Over the course of cooking through an entire cookbook, one gets to know the author a little through her recipes. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Dorie, but after cooking over 150 of her recipes, I’ve learned a few things about her. For example, her guests never go home hungry. This recipe, Boeuf a la Mode (a make up recipe from a few weeks ago) was a prime example. When the butcher measured out for me Dorie’s recommended amount of meat, I just about fell over, and then asked him to cut it in half.

And, while my fellow Doristas may have rediscovered an old favorite, I was introduced to a classic. Dorie describes this as “french pot roast”. Not that that told me a lot since I’ve never had pot roast before. I had some vague notion that it was some kind of beef stew. I wasn’t too far off.

This one took some time. The night before I emptied a bottle of wine over the meat, veggies, and herbs and left it to marinate. Then you need to prepare everything for the oven. Then let it cook for a few hours.

The end result was tender and delicious. Sadly, my sauce was a tad over-salted. Probably because I wasn’t thinking about the anchovies when I added “salt to taste”. Oops. I was also impressed by how economical this dish was and I can see why it’s a family favorite.