Meal No. 1516: Beef Provençal

Movies used to be a big thing for me, and there was suspicion amongst my family members that too many trips to the theatre were directly responsible for the five years it took me to complete my PhD at Virginia. There might be a small bit of truth to that. At one gathering of a bunch of people, probably for Easter 2000, different movie titles were brought up and somehow I could report I'd seen just about all of them.

It seems I don't get to the cineplex like I once did, so this past Saturday was kind of special: a major film release, the Saturday afternoon after it came out, and five of us in a merry band of moviegoers (with Mookie's parents Rita and Jim along as well!). The critics' harsh reviews notwithstanding, I think we all gave Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice a more decent rating. It was better than I was expecting.

I'd promised to serve up dinner once we all got back to the house, so I had broken out the crockpots:

In one, Beef Provençal, and scalloped potatoes in the other.

I also made a completely awesome batch of applesauce that might even have made dear sweet Evie Coulson proud of me.

Dinner turned out pretty well, overall, and then there were some fierce games of pool with Jimmy coming out on top all around.

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"Beef Provençal," from the Food Network Kitchens.

"Slow-Cooker Scalloped Potatoes," by Kelly Price. In Cook's Country, January 2011, p. 6.

Guidance for Homemade Applesauce from:

• "Spiced Country Applesauce," from Finding Joy in My Kitchen. Published 11 September 2009.
• "Homemade Applesauce," from Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. Published 16 October 2013.
• "Sarah's Applesauce," from PHATCAT on AllRecipes.com.