boeuf bourguignon

this weekend severin and i saw the julia child movie for the second time. we decided to make boeuf bourguinon the next night. we made a list and went to 2 local markets, the first one didn't have a butcher and the plastic wrapped chunks of beef looked very fatty. 4 guests were also coming to dinner so this was going to be a fun test. we did not get home from shopping till 5:30 pm and the guest were arriving 6pm. the recipe said you needed 2-3 hours to cook the boeuf. we were in trouble. everyone chipped in, peeling onions, sauteing, chopping but it still took 3 hours. i cheeted, i turned up the oven to 350 degrees instead of 325 degrees. it was not the intimate mother daughter cooking experience i had expected. it was a harry carry crazy kitchen of 20 steps from drying the meat chunks, piece-by-piece—to sauteing the onions then boiling them in chicken broth for 25 minutes then sauteing 1lb of mushroom caps separately and mixing both ingredients into the boeuf which has been cooking very slowly in the oven. severin wanted mashed potatoes, string beans and an apple pie to accompany this julia dish. it was delicious and everyone except for me and big helpings of seconds and all clean plates at the end with hardly any leftovers. i love leftovers. maybe not this one. when everyone left, severin, nate and myself all unbuttoned our first buttons of out pants. i complained of feeling so bloated and very uncomfortable. severin sat on the toilet for a while and nate said nothing at first, i think not to hurt my feelings. i said it first "man do i have to fart". then nate said the same thing. we all laughed and wondered if our guest experienced the same thing. I called my sister (the chef in our family) the next day and told her about the meal. she said it was probably the 24 pearl onions caused the gas, i think it was the half and half in the mashed potatoes. who knows. in the movie the boeuf dish did not look this hard and i did not hear any fart complaints.