Bolognese Sauce

My mom makes the best spaghetti with meat sauce. It was a favorite meal growing up and the one I wanted her to make for friends when they came over or when I came home during a break from college. My Dad fixed breakfast for us when we were in high school and if I was lucky there would be enough left over from the night before to poach eggs in. Served with toast on the side it is amazing. I've only come upon one restaurant that serves eggs like this and it took me right back. 

Mom's sauce. I still love it. My problem is that I can't seem to duplicate it. I have her recipe and have followed it more times than I can count, but still, it doesn't turn out the same as when she makes it. I tend to be one of those that tastes then adds without measure when cooking. Pretty soon I'm trying to balance disobedient flavors after tossing in a bit too much of whatever ingredient I was playing with. So maybe that's the deal. I've tried making her sauce two ways: By following her instructions as written and by adding additional ingredients in an attempt to make it taste like I remember. She swears she just follows the recipe. Mom?

That said....I usually don't begin a dish without consulting a good cook or cookbook first, but I guess I've tried Bolognese Sauce often enough because I was able to come up with a good one last week using what I had available in the kitchen. Since it worked out well I wrote it down, then double checked it again last night. It is different than my Mom's, but I like it. (Recipe follows.)

Margaret's Bolognese Sauce:

1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
5 large celery stalks, sliced

Saute the above in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until softened.

Add 1 tsp minced garlic and saute for a couple minutes longer.

Meanwhile, brown 2 lb ground beef and drain. Add beef to vegetables along with:

3 14.5 oz cans small diced tomatoes with juice
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
3/4 cup red wine (I used a bottle of what we had open so I'm assuming any good red wine would be fine)
2 tbsp brown sugar
dried basil and oregano
1 tsp salt

Simmer for 1 1/2  - 2 hours.  Add more wine, water or beef broth if it gets too thick while simmering and more seasonings to taste when nearly finished.

Cook the fettuccine in salted water for a couple minutes less than the package suggests, then drain and finish cooking it in the sauce. The starch from the pasta will thicken it.

Serve with good hard Italian cheese grated over the top. I used Italian Grana Padano. It's what was in the fridge.

Some Bolognese recipes call for bacon, pancetta, a pinch of red chili pepper flakes or finishing the sauce with a half cup or so of cream......any of which I would have added had I had them on hand. I use good low fat ground beef.  Also, I used Rustichella d'Abruzzo pasta. It's a little more expensive but I like it because it's thicker than most and has a great bite. 

Hope you enjoy your week......and if you make this......that you enjoy it too!

It Won't Be Long.......

Saturday Morning

Saturday breakfast (brunch by the time we make it out of the house)  is what we've been doing for our 'just the two of us' dates lately. Weekend evenings are dinner at the Ale House with friends, but Saturday morning I think is just for us. I love that it's a good day and time to catch up on the events of the past week and for some reason I find the weekend morning atmosphere of a restaurant kind of festive. Neighbors running into neighbors. Tall people and long arms reaching for little hands up-stretched. Chatting with whomever happens to be closest in line. Scanning a lively room to see if  a wood topped table will open up. The room rustling with those making plans for the next couple of days balanced by those intent on making no plans at all. An unglamourous meal that is simple to show up for simply because it is just that.  Maybe it's the fact that daylight through the windows works well for photos or that we're both morning people, but it has worked its way back into our weekends.

During our early days together, because we worked different shifts or when Marc was in school, breakfast out seemed to be what we did. While we wondered what the future held it was an affordable outing and the timing worked. We had so many long conversations at Julia's 14 Carrot Cafe over mugs of coffee and Tahitian Toast with fruit and yogurt. Dressed up dinner dates were fine and special and fun....but  not more so than the mornings when we were the real 'us'.  A pricey evening at a good restaurant was a rare journey. It was practical and comfortable to decide to hang out where we could afford to.

