It went something like this...

Me: "Come on stroganoff, is that all you've got? Can't you give me pretty? Give me pretty... "
Stroganoff: "..."
Me: "Sassy maybe? Sassy... you can do sassy..."
Stroganoff: "..."
Me: "Ok, anything but being brown and just being brown... anything????"
Stroganoff: "..."

So, I had to come to terms with the fact that Beef Stroganoff is not photogenic. At all. It is like the ugly step sister of saucy, sauteed meat dishes. Actually, I always felt sorry for the ugly step sisters... maybe if that kingdom far far away wasn't so consumed with physical beauty, they might have been well adjusted, sweet, less than gorgeous women. Hmmm, I digress. The point here is that this Stroganoff tasted so much better than it looks. Oh, it was heavenly. While I was making it, I realized that I have never once (never ever) written the recipe down. That is one of the perks of going to culinary school - once you've made one saucy, sauteed meat dish, well, you can make another without really thinking about it. You just have to know what makes one different from another. That is a post for another day.

On a completely different note, my rag doll pattern from Gail Wilson Designs arrived in the mail yesterday. We were all really excited about it at my house. Ok, really only I was excited but I was excited enough for 2 people. I'm talking that "I cannot believe it's here" kind of excitement. Now that I think of it, the beagles were excited but only because I was excited. They are silly like that.

Beef Stroganoff - serves 6 or 4 really hungry folks

1 1/2 pounds beef top sirloin
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups beef stock (I like this one)
2 teaspoons prepared Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/2 cup sour cream (the full fat kind)
1/2 large (you know, the ones the size of a baseball) onion, thinly sliced
8 ounces of white, button mushrooms
1 pound wide egg noodles, cooked nice and tender in well salted water, drained and held warm
Chopped parsley

Over high-ish heat melt 1 tablespoons of butter and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan. Slice meat into 1/4-thick by 2 -inch long thin strips and season with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Add the meat to the pan in small batches so as to not overcrowd which results in boiling the meat. That's not good. You want to sear the meat to nice and brown. I did mine in 3 batches. Add more butter and oil as needed. Remove the meat from the pan and hold warm on a platter. Melt a little more butter in the pan. Add the sliced onion and mushrooms to pan, season with kosher salt and cracked pepper. Saute' until onions are tender and mushrooms are golden brown. Remove from pan and hold warm on a plate. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and whisk in flour and cook with flour 1 minute. Whisk in beef stock in 3 stages whisking lumps out and allowing it to come to a boil between each addition. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in mustard, paprika, chopped parsley, and sour cream, cook for 2 - 3 minutes over medium heat. Add meat, mushrooms and onions back in and heat through. Serve over egg noodles with good crusty bread.