The John / Julie / Julia Project

A few weeks ago, my friends and I decided to have a full day marathon of cooking, baking, drinking, and eating.  The key component of our day was more mimosas than most brunch establishments serve on Easter Sunday, but there was an additional minor component involved: making boeuf bourguignon.

It was exactly like that awesome movie Julie & Julia.  Except it only produced one blog post, I doubt I will get a cook book deal/famous blog from said post, I made Ina Garten's interpretation, and in my version, Julia has a borderline serious drinking problem.  So, it was more like an allusion to the film than anything else.

Anyway, since I saw the movie, I have been obsessed with making boeuf bourgiugnon.  I even bought a Dutch oven to make it and it is my favorite item / inappropriate joke I own.  Eighteen months later after Amazon.com shipped it, I stopped dragging my feet and decided to nut up and set aside a few hours to make this dish.

This does not photograph well, but rest assured, it is delicious.

I enlisted some fellow amateur chefs / heavy drinkers of mine and we made fried olives, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, homemade bread, raspberry crescent cookies, and lots of daytime cocktails.  One of which was called a "Mexican Martini" that left my roommate bedridden from 6PM until the next morning...

He was clearly 'Mambo Taxi-ed' just like me if you remember this post.  (Only he is White and, instead of 1 Mambo Taxi, he had probably 5 Mexican Martinis and a super-human amount of mimosas.)

Anyway, I am very glad I invited my friends, especially my friend Emily who was brave enough to light the Cognac this recipe calls for.  That's right, y'all.  The Barefoot Contessa is a pyromaniac and I was too much of a wuss and love my eyebrows too much to ignite the vegetables myself.  I did stand from a safe distance and watched her light it up and proceeded to scream like what I can only guess an alley cat gang bang would sound like.

This coming weekend, I'm tackling another recipe by the Contessa.  Basically it is mayonnaise that you make even more awesome.  Yes, it is possible to make mayonnaise more awesome. I. Love. Her.

So, although I am already adopted, I wonder if it possible to be re-adopted by Jeffrey and Ina Garten.  I mean, she's always hanging out with gay guys eating and drinking, what's one more (to whom she is legally bound)?

PS - If you are one of the 5,000 people who read my last post about the wedding coordinator and have returned expecting the same level of interesting, conversation sparking, emotionally charged blog post, you have clearly been tricked.  But, that's how I work, I spend an exhausting amount of time and energy trying to fool people into thinking I'm awesome, and then sit back and see their impressed looks turn into shock, disappointment, and eventually anger...