Dinner and a Movie: Sense and Sensibility

The theme for this month's Forever Nigella is "Picnic Pleasure."  Naturally, I thought of this scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, Sense and Sensibility:

from Daily Emma

I'm assuming that given the demographics of my readers that many of you have probably seen this adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. If you haven't, you're in for a treat.  Emma Thompson's screenplay is an improvement on the source material and the cast is fantastic.  I've owned this movie on VHS and DVD and have been watching it fairly regularly since 1995 and it never gets old. That's how awesome it is.

Egg and Bacon Pie

I wanted to have a proper picnic to go with this post, but the weather has either been rainy or very hot.  Welcome to August in Kansas!  Maybe we'll have a nice picnic in September or October. I hope so! I do love a picnic! For my recipe, I chose Boxing Day Egg and Bacon Pie from How to Be a Domestic Goddess (one of my favorite cookbooks, for cooking and reading).  The recipe is also at Nigella.com. Egg and Bacon pie is perfect for a picnic because it can be made a day or two in advance (or months, if you freeze it) and eaten cold.

As with the Nursery Fish Pie, I divided the portions in half: twelve instead of six.  With eighteen ounces of bacon and a double-crust, a twelfth of a pie was more than enough, especially with a couple of vegetables!  Egg and Bacon Pie is homey, hearty and delicious.  It's a keeper!

Helen at Fuss Free Flavors is the host for Forever Nigella #8.

Forever Nigella was created by Sarah at Maison Cupcake.

Yesterday, I found a copy of Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book at a used bookstore over on the west side of Wichita. So, of course, I had to try a recipe to go with dinner. The produce selection has been really bad this summer. We had hotter-than-average June and July, so the farmers' markets were short on produce and everything we tried to grow at home during those couple of months shriveled up and died, so I've been more reliant on the grocery store, which at least has an organic section. Since none of it was local, I went with some cabbage because I happen to really like cabbage! This recipe is adapted from "Buttered Cabbage" in Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book.

Black Pepper-Nutmeg Cabbage

serves 4

1 cabbage
4 tablespoons butter
sea salt
black pepper
nutmeg

Remove outer leaves and quarter the cabbage, steam for approximately 8 minutes, or until just tender. Meanwhile, melt the butter over lowest heat and stir in salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Use a good amount of black pepper and nutmeg.  Drain the cabbage and pour pepper-nutmeg butter over the top.

Yesterday on The Past on a Plate: "Focus on Ingredients: Grass-fed Beef"

Very Good Recipes tags: cabbage