Beef Bourguignon

My wife invited a co-worker for dinner.  We prepared a family favorite, Beef Bourguignon, Ina Garten's recipe from Food Network.  We must have made this a dozen times and we always use Ina's recipe.  It's easy to make and tastes marvelous.  The recipe calls for a full bottle of red wine, we usually use Trader Joe's inexpensive wines.  The only change we make to the recipe is eliminate the cognac step.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of cognac which you burn off with a match.  We never have cognac, and the recipe turns out just great.  We served the stew with fresh bread, roasted asparagus and baked baby white potato wedges tossed with salt and olive oil.  Apple pie for dessert, of course. 

photo by author, Recipe here