Thanks a gazillion to everyone who has read the blog this month. I am so thrilled that I have had over 1,000 hits in September.

Special thanks to the lovely Celine at Hop City, who helped me pick out a celebratory champagne for tonight!

Here’s to more cooking and dinner parties in the year ahead!

xoxo, Patti

I’m sure a lot of you went to the movies and saw Julie and Julia. Beef bourguignon seems to be very popular right now. Especially now that Autumn is sneaking up on us and there is a chill in the air (isn’t it exciting?) Its lure is not lost on me and I made up a pot last night, based on Ina Garten’s recipe (that for some reason will not link). I followed the recipe and after 1 1/2 hours in the oven, it was still not ready. The meat was still tough. Hmmm, what to do? Well, for one, I had to put dinner on the table and this was not going to suffice. What’s in the fridge? Some leftover chinese from Sunday night that had been yummy. It’ll have to do. I warmed everything up and we had a buffet right there in our kitchen – standing up. So gourmet – or not.

Anyhoo, back to the beef. It is in the fridge ready for tonight. I trust that putting it back in the oven for another 1.5 hours will put it right. And I am more prepared, having picked up a loaf of cuban bread with which to dunk.

I will let you know tomorrow how this all turned out.

On an entirely different note, I wanted to thank everyone for reading. It looks like I will have had over 1000 hits this month and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

If there is a recipe you would like to see me tackle, let me know. I am here for your amusement!

xoxo, Patti