Shepard's Pie

Scotland is all about comfort food and one of my favorites is Shepard's Pie, which I've made approximately 50 times in the six months that we've lived here. I use a recipe that I've adapted from The Joy of Cooking and it's the perfect dinner for a dark, rainy night - with enough left over for lunch the next day.

Shepard's Pie
Serves 4-6

Traditional Shepard's Pie is made with ground lamb, however I usually use a mixture of ground beef and ground pork (technically, using ground beef turns it in to Cottage Pie). I make mine in a 9x13 inch pan (the recipe below is based on using a pan this size) but it's easily adapted to whatever size you prefer. 

Ingredients
6-8 mashing potatoes for the topping, along with a bit of butter and cream to mash with

And for the meaty part:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion 
4 stalks of celery
4 carrots
1.5 lbs ground beef, pork or lamb - or a combination
1/4 cup flour
1 cup beef broth
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp thyme
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Make the mashed potatoes first: peel the potatoes, dice them, and boil until fork tender. Mash with butter, cream, salt and pepper and set aside.

Meanwhile, clean and chop all the vegetables. In a large pan, heat the oil and add the onion, celery and carrot, and saute until softened, about 10 minutes over medium heat. Add the meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. When it's no longer pink, add the flour to thicken the mixture. Stir in the broth and let simmer for a few minutes, also adding the spices as well as salt and pepper. Transfer this mixture to your pan and add a layer of mashed potatoes to the top. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

8 Things to do in Scotland

While I wouldn't recommend visiting Scotland in January, if anyone is planning a trip for the summer months, here are a few things that we would recommend seeing and doing while you're here:

Scottish Borders

Last week we went on a little adventure....

A New Year

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great one. We've been busy this holiday season and things are finally starting to fall back into a normal routine....here are a few pictures, if you'd like to see:

My parents were here for 10 days around Christmas, and we had lots of fun showing them around. We took them to the Edinburgh Christmas Market (above) and we also did a day trip to Anstruther for fish and chips and back to Edinburgh another day to see the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was really fun.

Since it was Christmas, we also spent a lot of time at the grocery store, prepping, cooking, last minute gift shopping and RELAXING! Ryan had a few games too - we gave my dad a jersey to wear and he gave Ryan a Scotland bowtie for Christmas, so the two of them were very festive looking:

Then my parents flew back to Boston a few days after Christmas and Ryan and I spent the rest of 2015 taking long afternoon naps! I'm feeling pretty good at 32 weeks now, but I'm definitely tired - a lot. We were lucky to have a beautiful New Years Day (!!) so I went for a long walk on the beach to ring in 2016 which is a year we're very excited for!

So! I'm cutting back a bit in 2016 as we prepare for the baby's arrival. I'm going to be posting once per week until the middle of February when I'm going to take some time off blogging completely to focus on our newest family member.

Happy 2016!

The Best of 2015

2015 has been a great year for us and while we're sad to see it go, we're so excited for all that next year has in store. One of the best things about having a blog is that we can look back on the year and see what we were up to....here are a few of our favorite moments from the past year:

Merry Christmas

My parents are here for Christmas now and I'm taking this week off to spend time with family, do some sightseeing, eat lots of Christmas treats and relax! We're planning on one more visit to the Edinburgh Christmas market, treating my parents to real fish & chips in Anstruther, and a day trip to St. Andrew's on Christmas Eve for a candlelight carol sing. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, wherever you are in the world! xo

Beef Stew

Many Christmas traditions revolve around food and in our house, there's no exception. We started a tradition when we lived in Cortina of eating beef stew on Christmas night for dinner. I'm not quite sure how it came about - Ryan always had practice on Christmas evening because he always had a game the day after Christmas - and after our big Christmas Eve party, I guess I didn't want to cook another elaborate meal, so we settled on beef stew which is hearty, delicious and super easy to make.

{Image via}

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound of stew meat (check weight)
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup red wine
1 tbsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cups beef broth
4 stalks of celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 potatoes, chopped

Directions
Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and add the stew meat. Sear until the outside is no longer pink, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onion to the pot; cook until softened. Add the flour and stir to combine and cook for another minute. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, being careful that you aren't burning anything. Add the red wine and stir to combine, scraping the bits from the bottom of the pot as well. Simmer the wine for two minutes, then add the thyme, bay leaves and beef broth, as well as a bit of salt and pepper. Also add the beef back in. Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for one hour.

In the meantime, you can chop up your vegetables. After an hour, add the carrots, celery and potatoes to the stew, cover again, and simmer for another hour and a half.

Serve hot with chopped parsley on top and crusty bread on the side.