Although this meal took about 8 hours of active preparation, it ended up being the most delicious meal I've ever made! And I made my first béchamel sauce! Culinary milestone, check!

The first sentence of this chapter states "A marinade is a seasoned, traditionally acidic liquid..." to which I thought "What? Acidic? Am I supposed to be using more acidic marinades? My marinades are almost all olive oil". But let's keep reading..

Yet another topic I've heard but not really understood much (this has happened a lot in this book...more than I was expecting..).

A brine is a salt water mixture, but apparently the ratio of salt to water matters.

Using  a dutch oven or another type of covered pot can be used for tender meats. In this case, no liquid is needed when the pot is covered. And The Science of Good Cooking keeps referring to is as cooking "en cocotte" which I much prefer to the stuffy word "casserole." :-) 

This weekend the world was rocked by the tragic news of terrorist attacks in Paris. The world immediately flooded France with support, thoughts, and prayers. In memory of Paris, I decided to cook all French food this weekend.

The biggest AH-AH of these chapters:

YOU CAN PUT A STEAK IN THE OVEN???