Random Thought Monday

I'm doing this again. Unfortunately for all of you, I continue to have thoughts.

1. The above are a pair of shoes I purchased almost 4 years ago. I think I've worn them twice. What do I wear with these shoes?! Someone help. I am the least stylish person EVER.

2. Is it just me, or do holiday M&M's taste better than regular M&M's?! For Valentine's Day, Justin got me this adorable stuffed dog and Valentine's M&M's. They just TASTE better. Easter M&M's are the best by far.

3. We are eating breakfast for dinner tonight because law school is awful and hard (who knew?!) and breakfast sounds so comforting. What type of wine goes with scrambled eggs? Don't judge.

4. I know you've all been DYING to know what happened after I broke Piper's special plate. We could not find a plate that is remotely similar . . . so we bought her a pie plate. Yes, that is a pie plate. And yes, my cat is morbidly obese and watches her eat every night.

5. Speaking of Piper, I was in the middle of a core workout dvd the other day, and while I'm on the floor doing some sort of crunch she came and just laid on my chest. I swear she was judging me and essentially telling me to put in more effort. If this continues, my abs are going to look fantastic.

6. This is my grandma at my wedding (cutest picture ever). One of the best and worst things to happen in the last year is that she got a Nook and learned how to use the Internet (this is impressive - she is almost 90). We were chatting the other day and she told me she GOOGLED MY NAME. Not only that, but she discovered my Instagram. She asked why I only post pictures of food and my animals. It's a pretty solid summary of my life.

7. Also, it probably terrifies her that there is a picture of her on the Internet. There's also a story about her googling chicken pox, but I'll save that one. She googles EVERYthing. Nothing is safe. HI GRANNY!

8. I'm not one to give into a hyped-up t.v. show, but everyone has been talking about House of Cards. Justin finally made me start watching it, and I'm hooked. We're about 10 episodes into the first season and I love it. This is literally the worst semester of law school…and all I can think about is getting my work done so I can watch more House of Cards.

9. The baby and the puppy thing that went viral - Beau and Theo - I love love love it. I just stumbled on an update, which you can read here. This makes me smile every single time.

10. When the crazy winter storm hit a couple weeks ago, everyone kept asking how much snow was on the ground. I have no idea how many inches are the ground, so I decided to use the universal measuring tool: a wine bottle. We got a wine bottle's worth of snow.

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Jamaican Beef Patties

This was a labor of love.

When we were in Jamaica, this absolutely beautiful country with lots of fantastic gluten free things we could eat, all Justin would do is whine about how he couldn't eat the Jamaican beef patties.

I might be exaggerating. But he talked about it A LOT (now all he talks about is getting a Suburban - long story).

Anyway, for Christmas my stepmom got us this Jamaican cookbook and one of the first recipes is Jamaican Beef Patties. Justin, of course, found the beef patty recipe and started talking about them. AGAIN.

I finally decided to make these for him on Valentine's Day. This was my gift to him.

They were a pain to make. There are a lot of steps and they take a lot of time, but WOW . . . they are so worth it. Especially considering I made a gluten free version.

Justin is obsessed with them. He ate one for BREAKFAST yesterday. I imagine he will beg me to make these often, BUT you can easily make a big batch and freeze them. So, no problem.

Here's what you need (very slightly adapted from Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen) . . .

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups of flour (I used Williams Sonoma GF Cup4Cup)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp curry powder
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup of ice cold water

For the filling:

1 pound ground beef (I used ground chuck)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 habanero peppers, minced*
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups of water
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used GF ones from The Fresh Market)
1 egg beaten with a few drops of water (for crust)

*The original recipe calls for scotch bonnet peppers. I could not find these anywhere, but habanero is a good substitute. Be SO careful when you chop these! Just the smell burned my eyes.

Here's what you do . . .

1. In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, and curry powder. Cut your butter into the bowl and use your hands to mush it together so it makes a course meal. Add ice water and knead the dough until it forms a ball. Try not to knead it too much.

2. Spread the dough into two pieces, flattening each into a really thick pancake. Refrigerate for AT LEAST an hour. The longer you refrigerate, the easier it is to work with the dough later. I think I refrigerated mine for 3-4 hours.

3. When the dough is ready, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. In a large saute pan, heat the oil on high heat. Add beef, onion, garlic, peppers, thyme, salt, pepper, and curry powder. Saute until most of the moisture is evaporated and the meat is brown. Little brown bits should form on the bottom of your pan.

5. Add water and scrape the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add more if you need it. Add the bread crumbs and stir to combine. Cover the mixture (which should look like a stew) and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then set aside.

6. Take your dough out of the fridge. Cut each pancake into 8 even pieces (total of 16). Roll each piece into a big oval like you see above. Place it on a greased cookie sheet and spoon a decent amount of beef onto half of the oval. Leave some space on the outside like you see above and below

7. Use your finger and put water around the border of the beef. Flip the other side over and press down with your fingers to get it to stick. I used a fork and pressed it around the edge of the patty.

