Friday Favorites

It's Friday!  The meaning of Friday as lessened a little for me since I started working Saturdays but I still rejoice for the rest of you!

A few of my favorites this week...

Source: pbs.org

Sherlock...I can't get enough.  Ciana and I have binge watched the first two seasons and we just finished the second of the current season.  I want to be friends with Dr. and Mrs. Watson.

Source: Anthropologie.com

This sweater.  Hopefully winter will last long enough to justify it.

Source: Makeup & Beauty Blog

Essie's Cocktails and Coconuts...because I don't have enough neutral nail polishes in my life.

Source: How Sweet Eats Blog

This Spinach and Bacon Pizza was great.  Cara made it for our Super Bowl commercial viewing party and I've been craving it again ever since.

Source: Mashable.com

Well, this couldn't be any more accurate.  Unfortunately I am all twelve of the above characters wrapped up in one, totally unproductive, mess.

Happy Friday!

Works for Me Wednesday- PB&J

Please forgive the over-Instagrammed photo...I got carried away and lost the original!

I'm linking up with Kristen's Works for Me Wednesday to talk about what works for me when I travel.  When Cara, Jennifer and I went to Canada in the summer of 2012 we made every effort to keep costs as low as possible. One of the ways we did that was by eating sandwiches for lunch almost every day.  By packing things for breakfasts and lunches we were able to splurge on dinners and still keep costs down. We splurged on things like lobster, by the way!

Our Waitress wasn't the best photographer but the food was awesome!

We stuck to peanut butter and jelly most days because we didn't have to worry about keeping lunch meat and cheese cold.  As uninteresting as a good ol' fashion PB&J might sound, it's amazing how your surroundings can influence the taste of something.  We would eat lunch on the beach each day and our PB&J, chips, fruit, and water might as well have been a gourmet meal for as much as we enjoyed ourselves.  Keeping it simple...it works for me!

Chicken Pasties

Before I go any further, I want to keep you from making the same embarrassing mistake I did. When referring to a savory hand-pie that is popular in the UK, pasty is pronounced past-y, not paste-y.  You’re welcome.

I’ve visited the UK twice and both times I ate more than my fair share of pasties.  Pasties come with fillings like chicken and veggie, chicken curry, beef and mushrooms, pork and apples, and many more.  My favorite was the chicken and veggie.  It was a hand-held chicken pot pie...what’s not to like?

I ate my most memorable chicken pasty the day Cara and I visited Chatsworth House. Chatsworth was used as Mr. Darcy's Pemberley in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley. My obsession with Jane Austen began in elementary school when I caught part of the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice on PBS one night. You know, the Colin Firth version. Go ahead and take a second...sigh. I even joined an online Austen community when I was 14 and I still visit Pemberley almost daily. Needless to say, when I had the opportunity to explore "Pemberley" for myself I was more than a little excited. The house and grounds were spectacular. It was everything I'd imagined and more. Chatsworth has such a rich history ranging from scandalous Georgiana Cavendish, the 5th Duchess of Devonshire to the inspiring, Elvis loving, Dowager Duchess, Deborah Cavendish.

As you can see from the outdoor pictures we visited on a cold, cloudy day.  After we explored the grounds we were more than ready for something warm and yummy to eat.  Chatsworth has a restaurant and small snack shops for hungry guests.  It was at one of these snack shops that Cara and I each ordered a chicken pasty.  It was the perfect thing.  It was simple and warm and flaky and completely delicious.  The best part?  They kept our hands warm as we ate them!  

The recipe below is just my basic chicken pot pie recipe wrapped in delicious flaky pie dough. I used a dough recipe from Smitten Kitchen and it is FANTASTIC. So buttery. So flaky. So perfect.

