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There's a lot of recipes around for beef bourguignon, the traditional French comfort food, and some of them have pretty odd ingredients. Ours is more traditional, based on Julia Child's recipe. We added a little more vegetables and gave it a long slow cook to really enhance the flavor. This is the best stew we've made.

                   Our Beef Bourguignon
                             Bill & Carol
3 lb beef    1/2 lb bacon   3 cloves garlic
3 carrots    2 stalks celery    1 lg. onion
1/2 bag frozen pearl onions     1 small box mushrooms
4 cups burgundy wine
4 cups beef broth      
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs tomato paste     2 Tbs flour
                   1 lg beef bullion cube
1 Tbs Accent       1 Tbs brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Fry bacon pieces to just under crisp and remove. Cook garlic in bacon grease unil just fragrant, then remove.
Lightly brown mushrooms adding a knob of butter if needed and remove. Brown beef (chuck preferred) in batches, sprinkled with flour.

When all are browned, add everything except the mushrooms.

Cook on low simmer for 3-4 hours until reduced about an inch.

When nearly reduced, add cooked mushrooms, stir in.

Serve with mashed potatoes or use as filling for a pot pie.

Notes: This stew has a deep rich flavor after the long slow reduction, so skipping it will cause it to lose a lot of flavor. The pearl onions are nice and traditional, and the frozen ones are already peeled - if you can get fresh ones that are peeled they are better, but peeling them is a lot of work.