The one and only pot you will ever need

So my dad was asking what I was going to make with my birthday present. By the way, here it is. Its everything I'd hoped it would be. Thank God for outlets. The lady at the store gave me a lovely recipe for beef bourguignon. After reading the intensely detailed recipe I decided on making regular old beef stew. Nothing against Julia Child, but I have a bit of ADD when it comes to recipes. If its too long I start turning things up and making substitutions. It ain't a pretty picture. So rather than ruin a time honored recipe I decided to make up my own. And it didn't suck.

First of all we need to make a distinction. This is a French oven. It is a long oval deep dish pot. A dutch oven is the same, but round. This is how I understood the difference. If its wrong then you can take a trip down to Woodburn to the outlet where I purchased the pot and school the sales staff there. As for me, I don't care. I just like to think of it as French. It sounds more sophisticated than Dutch. Nothing against the dutch. They make lovely wooden shoes. I just think the French have more of a handle on the cooking thing. Since I have a French pot, I thought I would try to make something a bit more fancy.....and French! I think we have a theme going here.

I watch a ton of cooking shows. I love watching chefs whip up tasty and beautiful food from what strangely looks like the things I have in my own fridge. Mine have never looked as wonderful. I think its the seasoning. They keep using this one spice blend called herb du Provence. They just go on and on about it. While I was in costco I was scouring the spice aisle for vanilla beans to make scones. If you haven't used a real vanilla bean then your life is not complete. I don't know that I will ever use extract again. Anywho, there it was, herb du Provence. I immediately sent Dan the man back to the meat section to select the very best stew meat he could find. This dinner was going to be epic. I had the miracle spice.

I made the beef stew like regular old beef stew except I added a palm full of herb du Provence. The smell immediately let me know that this was the right decision. It smelled yummy and a bit floral. It smelled like a French kitchen, not that I have ever been in one, but I am pretty sure that is what it would smell like. The pot made the stew tasty and as Dan says "stewy". The meat and all the veggies cooked perfectly and were done in about an hour and a half, which is a far cry from the 4 hour wait with the crock pot. I have to say I am very pleased with my birthday gift and the stew. I finally made something I wasn't ashamed to serve to my neighbor, who is a tremendous cook and makes me feel completely inadequate in the kitchen. She signed off on the stew and had seconds. Success! Yay for Dan the man and my awesome birthday present and yay for costco for helping me expand my cooking horizons. After ten years of mediocre cooking I can safely say things are starting to improve. Now I just need the Le Creuset skillet. Then I will truly be a French chef.....kinda