Daube Provencale

Back in college, I had the great idea to take French 101. I always thought the language sounded so chic, and since I was pretty good at Spanish when I took it in high school, I figured learning another romantic language would be easy. Wrong. For some reason I never got the hang of French pronunciation, and the images of myself sitting in a Parisian cafe drinking coffee and eating croissants dressed effortlessly like Parisians are known to dress speaking fluent French started going out the window. Le sigh.     So I'll admit, I don't know how to pronounce the dinner I made last night. When my husband asked me what we were having, I just said "French beef stew". Technically it is called Daube Provencale, which is, in fact, a French beef stew made with red wine. While it looks similar to beef bourguignon, and is also served over mashed potatoes, it has a citrus fruit element and tastes much different. It is also much easier to make (although very time consuming).
It is kind of funny, I've been reading more and more lately that the women of my generation, in their quest for perfection in all aspects of life, make much more complicated meals than generations past. We are scanning pinterest for the perfect paleo, gluten free, blah blah blah turkey burger or whatnot, while our mothers and grandmothers mixed lipton cup o' soup with some meatloaf and would call it a day. I feel like making this dish for a weeknight meal just proved that to be correct. Oh well. 
For the recipe, click here. I highly recommend using the orange instead of the grapefruit. The grapefruit gives it somewhat of a bitter aftertaste.