Pru at Perfecting Pru chose this week’s recipe, Beef Bourguignon. On Friday afternoon, it hit me that I needed to make it that night since no one would be home for dinner Saturday and Sunday was the Superbowl. I didn’t realize this until 2:45 pm and the recipe needs 3 hours and 15 minutes in the oven, plus prep! And we had to eat dinner no later than 6 pm because of some obligations. Yikes!

This is relatively easy to throw together, even though Martha does things in separate steps that I would probably mash together (like cooking the bacon last – I usually do it first and cook the meat in some of the grease). I didn’t have enough red wine, so I subbed some cider for the missing cup (I knew this would work because I have a cider beef stew recipe that’s good). I also have never been able to find pearl onions at the grocery store (unless she means to use canned and I can’t believe she does), so I just chopped up some sweet onion and used that instead (before writing this, I just read a post on Pru’s blog about how she never understood why I tinkered with Martha’s recipes, so I am laughing as I write this, knowing Pru is probably shaking her head at me again). I finally got it to a boil at 3:30 right before I had to rush out the door to pick up DudeMartha, so I threw it in the oven on convection, knowing that would cut my cooking time down.

Everything worked out perfectly. By 5:45, it was done. I did put it on the stove at the end and add more flour because I like it very thick.

I served it with mashed potatoes which made the men in my house happy (but not me since I realized I never replaced my broken hand mixer, so I had to haul out the KitchenAid to mash the potatoes – I’ve tried a potato masher and just don’t like the texture).

I thought this was delicious. There was enough left that I was able to freeze it for another night. This is almost identical to the recipe I usually use. I often add thyme when I make stew, so I did feel that was missing. Sometimes I add potatoes when I won’t be serving it over a starch. This was a great dinner for a cold, cold night!