Thank you for all of your great suggestions, Stevie! It would have been smart to dredge the beef in flour and slowly add the liquid. I looked at Thomas Keller’s recipe and he does a red wine reduction. I definitely should have picked a dish I had done before, but I was struggling with the menu. Originally, I wanted to make a roast chicken, but I really love the Zuni recipe for a small bird at a high temperature and with a big group, I was concerned about having enough. I would have liked to do a pork tenderloin, but a few of our guests aren’t big pork eaters. I almost roasted lamb, but I thought I should save it for spring.

Of course, the next day my FIL suggested I should have made a patty with mashed potatoes instead of the noodles (not really sure what he meant) and I forgot that my MIL only drinks white wine (was just thinking that red would go better with the meal) so I guess the lesson for me to remember is to think more in terms of the company’s preferences. I have an entertaining journal and I will make sure to record all of these notes!

Grateful for all of your wonderful comments! Overall, the dinner was a success (other than my 3-month-old having an untimely screaming fit as we sat down to eat!). I wish I had made the beef bourguigon the day before like I planned to have an easier time skimming the fat off. I also had a problem with it not being thick enough. I could have added more of the roux; I had added cornstarch, but it didn’t do much. I made the potatoes, but accidentally oversalted them so I decided to nix them at the last hour and went with egg noodles instead. The sourdough toast was great. Our guests arrived late so the cheese went on the table with the dinner and was completely devoured! The flourless chocolate cake from King Arthur Flour’s was divine and perfect with the caramel ice cream.

Thank you, all!

Well a few hours before dinner and I’ve changed up the menu a bit. I decided to drop the gougeres (we were traveling and just got back into town last evening so I thought I would keep it simple) and instead decided on a cheese board with Bonne Bouche goat cheese and Barely Buzzed espresso lavender cheddar, crackers, cornichons, olives, and nuts and whisky sours (the birthday boy’s favorite). I am just doing a simple green salad with a mustard vinaigrette and I decided to keep the mashed potatoes (no cheese) since my FIL can never get enough of them. I will have grilled sourdough bread on the side. For dessert, I am making a flourless chocolate cake with caramel ice cream.

I am wondering if I should just have the cornichons, olives, nuts as an hors d’ouvre with the whiskey sours and serve the cheese with the salad after the beef bourguignon. I know that’s the French style, but it feels awkward just because we never do it that way.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions!

I liked the Whole 30 as a reset because it forced me to focus on what I was eating, rather than just eating less (or a certain number of calories), which I know is how weight loss happens, but for me it’s hard to enjoy a cookie without eating a ton of them so breaking the sugar addiction and then being able to eat in moderation is helpful. With the holidays, we’ve been really enjoying the 12 days of Christmas so I do feel like my body could use a cleanse.

Yes to exercise! I was pretty active throughout my pregnancy last year and I would like to get back into running.

Thanks for the well-wishes! It's funny, I had bought some pomegranate seeds for the cheese plate and ended up using them in a salad for dinner and then my water broke 30 minutes later. It may be a total fluke, but I later read of research looking at pomegranate naturally inducing labor so maybe that was it! Was two weeks early so it was quite a surprise!

We're having a few friends over tomorrow and I'm going to make a simplified version of this menu with sticky toffee pudding instead of cheesecake (thank you, Costco!), a friend is bringing a salad instead of the bns salad I was planning, and perhaps I'll drop one of the starchy sides--wild rice and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, rolls--not sure which!

Thanks, CH! You all are great!