Julie & Julia & Ghetto Beef Stew.

I saw Julie & Julia this afternoon.  And yes, I liked it very much.

I read the book a few years back.  I hated it. I found it boring.  I LOVED the idea: A writer cooks her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  And I was very jealous that the author had a copy of the cookbook... As I had looked for it and knew it to be out of print and very difficult to find.

But the Julie & Julia book was "bland." There was no excitement to her life.  She was just merely cooking her way through the book and writing about it.  There lacked growth on her part.  But not in the movie...

No, in the movie, Julie had her ups and downs... And you saw her growth. And it whisked well with Julia's life, and learning about her ups and downs on the path to getting her beloved cookbook published.

The movie is very much worth the $$ you will pay to see it. It is beautifully shot.  And the story was adapted very well to the screen...  Which, to be honest, was surprising.  Because, as a Bikram friend of mine told me a few months back - after we watched the trailer for the movie:

"I don't know... It's being done by Nora Ephron. She is responsible for such disasters as Bewitched and Meg Ryan."

But Ephron did a fantastic job.  Perhaps this is due to having to work with material that is very closely based on two true stories.

No matter...  I left the movie so inspired that I immediately walked to the grocery store at the bottom of my apartment building and bought the following:

• Skirt steak (They didn't have anything fancier.)
  
• Baby potatoes
  
• Sliced mushrooms
  
• Onion (Sliced)
  
• Butter
  
• Beef broth
  
• Baguette
  
• Flour (I didn't buy this. I forgot. But it is important for the recipe.)
  
• Gamay Noir (A red wine that goes well with mushrooms.)
  
• Coke Zero (What did you expect? I am an addict!)

I browned the beef in two tablespoons of butter and some olive oil. Then I took that out to rest. I threw in the mushrooms and two more tablespoons of butter. Once those had cooked for about five minutes, I threw in the onion slices. Those cooked for another five minutes, wilting down. I think I threw in some seasoning at that point.  Then I opened the Gamay Noir and swirled in a good amount... Probably a half a cup.  Once that had cooked off (after a minute or two), I poured myself a glass to drink.  And then I dumped in a whole cup of beef broth. And I also threw the beef chunks back in, to finish cooking.

Meanwhile, I had thrown the potatoes into a pot with cold water just covering them.  I had set them to boil, whole, while I was cooking everything else.  I drained them after the beef broth went into the other pot.  And I cut each potato in half.  Then I tossed them into the pot too... Along with a tablespoon of pancake mix, as I didn't have any flour or xanthan gum to thicken the stew up.

It worked well. The whole thing worked well, after I let things cook for a few more minutes and allowed the stew to thicken...

Yum. 

I served this with chunks of the baguette. The Husband loved the meal. And it took just under 30 minutes to completely cook.

Go see the movie.  It will inspire you to cook, even if you only have access to a shit-tastic kitchen.