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Easy Beef Bourguignon Recipe: Cozy Comfort Food

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A bowl of Beef Bourguignon with mushrooms and carrots, garnished with fresh herbs, served on a green plate.
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Today’s Recipe:

After making Gâteau de Bourgogne earlier this week, I still had three-quarters of a bottle of burgundy sitting around. And, with it being the middle of winter, I had to make a cozy, satisfying Beef Bourguignon.

I learned the epitome of Beef Bourguignon during culinary school: French instructor, 48 hours of top sirloin marinated in wine and spices, house-made demi-glace. It was a complicated, 3+ day process. But cooking at home while juggling school, marketing my current book, and working on a new one, I don’t have that kind of time (who does?). So, I came up with this recipe. Unlike baking, cooking recipe quantities are “ish” like 1½ pounds-ish, so feel free to adjust to your liking.

This still isn’t a midweek meal…unless you work from home like me and can throw it in the oven and forget about it for a few hours. You could easily make it on Sunday so it’s ready to go Monday night. Like all stews…and maybe me, it only gets better with age.

Easy Beef Bourguignon

This Beef Bourguignon is ultimate comfort food and the beef becomes meltingly fork-tender. Even better, this recipe is much easier to pull off than the real thing. Well-stocked stores will have pre-sliced meat, mushrooms and mirepoix ready to go, cutting down prep time.


Ingredients

  • 1½ pounds beef stew meat (chuck preferred)
  • 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
  • 2½ cups mirepoix (diced carrot, celery, and onion – prepackaged or make your own)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1½ cups burgundy wine (pinot noir or any dry, fruit forward red wine)
  • 1½ cups beef broth
  • 1 bay leaf
  • A few sprigs fresh thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon lemon zest

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Season beef generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Brown beef in batches until well colored, then remove and set aside.
  2. Add mushrooms to Dutch oven and cook, scraping up any brown bits, until mushrooms begin to brown, then remove and set aside.
  3. Add mirepoix to Dutch oven and cook until just beginning to color. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook about 1 minute. Pour in wine and beef broth. Add bay leaf and thyme. Return beef and any juices to pot. Bring to boil, cover, and place it in oven. Cook 2 hours, until beef is fork-tender, checking half-way through and adding more broth only if needed.
  4. Remove from oven, add mushrooms, return to oven and cook 20 minutes longer. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Add lemon zest off heat, taste, and adjust seasoning before serving. Make ahead tip: This beef bourguignon tastes even better the next day.

Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls

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A dish of fluffy, gooey cinnamon rolls
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Baking is my happy place. It’s my child’s pose after a long day at the desk, my hot-stone massage without the ubiquitous native flute music, my forest sunrise and beach sunset rolled into one. Creating in the kitchen soothes me in a way nothing else does. It’s how I reset.

I’ve been working on Gluten for Punishment for four years. I say “working on” rather than “writing” because while the writing wrapped up over a year ago, in April 2024, that was just the beginning. Editing came next—the push and pull of what I wanted to say tempered by my editor’s need for clarity—followed closely by the myriad steps to publishing.

The book was officially born on July 11, 2025, and now it’s out in the world to be read, dog-eared, and dissected. And no, the process is far from over. Now comes the part I dread most: marketing. Time to crawl out from behind my keyboard and sell my book—and myself—to the public.

I’m not great at the hard sell. So, for now, here it is: Buy my book. That’s my pitch.

With the launch behind me, I finally get to return to my first love: baking. And I started with the best kind of homecoming—fluffy, gooey cinnamon rolls. They’re soft, sweet, and shamelessly indulgent. Plus, they make the house smell like a cozy home, redolent of their cinnamon, sweet, yeasty perfume. Indulgent in the time it takes to make them, in their scent wafting through the house, and their pillowy, rich texture as I take my first bite of warm, gooey goodness. Exactly the culinary homecoming I needed.

Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls

  • Servings: 8 large rolls
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These big, fluffy, gooey cinnamon rolls are the ultimate homemade treat—soft, buttery dough swirled with cinnamon sugar and glazed twice. Perfect for brunch, holidays, or anytime you're craving bakery-style rolls from scratch.


Ingredients

    Cinnamon Rolls
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
  • 6 Tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, very soft
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups bread flour
  • 1 package (2¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
  • 1 cup whole or 2% milk, room temperature
  • ⅔ cup cinnamon sugar (⅔ cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons cinnamon)
  • 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (for sealing)
  • ½ cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
    • Double Glaze
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 – 4 tablespoons warm water (adjust for consistency)

Directions

  1. Cream sugar, salt, and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir in egg and lemon zest. Add flour, yeast, and milk.
  2. Switch to a dough hook and mix on medium speed for approximately 12 minutes. Dough should be silky and tacky, but not sticky. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for two hours in a warm, draft-free space.
  3. Transfer to a lightly oil-sprayed counter and, using a rolling pin, roll to a rectangle 14 x 13 inches. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch border free of sugar at one short end. Use your hands or rolling pin to gently press the cinnamon sugar into the dough.
  4. Starting from sugared short end, roll up dough, seal seam with egg wash, and cut about ½-inch from each end to create clean, even ends. Cut rolls 1½ inches thick. Place in a 13×9” pan, three along each side and two in the middle, about ½” apart. Cover and let rise 75 minutes until nearly doubled in size and touching each other.
  5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour the heavy whipping cream evenly over risen cinnamon rolls (1 tablespoon per roll) in the baking dish, letting cream soak into the rolls for five minutes.
  6. Cover the pan loosely with foil and bake for 15 minutes, remove the foil and bake for approximately an additional 15 minutes, until tops are brown and a thermometer inserted into the center dough (not filling) reads 200°F. Remove rolls from oven.
  7. Make glaze while rolls are still very warm. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and water and whisk until smooth. Glaze should be pourable but not too thin—like warm honey. Brush half of glaze over rolls. Let rolls cool 30 minutes. Spread remaining glaze over rolls. If glaze is too thick, add a few drops of warm water to loosen. Serve rolls warm. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

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