...never been to paris (although my mom is there today)

   but i did go through a phase right after "julie & julia" when i made beef bourguignon way too often ( just ask my kids)   & i do have a great recipe for french drip beef... it's from an old cookbook that was a wedding gift 25 years ago & somewhere along the way it got wet & now all the pages are stuck together, but i can't part with it even though it is about as useful as a brick & weighs almost as much... the recipe is committed to memory, but sometimes i pry open the pages just to check. as recipes go, this one is just about perfect. it's up there with the nestle toll house chocolate chip cookie recipe. it really is.
   everyone loves this drip beef. men love it. women love it. kids love it. football players & coaches (are you surprised?), principals & superintendents, book club friends, sorority sisters, regular sisters, vacation Bible school teachers, & Habitat-for -Humanity workers...the list goes on- i have served this to all of these. you MUST have this recipe. you will wonder what you ate before. now you will have the perfect thing to take to a pot-luck or serve a crowd watching the big game at your house. or anyone's house. it comes out perfectly every time. there's really no way to ruin it. if you're out of an ingredient, no one will notice (unless, of course, it's the meat). it holds well, feeds a crowd , is easy, relatively inexpensive & **smells heavenly. perfect. at least for us carnivores.
** though it does smell heavenly, you might want to start the cooking process in the morning- whenever i forget & put this in the crock-pot at night- we inevitably awaken @ 3:37am with the feeling that an Old Testament burnt sacrifice is going on in the kitchen & it's not altogether that pleasant to smell rosemary & beef in the night- trust me on this**

*french drip beef*
1 rump or well-trimmed chuck roast
(at this point, i rinse & dry the roast then dust it with flour & sear it in hot pan with a little bit of olive oil)
transfer the roast to your crock-pot & add:
1 T. cracked pepper
1 T. garlic salt
1 T. dried rosemary or a sprig of fresh
1 tsp. summer savory
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. dried parsley
1-2 beef bouillon cubes
1 bay leaf
feel free to add any additional spices you like to this or adjust amounts-you can't go wrong
* i love about 2 T. pampered chef's grandmother's roast beef seasoning, too, but you may not have that
1/3 cup red wine to loosen the bits in the pan then add to the pot
water to barely cover the meat
cook on high (or medium if your crock-pot is like mine & boils on "keep warm") for about 6 hours...shred with forks & serve with french rolls (i like the earth grains whole wheat sub style rolls) or any rolls you like & an assortment of mustards or some of the au' jus.....easy! yummy! run out & get a roast !

-the snackmom