First Meal: Boeuf Bourguignon with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Chocolat Mousse dessert.

For my first meal I chose to make something that I knew I would love as to not scare myself away. I’ll start with what I made first for the meal and that was the chocolat mousse the night before. By the end of it I already learned my first lesson! Read the recipe in it’s entirely all the way through. I was on the last step and I completely forgot that I was supposed to whip the egg whites before combining with the chocolate mixture. When I put the non whipped egg whites into the mixture I immediately realized it was wrong. And since I couldn’t start off on the wrong foot I started over….the second time I did it correctly and am so glad I did the chocolat mousse was to die for. It was also a very good idea to make enough for second helpings! I didn’t throw out the first batch as I was interested in seeing how it would turn out. The flavor was good but the texture was definitely not mousse like closer to a pudding I’d say. 

The boeuf bourguignon is something of a French legacy in my opinion. When you think about it it’s really just a wine stew but putting it on a stew level in America would just be wrong. This recipe does take a long time and has multiple steps. In all it took me four and a half to five hours. I treated it as a long therapy season; just me and the kitchen– no music or people to distract me. My kitchen is also small and I don’t have that many pot and pans so I did have to do rounds of dishes but in the end Tom said it was the best piece of meat I’ve cooked to date. The beef was so tender and the broth with the pearl onions went marvelously with the garlic mashed potatoes. 

I’m not sure what is up next but since it’s January and it’s cold it may just be another beef dish!