An OVERWHELMING bouef bourguignon

Have you ever felt TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? I'm not talking about Christmas, oh no, that's a mere blip in the distant future which I haven't even begun to think about. Nope. Even an evil sister's casual remark dropped in to conversation/blog post that they've bought all their presents before December doesn't rankle. Much. Even remembering that I've invited two other families to have Christmas with us so there will be 15 of us for lunch doesn't make me feel nervous.
Nope. It's the combination of an impossible work deadline for next Wednesday and the fact that we're moving house TOMORROW!
I'll say that again - we're moving house tomorrow. I still can't quite believe it. It's been a long, painful, protracted affair which began last January and staggered on until Friday at 4.30 pm when we exchanged. We complete a mere four days later, so there's little opportunity to do the usual niceties such as shop around for removals men, work out if we need a washing machine etc, change addresses etc.
So I'm perched on a sofa arm in a house chock-filled with boxes, anticipating my kids coming home from a friend's house in half an hour. Not sure what they'll make of it all. Tonight will be a takeaway of goat curry (much much nicer than it sounds, actually) and a reminisce over the last six years here and how wonderful they've been. The (attempted) home birth of my first child, me pacing round the garden, my mum serving hummus and toast to the midwives who were with me for about 20 hours and my husband kneading my lower back with scarcely a loo-break. Then the elective-Caesearian of my second child (I'd learnt my lesson) and the takeaway pizza we ate, surrounded by flowers from well-wishers, when we got out of hospital.
Ah, the comfort of food. The wind is battering tonight, and rather than a take-away I'd like to cook this Marco Pierre White bouef bourguignon. I made it a week or two ago and it was delicious. I'm inordinately proud of that picture of it. It looks almost impressionistic. Anyway. It took away the shame of my previous attempt to cook beef brisket, an unmitigated disaster, which I won't bother you about on here, ahem. It was ridiculously easy. Well, my mum did help with the chopping and Knorr did send me the Foreman & Field ingredients, so my role was more 'arranger of foods' rather than anything more complicated. I was in my element and the meal was a triumph. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's a good hearty antidote to all that Christmas fritz, but not something I'll be able to recreate for a while - I've got several hundred boxes to unpack before I find my stock cubes!