I had a really brilliant idea this weekend. Since my biggest problem is not so much that I don't have time to prepare food, it's that I don't have time to prepare and then cook food, I decided to prepare a meal on Monday night-- for Jeff to put in the oven and have ready for when I got home around 9 on Tuesday night. Perfect late dinner, no?

So I made the daube de bouef from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Chopped everything up and tossed it in the dutch oven. I took some liberties- I skipped the marinating step, and instead layered the beef and vegetables and then poured some vermouth over the meat, and I didn't flour the beef.

When Jeff got home, he just poured beef stock over the whole refrigerated mess and brought it to a simmer before stashing it in a 325 oven. It took longer than I planned, since Jeff didn't get home til close to 8 himself, but if you are able to eat after 10, this totally works.

There is a flaw in this plan-- I am now reading this Ayurvedic health book about how you are not supposed to eat after 10 ever. Which makes me think Ayurvedic eating may not be for me, though I am trying the recommendations about "increasing" certain foods in your diet. I'll worry about decreasing later. More importantly, I am also a little befuddled over some of the other stews I want to make- coq au vin and bouef bourgoignnon- because (and this is not something I through out there to make a Big Deal of, but because I am curious as to whether anyone on the internet has suggestions) I am a recovering alcoholic, and don't really trust myself with big bottles of wine in the house. I am fine with food cooked in wine, I think, and could make the daube because I had some vermouth in the back of the cabinet and I've never wanted to drink vermouth straight in my life and if I start now, well, then I REALLY have a problem. But what do you do with the wine? Pour it into the stew and pour the rest down the drain real quick?