Friday Favorites

Favorite taste:

I'm always looking for easy, pantry type pasta dishes that I can throw together on short notice.  This totally falls into that category.  It only calls for three ingredients so they need to be good ones.  Get the best you can afford.....Starkist isn't cutting it here, peeps!  This is from Patricia Wells so you know it has to be good.  I made a few additions to suit my tastes but it's fab on it's own.

Penne Pasta with Tuna and Spicy Mustard

Ingredients:

1 lb penne pasta

Two 6 1/2 ounce jars best-quality tuna in oil

1 tablespoon French Espelette pepper mustard (or other coarse-grain mustard)

These are the ingredients I used (forgot to include the capers in the pic.  Oops)  I didn't have the type of mustard called for, but I did have coarse-grain mustard and Piment d'Espelette but if you don't have Espelette, you could use red pepper flakes, or skip the spice altogether.

Directions:

Fill the pasta pot with enough water to cook pasta and add a generous amount of sea salt to water.  Bring to a boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.  About 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, set the strainer over a medium bowl.  Pour the tuna into the strainer, reserving the oil separately.  Break up the tuna pieces.  Transfer the oil to a large skillet and add the mustard (and spice) to it.

Gently warm the oil and mustard.

When the pasta is cooked, remove the pot from the heat.  Strain the pasta, shaking the colander to remove the excess water.  Immediately transfer the drained pasta to the skillet containing the oil and mustard,  Toss to evenly coat the past,  Add the tuna and toss once more.  Taste for seasoning. (Mine needed a touch more olive oil and I decided to add two tablespoons of capers for a little bite and some grated lemon zest.)  

Favorite viewing:

Season two of HoC downloaded on Netflix last night and hubs and I have already committed to a ribeye, a really nice French Bordeaux and the first few episodes to see just how much more despicable Frances can become.  That's how we do romance in Casa de Buker.

Also, American Idol has won me back this year.  I've long been a huge Harry Connick, Jr. fan....love his music and he's certainly NOT hard to look at.....so when they announced he'd be joining as a judge, I decided to give them another chance (I haven't watched in about 4 years) even if just for the Harry eye candy.  Oh, and what the eft is up with Keith Urban's hair??  Dude, you make a LOT of cabbage. Quit getting your hair cut by the lawn mower.  Anyhoo....I'm kinda excited about the top 30 (31?) and Alabama is well repped.

Some favorite tunes to get you in the Valentine's mood:

Favorite App:

I'm really into this app for interval training.....you can set up your own or there are several pre-sets available....like the 7 minute workout, for instance.  If you travel a lot, this is perfect for your iPad when you're stuck indoors.

Favorite Reads:

Before We Met....This was a little slow getting started for me a much of the time felt forced, but once the plot finally came together I couldn't put it down.  I'll give this one three stars!

Sycamore Row....This is the long awaited sequel to A Time to Kill, which is one of my all time favorites.  It's not near as good, but because I knew all the players, it kept my interest.  Again, three stars!

Favorite discovery:

Paromi Teas....I'm a coffee drinker in the morning, but I lurve a cup of tea at night and these are undoubtedly the best I've found.  Personally I have to have decaf because hubs hates it when I wake him up at 2:00am and want to chat!!  We have formed a habit of brewing a cup of tea after we've finished our wine (no judging) and Paromi Cinnamon Chai (quite possibly with a hint of Jack Daniels with honey if we're feeling naughty) is hands down our favorite.  The smell alone is enough to make you swoon.  And it's decaf!!