Here is my Bœuf bourguignon recipe that I adapted from this recipe. My guests seem to have appreciated it every time I made this dish over the years.

Ingredients

For 8 servings:
- 1 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 sprig fresh parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 pounds cubed beef chuck roast
- 4 Tablespoon of Olive oil
- 1/4 pound bacon, cubed
- 2 onions, chopped
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the wine, cognac, onions, carrots, parsley, bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns and salt. Mix well and add the cubed beef. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
2. The next day, strain the meat from the vegetables and marinade; reserve marinade. Dry meat with paper towels. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large tall pot over medium high heat. Add the meat and saute for 10 minutes, or until browned on all sides. Transfer meat to a separate medium bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside.
3. In the same pot, add the bacon and saute until lightly browned. Transfer the bacon to the bowl with the meat. Drain the pot and return it to the heat. Pour a cup of marinade into the pot to deglaze the pot, scraping the bottom to loosen up all the little bits. Return this liquid to the reserved marinade.
4. Heat some olive oil in the pot. Add the onion and carrot from the marinade, along with the additional onion that you’ve chopped, and saute for 5 minutes, or until tender. Transfer this mixture to the bowl with the meat and bacon, again using a slotted spoon, and return pot to the heat. Add the flour to the pot, combining with the oil and stir until well mixed and brown, about 2 minutes.
5. Now add the tomato paste, garlic, beef broth, reserved marinade and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and whisk to remove any flour lumps.
6. Now pour the meat and vegetable mixture into the pot and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. About 15 minutes before meat is done baking, melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. When meat is done, add the mushrooms to the meat mixture, stir well and let sit for about 15 minutes.

You can reheat the stew if you don’t finish in one sitting. It only gets better over time.

Houston is a huge metropolis but sometimes, you encounter something special while cruising residential neighborhoods on the way to the morning coffee break.

Back in 1989, when I got my first PC, an 8086, I became obsessed with fractals and more specifically, the famous Mandelbrot set, along with 3D simulated mountainous range. At the time, I was programming using an OOP version of Borland Turbo Pascal and I created multiple DOS applications to generate, visualize, and marvel at those mathematic constructs. I had to take photos of my screen since my dot-matrix printer was not up to the task. When I took the computer science exam as part of the tests to enter the School of Geology, I brought with me pictures and programs on 3″1/2 floppy disks and it helped me get a good grade.

My favorite mathematician, Benoît Mandelbrot died at age 85. He was quite an inspiration and part of the reason why I am doing what I am doing today. In the video below, Professor Mandelbrot, discuss some of his work.

Tonight, I watched the documentary entitled “Babies“.

I am not into documentaries, and even less into babies. This is a departure from my usual movie watching habits. I am not a parent and this child thingy is really foreign to me. However, it is amazing to see four babies observe and discover their body, and the world around them from the time they are born to the time they reach their first birthday. It is also fascinating, to see, from a toddler perspective, four very different places on the planet: Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the United States of America.

Living in Houston, it is easy to forget that not every Homo sapiens have access to running water, sanitation, medicine, and all the commodities I generally take for granted.

Babies is a very refreshing documentary that does not focus, as it is too often the case, on a problem in our societies, but more on the common thread that links all members of our species.

Yesterday morning the engine light on my car flashed yellow, and I had trouble reaching high RPM on the highway. I immediately stopped and called the road assistance. They suggested that I drive the car to the dealership as soon as possible, which I did.

Quickly, the service representative diagnosed that the car had a firmware issue and ordered a reprogramming.

The problem is that the PC that was reprogramming the firmware crashed in the middle of the operation and now the car is FUBAR. I was even unable to open the truck by pushing the corresponding button. We are now waiting for a technician to show up with a laptop and fix the car.

This shows how dependent we are on computers and software in so many unconscious ways. Here, we have a computer crashing in the shop, that in turn renders another computer, the on-board CPU, inoperable.

This is nothing original. I am sure that it is a common occurrence and the news stories on different Toyota models illustrates how software bugs can be life threatening in some instances.

Where will we be in ten years from now? What can we expect from our cars, or other common devices that have existed for decades before the birth of computers?

I am certainly a Luddite but I sometimes wonder about this love-hate relationship I have with computers. I cannot live without them and they like to remind me.

This also reminds me that I need to pay more attention to QA on my day job. :-)

Original photo by oskay.