Houdini-Dog

I officially am stupid/have a genius dog. Today while I was at the bank, I left Duke in my car. All of a sudden, I heard a teller talking about a dog outside. It was of course, Duke. He managed to fit his pony-sized body through my honda civic window and was outside marking the bushes at the bank. Thank God he didn't run into the road. I swear, this dog is going to be the death of me.

Anywho, last night I made my second Julia Child recipe, Boeuf Bourguignon. This was the recipe that basically got Julia's book published, so I had high expectations. It consists of beef in red wine sauce with bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms, so it is basically like coq au vin with beef. It was long and tedious, but not actually super hard. I started by blanching the bacon, which I find odd, because I have always had bacon fried. If I made this again I would fry the bacon because it just wasn't very good this way, but my book said to do it this way so I did. After that I browned the beef, added the bacon along with carrots and onions and put them into a casserole dish. After that, I added wine and beef broth and it simmered for 2 1/2 hours. That's basically it, then add the pearl onions and mushrooms (which I left out) when its done and voilà! Boeuf Bourguignon! It was pretty good, but honestly, not as good as the coq au vin.. I think if it had simmered longer at a lower temperature, the meat would've been more tender, but oh well. It was still pretty dang good, if I do say so myself.

I think I'm done with French food for a bit, just for the time being. Also, you might be proud to know that I've applied for 3 jobs this week. Haven't gotten one yet, but hey, it's a start. Next week I have three tests, so I'm kind of glad I don't have one right now, as I'll probably be stressed anyways. It seems like teachers always pile on the tests at once. ugh. Maybe if I would prepare more ahead of time it wouldn't be so stressful, but where's the fun in that?