When the boys were little they were allowed to be their spirited selves a bit more at breakfast than if we ventured forth at the dinner hour......and we felt like we got out of the house. Stacks of pancakes, bowls of fruit, a few books or small toys and we had a little break. A meal served. No dishes. A psuedo-date. During years filled with homework, sleepovers, sports and busy kid activities, pancakes and eggs served by others were edged off the calendar.  I'm thinking we miss the noise of a full house because for the past few weekends our routine has been morning coffee at home and a quick discussion about where to go. This week we ended up at the Portage Bay Cafe. Organic food, really good coffee and they bake their own bread. The good kind that's a little crunchy on the outside, softer on the inside and sort of begs to be topped with jam from the jar on the table. Employee's t-shirts ask us to 'Eat Like You Give A Damn."  OK.  I ordered hash with lots of veggies (which included both sweet and white potatoes) and a little bacon. I have no idea what Marc ordered......I was paying too much attention to my own meal.  And to the family with the rambunctious boys at the next table. And to the holding-hands couple at the counter.  The ones who at first glance I thought were our age until I realized they were twenty-something years younger.

~~~~~~

Food and Snow Days

It was a short work week so Marc and I revisited Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe, one of his old post-soccer breakfast places. Check out the homemade cinnamon rolls. And Huevos Rancheros, my personal favorite almost anywhere. Finally got my computer back yesterday and while waiting...... enjoyed every single thing about the recent cold and snowy days. Logan, too! Have a great weekend.

Warmly, Margaret

Computer Issues...

Oh....I'm bummed. My computer is in the shop. The dreaded 'blue screen' showed up a couple of times Friday morning which made me very nervous. I've never been sure exactly what this means and so took it right in. It appears that the hard drive is failing. I wish I understood more about the workings of this tool......but impatient me, all I really want is to have it back in front of me on my desk/table each morning as I drink coffee, watch the sun come up and think about the coming day. I have my routine: blue mug, on-line newspapers, a couple photography websites, facebook. It's how I wake up and organize. I've become used to the way it prompts me to decide to write a few things or to work on pictures......or add to the list of things I want to write about or take pictures of. Over the last couple of months it's when and where I work on blog posts.

I'm hoping to get my computer back today with a larger, faster hard drive and am so looking forward to checking out some photos I took over the weekend.  AND......I'm finally feeling organized enough to begin going through ones from the Europe trip we took last fall. That trip was such a big deal to me. It was a couple of weeks that opened up our world and celebrated the collection of experiences Marc and I have had together. It was a cornerstone and a turning point. A time to reconnect, look forward and think about what it means to have just the two of us at home now. We returned at the end of September and dove right into a few visits with the boys which were followed quickly by the holidays. I'm pretty sure I took hundreds of pics so wanted our lives to settle down a bit and to learn a few more things about organizing, saving and backing up before spending time on them. I also wanted to allow time for the experiences of that trip to sink in. I've decided not to follow the photo processing chronologically but instead to approach it day by day depending on what I happen to be excited about. I'm pretty sure it will begin with Venice which is such a colorful and unique city. I hope I can do it justice!

By the way......thanks for taking a look at my blog. It's something I've thought about doing for a long time and really appreciate the kind words and helpful comments you've left after posts, via email or in person. I'm still in the early stages of working out kinks and solidifying exactly what it means to have a blog, but am enjoying the process and the journey and the way it makes me accountable. I've learned a lot so far.

If you're interested, I received an email from Mamalode magazine telling me that a short piece I wrote (It Takes Time) will be published in their upcoming issue. It should be out in print in about a week, but you can also read it online by clicking on the magazine tab on their website (http://www.mamalode.com/). 

So......hoping to get my computer back this afternoon and will post again with pics on Friday. Here's wishing you a great week.

Warmly, Margaret

Everyday Finds

This week I had a self-imposed photography assignment to find beauty in everyday objects. Ordinary things I work with, pass by and use often while moving about my space. The ones that are practical, commonplace, necessary and an organic part of my day. I thought it would be good to see them as more. To give them a second look.

What I found were colors and patterns that at some point I've made a conscious choice to bring into my home. Tones of blue and green and gold and red. Patterns that echo nature and organized stripes. Ones that spoke to me, or better yet......ones that someone else chose because they thought I would like them. It became easier to find items to photograph and more difficult to decide which ones. The lesson was in narrowing down the field.  So I focused on an area where I spend a lot of (most of?) my time: 

mmmm......morning coffee, cream, syrup......

  

 The hardest workers.

Each of these aprons was a gift. I love that someone thought of me in this way. Knowing how I like to spend my time......and that a pretty apron makes a difference......

The bowls that sit on the counter next to the food processor. The ones used for almost everything. I realized how often I look at their colors, stripes and specks. There is a little flower shop in Missoula that sells the work of Montana potters. I hope they're still there.....we haven't stopped in for awhile.

Hope you enjoy your day! It's so sunny here that most everything outside my window is showing up vibrant blues and greens. No overcast grays skies to mute the colors. If it weren't for the bare branches on the maples I would probably be fooled into thinking it's spring already. Love that sun streaming in and the few crocus blossoms popping through!

Love and Banana Cake

A simple post today. No huge insights on my part. Just simple appreciation for something that has worked out well. Yesterday was both Valentine's Day and my Valentine's birthday. So we celebrated the same way we've celebrated special occasions during 3 years of dating and 25 years of marriage: Flowers, dinner at Rays and a Banana Cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Some traditions are too good to change.

Next time I'll write more. I've been working on some things but they just weren't coming together. So I decided to give myself a break, lose the frustration and enjoy the day. A good choice......