8. Once you have all your patties on your cookie sheet, brush them evenly with your beaten egg. Make sure you cover the whole top of the patty.

9. Bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes. Remove, let cool, and enjoy!

They really are delicious even though it took what felt like FOREVER. It's really not that bad; the most time consuming party was rolling out each piece of dough and folding the meat into it, but that only took 30 minutes total.

Make them! Drink with a rum punch for true Jamaican authenticity.

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Homemade Italian Meatballs and Sauce

I feel like this is sort of cheating?

I know I've posted meatballs before, but they are NOTHING like this.

These were incredible. Justin even said they were better than some meatballs he'd had in a restaurant. NO JOKE.

I swear, the last few times I've cooked when it snows, the meal has been amazing. This was just…way too good.

Here's what you need (combo of inspiration from How Sweet Eats and Giada) . . .

For meatballs:

1.5 lbs of ground beef (we used ground chuck)
1/3 cup of shred romano cheese
1/4 cup of bread crumbs (we used GF from Fresh Market)
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes*
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg

For sauce:
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow onion (medium), chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup of red or white wine
28 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used san marzano)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp italian seasoning
salt/pepper

Here's what you do . . .

1. In a big bowl, mix together all the ingredients for your meatballs. Use your hands to combine, but try not to mix too much. Form 1 inch balls, and place them in a large pan coated well with olive oil.

2. With heat on medium/high, brown your meatballs. It takes a few minutes on each side. They don't have to be totally cooked through, but you want them mostly cooked.

3. In a separate pan, sauté your other garlic, onion, and celery with 1 tbsp of butter and a little olive oil until they are soft, about 7-8 minutes.

4. When meatballs are browned, add garlic/onion/celery mix and sauté until there are some brown bits on the bottom of your pan (if there aren't already).

5. Add your wine - I used white because it's what we had - and scrape the brown bits off the bottom. Let the wine reduce - about 5 minutes.

6. Add diced tomatoes, italian seasoning, basil, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Your meatballs should be mostly submerged.

7. Let simmer on low heat for at least an hour. Serve over pasta, on a sandwich, or all by themselves. ENJOY!

We had them with gluten free pasta right before it started snowing and they were PERFECT. It seems like a lot of steps, but I promise it's not so bad. And SO worth it.

Hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day!

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Random Thought Tuesday

We're going to try something a little different today.

Real Life Tuesday? Random Thought Tuesday? Is there an synonym for Random that starts with a "T"? Whatever.

This blog has always been about the food, but lately I've been feeling like I need an outlet for my random thoughts. SO, every so often, I'll post them.

I promise promise this will still be about recipes. But I want to try something different, so . . . here we go.

1. Those berries above are ones I picked up at the Farmer's Market last summer. Considering how much I'm hating winter right now, they make me happy.

2. There's this massive winter storm (Pax? Since when did we start naming winter storms?) heading our way, and I've discovered that my years of hurricane prep skills transition extremely well into winter storm prep skills. Who was at the grocery store at 8 a.m. this morning? This girl. Actually, if we're being honest, I made Justin get up and go so I could work out. Same difference.

3. Speaking of the storm, I'm a complete mess about it because I have no idea whether or not I should read for class tomorrow, which means I will read because I'm completely paranoid. And then class will get cancelled and I will have to retain this knowledge for 5 days (ugh). Life is hard.

4. Last thing about snow. Is it weird that snow turns me into an old Italian grandmother? I ALWAYS end up making some complex pasta sauce (tonight, homemade meatballs and sauce) and baking.

5. Is anyone superstitious? I'm really not, but I am about certain things. I think this comes from years of growing up in the theatre (break a leg, can't say Macbeth inside the theatre, etc.), but I have random things I am superstitious about. Like wine corks. I have been accumulating wine corks since I worked at a wine company in 2009 and I CAN'T throw them away and we HAVE to save each one. This makes Justin crazy, but I'm convinced that if we throw them away something terrible will happen. I need help.

6. This is Piper. Piper is a spoiled princess. She only eats out of ONE bowl. It's this flat glass bowl that I think is supposed to be used as a salad bowl thing. She has been eating out of it for the last three years. This morning, it fell out of the fridge and broke into a million little pieces. It is entirely possible our dog will refuse to eat tonight.

7. Courtesy of my friend Nicole, I recently subscribed to a daily e-mail called The Skimm, which sends you an overview of the day's news. I'm obsessed with it, but mostly because it makes me feel like I know what's going on in the world. Well, that and watching my recorded Conan monologues. Team Coco anyone?

8. Can we talk about how awful it is to apply for a job? I always second guess the organization of my resume, and I find myself toning down my cover letter. It feels so strange to say things that are the equivalent of, "I'm awesome because . . ." Can someone just give me my perfect job? Thanks.

9. Finally, 14 signs you are a grammar nazi. I'm not the editor-in-chief of law review for nothing.

Everyone be safe! Especially those in Florida. Bragging about your nice weather will likely get you unfriended on Facebook by your northern-dwelling friends.

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