Back in the Studio

Charley spend the first part of the winter setting up two new studios in Salt Lake. He’s renting space for acrylics, were he starts all his work. And he built a studio in half of our garage for when he’s working in oil. He had to frame it out, insulate it, update the electric and added power, and added a ventilation system. It was a big job that took longer than I expected. But now it’s done and he's been back to painting since February.

Last week I visited him at his acrylics studio where he’s got about ten new paintings in the works. Here are some pictures:

Boeuf Bourguignon…Worth all the Effort?

Last weekend, feeling inspired by one of my favorite movies, Julie & Julia, I decided to channel my inner Julia Child. I made Boeuf Bourguignon using Julia’s original recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It turned out to be no simple task.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was intended to make French cooking more accessible to American home cooks, but this recipe was definitely the one most complicated recipe I’ve ever tackled, with many individual steps…and a big mess to clean up after a full afternoon of cooking.

First, cook the bacon and set aside, then brown the beef and set aside. Cook the vegetables, then add beef back in and place in the oven. Cook the mushrooms separately. Cook the pearl onions separately…and so on. (Full recipe)

Was it worth all the effort? I’m not sure. Charley thought it was delicious, but I didn’t think it was that great…maybe it was too soon after my gastric empting test for me to be eating what is essential beef stew again, so I didn’t get to fully appreciate it’s flavor.

But I did have a lot of fun cooking it, and I gained a lot of confidence in my cooking abilities (it’s an intimidating recipe to try), so I think it was worth it.

Saturday Supper - Lasagna!!

It's Saturday, but I'm not planning anything special for dinner tonight. I'm tired and we have so many leftover...so, I'm taking the night off. Tomorrow I'll tackle Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Last Saturday I made my first every lasagna and I came out beautifully. I don't have a recipe to share, because I don't use one. I just used my instincts and the knowledge of Italian cooking I've acquired over the year...but I'm not going to share my secrets either. Ok, maybe just one...the most important one: Ricotta. The secret to a great lasagna is good ricotta cheese. Some of you out there might think lasagna is made with cottage cheese, but that sacrilege. You must use ricotta, and a really good ricotta at that. I got my ricotta at local Italian grocer and deli, Granato's, where they make it fresh. It's smooth and creamy with a hint of sweetness...delicious! It really made my lasagna great.