Beef Carbonnade, Shirred Eggs, Knitting, Crocheting

This is Beef Carbonnade from Williams-Sonoma's Mastering Beef & Veal. The wine is a cabernet sauvignon and that strange green stuff is chard. The chard, the beef, and the dinner roll all came from Saturday's farmers' market. I spent a good chunk of time Sunday making Beef Carbonnade, which is in the Beouf Bourguignon chapter (not much success in the past with that, so I thought one of the variations would be better). Paul didn't want to spend the money for the KC Strips, so I had to make do with a "braising" cut which meant that I had to fix something that was meant more for cold weather than for tornado weather (I think we've been under a tornado watch all this week). Anyway, Beef Carbonnade is cooked in beef stock and beer (we used Guinness Extra Stout mostly because it was cheap) rather than cheap red wine like the Bourguignon.

Beef Carbonnade was dinner Sunday along with the chard I mentioned earlier. Yet another vegetable disaster to add to my list. I'd never had chard before and thought I'd be adventurous. Unfortunately, it tastes like beets. No wonder only 10% of Americans get the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables daily.

Dinner last night was 1/2 price burgers from Spangles (local burger chain, have to have burgers on Memorial Day) and Beef Carbonnade was on the menu again tonight (just without the icky chard).

Lunch today was a desperate attempt to avoid both salad and a trip to the grocery store, so I pulled off a miraculous feat and cooked what I could find: Shirred Eggs and Braised Celery.

Shirred Eggs
Oil those two ramekins and break an egg into each one. Said egg is then topped with 1 teaspoon butter, then salt and pepper, then, gloriously, 1 tablespoon heavy cream before being placed into a 350-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes (I say 17). When my eggs come out of the oven, I top them with the green parts of scallions (also hanging around in my fridge). Today my Shirred Eggs were paired with Braised Celery.

Now, you might be thinking "ew" but braised celery (which is basically 1/2 c beef stock and 2t dry vermouth brought to a boil, then add 2 cut-up celery stalks, salt, pepper, and assorted dried herbs and boil until liquid is totally reduced) is not all that bad. I mean, it still tastes like celery but it also tastes like beef stock and vermouth. My version is a very quick rendition of the one in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Me looking for things to cook:


Crafting
I finished the first glove last night while watching Legally Blonde with Paul who thought it was absolutely hilarious which, I, in turn, thought was absolutely hilarious since Paul's usual movie choices star Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger and occasionally Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson, or Robert DeNiro.


I wonder how long it will be before I finish the second glove...

You may remember that I started a crocheted hat a while back. I tore it out several times and yesterday went back to the website to find that there was another pattern from another blog that I decided to try instead. I hope it works out this time!
Paul and I also went to get tickets for Pirates of Penzance today. It seems to me as though the Wichita Grand Opera is the red-headed step-child of the Wichita Performing Arts Center. More on that after the show Saturday.