Paula Deen doesn’t have anything on me, because Fall is here and that means Daisy has the cooking bug! Today’s masterpiece is Beef Bourquiqnonne. The smell of it simmering on the stove is driving me mad! I cheated a little and broke off a piece of French bread and dunked it in the sauce to try. Divine does not begin to describe the succulence of it! I started off by sautéing bacon in olive oil, then you add your beef cubes. Once you move that to the side you sauté carrots, shallots, onions and garlic. Then you add in beef stock, a quality red wine (I used a Cabernet) fresh herbs like bay leaves and thyme and salt and pepper. Then after it simmers all afternoon I will sauté some fresh mushrooms in butter and add that to the dish during the last 30 minutes. Yum! Dinner is at 6:00pm if you want to come. I’ll set an extra place!

I have to head off to Wally-world tonight and buy Chloe a dog bed. She is really my oldest son’s dog but we are keeping her until he gets a new apartment. Don’t tell anyone but I am going to try to keep her even after he moves. We have our dogs bed upstairs next to our bed. We put a blanket on the floor for Chloe. She usually runs upstairs first and lays on the dog bed, making Moose sleep on the blanket on the floor. Last night Moose made it upstairs first and gets the bed. Chloe comes upstairs and stands next to Moose waiting for him to get off of “her” bed. After several minutes he finally got up and down she plopped on his bed. Chloe likes her comfort. Tonight I am going to buy her a doggie bed of her own.

My Mom and I are all ready to go and visit Brooklyn. We purchased our tickets today. And it is a good thing we went ahead and bought them today. Even though we aren’t flying out until the end of November, the prices are jumping higher on an hourly basis. I’ve never seen anything like it. I checked prices yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening. They jumped about $20 in the matter of a couple of hours. And today they jumped even higher. When I went to pick out our seats on the plane (a window and an aisle seat) I saw that the huge plane was already half full. I just hope my passport arrives in time. It is in the system now and the online locater says it will arrive by November 15. I sure hope it does. Anyway, I am so excited!!! It’s been almost a year since I have seen Brooklyn. I can hardly wait. And just imagine seeing Germany at Christmas time. I’m ready to pack now!