Friday Night Dinner

I decided today to (finally) cook another recipe out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I have, of course, been inspired by the Julia Child movie, and I picked her Coq Au Vin with brown braised onions, mushrooms and sauteed potatoes. The recipe isn't terribly complicated, but it has a lot of steps, and it took me most of the afternoon to finish.

For the first time in my life I cut up a whole raw chicken into its proper pieces. It seems silly that I've never done that before, but grocery stores make it easy to just buy what you want already assembled. I also got to pour Cognac over the chicken and light it on fire (a new one for me), which Porter was beyond thrilled about.

I cooked the pearl onions, mushrooms and potatoes separate from the stew, and oh my God, I really have been cooking all three of those things the wrong way my whole life.

I could have eaten just the vegetables alone and been happy, they were that good. But the stew cooked with its brandy and a whole bottle of red wine, along with other delicious things like bacon and butter and brown stock. This is not a healthy meal by any means, but that's really not the point.

And then, Bryce decided to take Porter camping. Yes, in this weather:

In his defense, he had no idea I was cooking a fancy meal. And Porter was so excited to go at that point, I really couldn't say no. So...Molly and I (really just me, Molly apparently doesn't have a discriminating palate yet and preferred cheese and oranges) enjoyed an absolutely FANTASTIC supper a la Julia Child. I actually learned a lot about cooking techniques today, and even though there was no one to tell me, I know it was good. I'm going to deal with the dishes later. Bon appetit!