Chicken Pasties
Source: RegansRamblings.blogspot.com
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 large red potatoes, chopped

4 Tbsp butter, divided

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ (12 oz) bag of frozen peas

2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped

4 Tbsp flour

1 ½ cups chicken broth

½  tsp nutmeg

2 Tbsp chopped parsley

salt

pepper

1 batch All Butter Pie Crust Dough from Smitten Kitchen

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

Instructions:

Bring the chopped potatoes to a boil in salted water and cook until just fork tender.  Meanwhile, saute the onions, carrots, and celery in 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp olive oil until tender.  When the potatoes are done, drain them and add to the sauted vegetables.  Add the chicken and remaining 3 Tbsp of butter.  Once the butter is melted, sprinkle the flour over the mixture and mix everything together.  Cook for a minute to cook out the raw flour taste.  Mix in the chicken broth, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  Cook until the mixture has thickened to a “pot pie” consistancy. Remove from heat and place in refrigerator to chill, at least one hour.  

When mixture is chilled, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and roll out half of your pie crust dough out to approximately ⅛”.  Using a 6” biscuit cutter (or bowl, if you’re cool like me.) cut out 7 rounds.  Roll each circle a little more then put ⅓ c. of the filling on half of each circle.  Wet your fingers with a little cold water and dampen the edges of half of the circle then fold over and seal close to the filling.  You can either use a fork to seal it or use the method I prefer.  Simply press down firmly to seal the dough, then starting at one end, fold the edges up and over to create a twisted edge look.  After filling and sealing all the pies, place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to re-chill.

Repeat with second half of dough.  Whisk together the egg and 1 Tbsp. of water to make an egg wash.  Remove the pies from the freezer and brush liberally with the egg wash.  Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.  Remove immediately to cooling racks then serve.

Note: You will probably have filling left over...it's delicious eaten on it's own or you can make more dough for additional pasties or a great chicken pot pie.

THAT Bolognese.

When Kerry and I began planning our “Grand Adventure”  I was particularly excited about the food.  I mean, I’m pretty sure bread and pasta fall straight from Heaven and onto European plates.  There will be many future posts featuring our dining experiences from that incredible trip but for now I want to focus on THAT Spaghetti Bolognese.

After researching many options for our vacation we finally settled on a Mediterranean cruise on the Costa Pacifica (pronounced KOS-TA PA-CHI-FIKA, if you want to sound Italian).  Costa is an Italian cruise line made up of ships with Italian crews...these crews include Italian chefs.  Amen.

Me and Kerry before dinner.

Now, keep in mind that neither Kerry or I had ever traveled on a cruise ship before so we had no point of reference for the dinner experience.  Seven courses.  Every night.  Multiple choices for each course.  It was exhausting...in the best possible way, of course.  While the choices for each course would change every night, the menu included a few items that were always available.  The Spaghetti Bolognese was among these.  Kerry ordered it on the first night in place of the offered pasta course.  (This was before we realized we were free to order multiple choices for each course.  No judgement please!)  As she took her first bite I immediately regretted my (perfectly delicious) pasta choice.  She went on about how fantastic the bolognese tasted and, with the help of some bread, left nary a drop in her bowl.  I was green with envy.  

The next night I was sure to correct my mistake and ordered the bolognese for my first course as quickly as I could.  Then, because dinner service is painfully slow, I waited at least 15 minutes for it to arrive.  I barely allowed our waiter, Jerry, to sprinkle fresh parmesan on top before I began twirling a bite onto my fork.  Mercy.  It was amazing.  The pasta was perfectly al dente and had been lightly tossed in the sauce before being topped with a liberal portion of bolognese.  It really was more of a ragu than a sauce.  There was no pooling of tomato sauce to be seen...it was as if the ground meat and velvety tomatoes had melded into one.  I could taste the meat, tomato, and parmesan equally.  No one thing tried to outshine the other.  They just worked together.

 THAT Bolognese on the final night of our cruise.

