New Year's Eve Dinner

The theme recently seems to be talking about holiday meals – Thanksgiving and Christmas and now New Year’s Eve. Beef also seems to be the other theme, or at least some type of faux beef. An even bigger theme has been creating non-GMO (genetically modified organism) meals.  Thanksgiving was turkey – non-GMO grain, free range and purchased from a local farm; squash casserole – modified to not use any GE (genetically engineered) ingredients or products from companies who do not support the labeling of GE food.  Christmas dinner was Almost Beef Wellington and included only one GE ingredient from a company who does not support GE labeling.  It felt somewhat defeating, but I was pleased with the results and everyone else was as well!  For our last meal I decided to make Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon for our New Year’s Eve dinner.  All locally sourced ingredients, made from scratch and supporting locally companies as much as possible.  The beef was purchased from Bill the Butcher and was the most amazing beef!  The results… Divine!  Here’s the step-by-step process…


I did not want to use bacon as a personal preference and so skipped the steps for the making of the bacon lardons and reserving the fat.  However, a lovely friend and co-worker had gifted me some bacon bitters and I added those to the sautéing beef and when I sautéed the mushrooms.

Sauteing beef in olive oil and bacon bitters

Soaking off the fat

Veggies - I added carrots and celery besides the onion

Browning vegetables

Tossing beef in salt, pepper, and flour

Marrying the veggies and beef

Adding the sauce and herbs

Mushroom love (added a bit more than the called for 1 pound

Onion makings

Sauteing onions

First peek under the foil

Adding the stock and herbs

Onions done in all their glory!

Almost finished!

Mushroom heaven!

Draining off the gravy for a simmer on the stove

Added mushrooms and onions to return to the oven

Piece de resistance!!

I will tell you that this dish becomes richer and deeper in flavors as the days go by!  The stock I used was leftover from our balsamic vinegar substitute for the Almost Beef Wellington and the extravagance of flavors bursting forth were quite divine.  On day two I added some boiled potatoes to nest under the stew and it was wonderful.  Trying to stretch this dish out for as long as possible...