Beef Bourguignon

So I have a problem. My problem is I have too many books, too many ambitions, which leads to more books on those ambitions, and no desire to stick to just one ambition or one talent.

This also involves my desire to find a cookbook with all the wonderful recipes that call for fresh foods and chef-like qualities to them.

Last week I found/remembered I had a beautiful and nearly new copy of Rachael Ray's "30 Minute Meals 2." There are very few pictures, but I am ok with that. That means more recipes to fit in all those pages.

I sat down and read through the recipes from cover to cover and marked all the pages that I knew Nathan would like. The best way to get great results and even greater applause in a house of two is to read off the list of each flagged recipes and their ingredients. Since Beef Bourguignon sounds great in just the title alone, it does say "beef," I somehow figured it would be a hit.

Nathan of course chose that above all the additional mouth watering titles. Either that or it was because it was the first one I read and his ADD didn't allow for any more to filter through.

Today I made a trip to the grocery store. Everything was so easy to locate. Over half the ingredients on my list involved fresh produce and meat. It was searching for the kitchen string that had me feeling very weary and aching in my legs and feet. I went down every aisle not only looking on each shelf, but also at every cluster of brightly packaged hanging "extras" down the aisles as well. With no success. "What is up with that?"I found myself saying this with great annoyance to my tone before realizing I had said it loud enough for other shoppers around me to hear. By that point I did not care! Nor also could I find packages of frozen pearl onions.

I walked by the deli section to pick up the meats and was greeted by the deli manager. A light bulb that I didn't know I had was going off.

"Do you know where I can get kitchen string like for tying up bouquets of fresh herbs?"

"I have some in the back," was her reply, "how long of a piece do you need?"

"Really just enough for a bouquet of fresh herbs."

She went into the back and I was beaming as she presented me with half a yard of kitchen string. She handed it over at no cost to me and I clutched it to myself like it was gold and thanked her over and over. My feet were glad too!

I gave up on the pearl onions and bought the only thing I could find. Frozen onions. The back of the bag's ingredient list: Onions. This was very helpful! They were very white, like pearls. Maybe that was what I needed.

Once I was home I found out that a google image search shows how wrong I was in my assumption. Pearl onions are tiny dollhouse sized onions. Pearl refers to their size more than their color. Oops. I will search again tomorrow in the next grocery store. We do have three Ingleses to choose from and a Bi-Lo. Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow at my search.

I am praying God gives me the grace and strength to endure another search and to come home energized enough to go through with my plans.