mini cornbread muffins.  Amazing.  Yum.

March 1, 2011:  It was sunny outside today, but a little chilly.  Bennet wanted to play in the back yard while I made lunch, so I stuck Kennedy on the back porch in her Bumbo to soak in some sun.  She looks pretty ridiculous crammed into the seat with her bulky snow suit on.  Poor Bean.

january “julia” - boeuf bourguignon

Last week, I posted a list of eleven tasks I plan to accomplish in 2011.  This past weekend, I knocked (part of) one off my list!  On Sunday after church, Andrew and I got crackin’ on some Boeuf Bourguignon – straight from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  It was amazingly good, and cooking it was a lot of fun – but first…

LOOK at this cookbook.  I adore it.  I went to a thrift store specifically looking for a vintage copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and found one!  What luck!  My favorite part is that, in the sixties, the woman who owned it made notations throughout the book on all of the recipes she made herself.  I feel like, when I cook from it, I’m not only channeling Julia, but I’m channeling this adventurous-cook-of-a-lady who owned this book before me.

We cooked our Boeuf Bourguignon, following Julia’s recipe strictly minus using turkey bacon instead of bacon and using turkey stock in place of beef stock (we had both on hand and it seemed silly to buy other ingredients!)  It was fairly simple to make – but spent lots of time cooking on the stovetop and baking in the oven.

I baked homemade bread to go with it, and we served the beef over roasted potatoes with a side of buttered peas because that’s how Julia said it should be served!  We served it on a beautiful platter handed down to me by my grandma – and had my mom and grandma over for dinner to share it with us – which made it even more special.  As we were nearly finished devouring it, I realized we hadn’t taken a single picture of it “ready to serve.”  All we got was this…

Which I think shows exactly how delicious our first venture into Mastering the Art of French Cooking turned out to be!  If you’re looking for Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon recipe, I found a link on Oprah’s website.  It’s amazing – and I’d highly recommend it, especially as a Sunday meal on a cold, wintry weekend!

Technically, I can’t even cross a task off of my list, since my goal is to make one of Julia’s recipes each month in 2011.  Boeuf Bourguignon was a great start to completing this goal!  I think we did Julia proud!