No, you don’t have to make everything from scratch. Your guests will never notice if you cut a few corners and take advantage of packaged ingredients. You can save more than an hour of prep time by relying on frozen pearl onions (no peeling!), presliced mushrooms, precut stew meat and carrots, and pre-bagged lettuce.

Menu

Lettuce, Orange, and Pecan Salad

Beef Bourguignonne

Buttery Mashed Potatoes

Broccoli Rabe with Currant Vinaigrette

Ice Cream Bombe

Shopping List

3 1/2 to 4 pounds stew or chuck meat
1 bottle dry red wine (such as Côtes du Rhône)
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 14.5-ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 small onion
1 whole carrot
1 head garlic
1 1-pound bag carrots, preferably baby cut
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 pound fresh or frozen pearl onions
1 pound sliced button mushrooms
8 russet potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1 quart whole milk
3 bunches (about 3 pounds) broccoli rabe
1 12-ounce jar red currant jelly
1 1.5-ounce jar red pepper flakes
1 8-ounce jar Dijon mustard
3 heads Bibb or Boston lettuce
2 navel oranges
3 ounces pecan halves
4 ounces goat cheese (optional)
1 shallot
1 8-ounce carton orange juice
1 12.7-ounce bottle white wine vinegar
2 pints vanilla ice cream
2 pints chocolate ice cream
1 7.5-ounce bag hard peppermint candies

What to Sip

Tradition holds that whatever wine goes in the stew should go in the glass. That’s fine, but according to wine expert Andrea Robinson, a better match for rich beef stew and bitter broccoli rabe is a more assertive Rioja (such as Bodegas Montecillo Rioja Reserva, $16) or a Petite Syrah (like Bogle, $10).