Beef Burgandy and Berget Christmas

(photo by Eric Berget)

Inspired by the recent movie Julie & Julia and from reading Julia Child's autobiography My Life in France, Liz Berget and I determined we would cook the famous Beef Burgandy. Bekah had the day off and enthusiastically jumped in on the endeavor. We began at 12:30 pm with all three of us cooking and me taking breaks to get kids down for naps and do various house/mothering things and Brad & Eric doing kid duties. We finished the meal at 8:30 pm. It was better than I had hoped. Brad declared it the best meal he has ever encountered.

(Photo: E. Berget)

(Photo: E. Berget)

We used an original edition Mastering the Art of French Cooking that my mother had received as a Christmas gift in 1969, the year it was first released. She was 17 years old. She made Beef Burgandy for my father when they were dating a year later. Later this evening, Liz surprised me with a Christmas gift -- my own copy of this book -- a re-released edition that looks exactly like the original. (My mom's was only here on loan (-: -- Thanks, Mom, for trusting me!)

(Photo: E. Berget)

The wine for the evening was Stephen Vincent's Cabernet Savignon --
cooking & drinking

(Photo: E. Berget)

The men made a fire in the fireplace right before the kids went to bed.

Christmas gifts...

Feeding the boys before their bedtime -- We couldn't get the meal done in time for them to enjoy it with us....

(Dietrich wouldn't go to sleep...so he ended up joining us
and he tried the meal and though skeptical at first,
he was asking for "more...more...until the meal ended.)

(Photo: E. Berget)