I’m sure, after all my going on and on, you've assumed that I ordered the Bolognese a few more times before we disembarked.  But you’re probably giving me more credit that I’m due.  You see, I actually ordered it every night.  And for lunch a couple of times. Yeah.  I can hear you asking,  “But didn't you get tired of it?”  Nope.  I could eat a vat of it this very minute.  It’s just one of those dishes that is eternally comforting and will now forever remind me of sailing around the Mediterranean with a dear friend.

Understandably, it was vital that I recreate this memorable Bolognese.  I researched recipes for weeks after our return before I became a little gun-shy about trying it.  What if it was terrible?  What if it was just okay?  Would it ruin the memory?

You see, this was not my first travel related memory with Bolognese.  In 2004, My mom and I traveled to Great Britain to celebrate my 18th birthday and high school graduation.  While we were in London we found a small tea house a short distance from our hotel.  It was darling and we had our first real English tea there.  We also had Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.  It was so good that we had it again the next night. (As you can see, when I find something I like, I stop looking for anything else!)  We talked about that Bolognese long after we returned home...it was just that good.

Fast-forward back to 2013.  I eventually gathered my courage and began dicing carrots, onion, and celery into tiny uniform pieces that were soon melting in a pool of sizzling butter.  Once they softened I added the ground beef and began the process of turning a group of simple ingredients into a deep, complex, flavorful sauce.  After the meat was cooked I stirred in the cream and let it soak into the mixture.  Next came the red wine, adding its distinct color and aroma.  As soon as the liquids had reduced away to almost nothing, I added the tomatoes, then salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, (one of my favorite staples) and a little sugar to cut the acidity.  Oh, and a hunk of Parmesan, mustn't forget that.  I then stirred and tasted and anticipated before putting the lid on and letting it just barely simmer for a few hours.  It takes time to develop the flavors I was looking for.   

Forgive the poor photos...I'd rather cook or eat than spend hours editiing!

Finally, I boiled and drained my pasta and tossed it with a small amount of the sauce.  Then I heaped portions into each bowl and ladled plenty of sauce on top before sprinkling them with fresh Parmesan and a little Italian parsley.

As I took my first bite I knew it wasn't THAT Bolognese from the cruise. It couldn't be. But it was MY Bolognese, infused with my tastes, my experiences, and even my quirks.  It wasn't just like I remembered but that’s okay.   Memories don’t just have to remain a fixed point in time.  They can actually grow and change and evolve as we do. Bolognese no longer simply reminds me of a wonderful vacation, it also brings to mind the joy I have in creating food for my family and friends to enjoy.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Source: RegansRamblings.blogspot.com

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

2 Large Carrots

4 Celery Stalks

½ Large Yellow Onion

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 lbs Lean Ground Beef

1 ½ c. Half & Half

1 ½ c. Red Wine

1 (28 oz.) Can of Crushed Tomatoes

1 (8 oz.) Can of Tomato Sauce

1 to 2 T. Sugar (Depending on Acidity of Tomatoes)

2 T. Worcestershire Sauce

1 T. Red Wine Vinegar

½ tsp. Crushed Red Pepper

2 oz. Piece of Parmesan Cheese

2 T. Chopped Italian Parsley

Italian Parsley for garnish

Parmesan for garnish

1 ½ lbs Spaghetti

Instructions:

Dice carrots, celery, and onion into similar size pieces.  Melt butter over medium heat then add vegetables and saute on medium-high until until they are soft.  Create a well in the middle and add the ground beef.  Brown the meat and break it down as small as possible. Season with salt and pepper.  Mix with the vegetables and continue to cook until most of the grease is gone.  Add half & half and cook until it has evaporated.  Next, add the wine and reduce by two-thirds.  Stir in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Mix in the sugar, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, and Parmesan.  Taste and add extra salt and pepper if necessary.  Simmer on low for 1-2 hours to develop flavors.  

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions for al dente.  Drain and return to cooking pot.  Add 1 to 1 ½ c. of the sauce and toss to coat. Serve and top with extra sauce, Parmesan, and parsley.  Enjoy!