Daylight Savings Time

This past weekend was Daylight Savings Time and I must say that my children have no concept of sleeping in until the sun is up in the sky. We are on morning 2 of 5am wake ups and as exhausted as I am by evening, I am finding that mornings are becoming quite productive. We'll see how I feel about this by 10pm tonight....

Some early morning pictures....yes, the sun is not even above the trees.

On a different note, we had Beef Bourguignon last night....I must share the recipe...it does take about 2.5 hours from start to finish. ( A little thing that would be helpful to any busy person) 

Beef Bourguignon ( by Jean Kressy from Relish Magazine) 

Ingredients: 

1.5 teaspoons olive oil 

1.5 lb. lean beef stew meat 

2 cups of vertically sliced onions

2 cups of sliced carrots 

1 cup diced green or red bell pepper

1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained 

1 (12 ounce) package of button mushrooms, quartered 

1 (14 ounce) can reduced sodium beef broth

1.5 cups of dry red wine

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 bay leaf 

.5 teaspoon of dried thyme

.5 teaspoon of kosher salt

.25 teaspoon of black pepper

3 tablespoons of flour (all-purpose)

2 tablespoons butter, softened 

1. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef in batches and cook until brown. Remove to a plate. ( I drain the pan of some juices if a lot) 

2. Add onion, carrot, mushrooms, and bell pepper to pan; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. 

Return beef and any juices to pan. Add tomatoes and next 8 ingredients (tomatoes through black pepper) Cover and bring to simmer. Cook for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf. 

3. Combine flour and butter in a small bowl. Mix with your fingers or a fork until mixture becomes a paste. Ladle about 0.5 cup of pan juices into flour mixture. Whisk until very smooth.  Add to pan and stir well. It will thicken the mixture. 

Serves 8 ( Calories: 250 per serving)