Party Menu

Next week is my birthday and I have decided to invite some friends over for lunch. I still haven't decided on the menu yet, whether to cook something sophisticated like pesto red pepper cheesecake and a simple version of boeuf bourguignone or something simple like meat empanadas and a veggie quiche. Of course, the piece de resistance will be the desserts. I am planning on making a flan, pineapple upside down, carrot cake with frosting and raspberry muffins (or capucchino ones, I haven't decided yet).

So beforehand I am going to start testing the recipes so that I won't be cooking something new that day. This turned out to be a good thing, because I added potatos to the pot (the recipe does not talk about potatoes). It was not the best idea since after cooking for a whole hour, the potatoes were not done; they were done after almost two hours of cooking. However, the red wine sauce was absolutely delicious.



Ingredients for Beef in Red Wine sauce or a light version of Boeuf Bourguinon:

2 tsp flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pound beef
1 cup red wine (full bodied one)
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 onions, cut in fourths
salt, pepper
optional: mushrooms

Mix flour, salt and pepper and sprinkle it over (and under the beef). Then cut up the beef into 1 inch cubes.

Cook the beef in butter about 1o min, until brown. Do it in batches so that it will brown up nicely.

Add the wine, water, onions and garlic. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and cover and simmer for 45 min to an hour.

You can also add mushrooms cooked in butter almost at the end of the cooking.