Wednesday is Saint Patrick’s Day (don’t forget to wear green or the leprechauns will pinch you) and even though my family is only moderately Irish, and I, in fact, have never been to Ireland, my family celebrates every year without fail. Part of it is that my grandparents were married on March 17 (and enjoyed the luck of the Irish — they were married for 59 years), and part of it is that we happen to like celebrations, and if that celebration involves food, then we’re definitely in.
So March 17 sees us feasting happily on beer, corned beef, more beer, English mustard (don’t tell the people who are actually Irish!), beer, cabbage, Jameson’s (a change from beer), mashed potatoes, and always, always Irish soda bread. This might not look like the Irish soda bread you’ve seen — there are no raisins, no caraway seeds. But this version, a “brown soda bread” made with half whole wheat and half white flour, is more authentically Irish, according to Darina Allen and Rory O’Connell, founders of the Ballymaloe Cooking School. And it’s incredibly satisfying – hearty and only slightly sweet, with a crunch to the crush and a melting interior. Warm from the oven with a pat of butter, it really can’t be beat.
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Tags: bread·breakfast·brunch·holiday·quick bread·Saint Patrick's Day
The Nuni just started preschool a few weeks ago. My baby is growing up! Generally she’s very happy and excited about school, because there are not one, but TWO slides and also there is a play kitchen. This new development does bring with it all sorts of new questions, such as “How many changes of clothes do I need to send each day because she will get the clothes she wore to school covered in paint?” or “Is it normal for a two year old to talk about kissing all the boys in her classroom?” or “Why does she keep telling the teachers that other kids’ jackets are hers?” The most important question of all, though, is what to provide for that time-honored ritual – the after school snack.
I pick Nuni up from school right at the start of rush hour, and our trip home can be LONG, so I have to make sure I’m carrying something that can be eaten in the car, which means that has a low choke risk (because I’m a paranoid parent) and ideally, some good fat and protein, since my skinny minnie has been running around all day (did I mention there are TWO slides?). Cheese is the obvious answer, but it’s often rejected — I wanted something that would be appealing but still pack a nutritional punch. When talking with Stephanie of Wasabimon and Karen of Fickle Feast about gluten free baking, I got the idea to use nut flours to up the protein content in a standard muffin, which also has the added bonus of turning the standard muffin into something else entirely.
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Tags: breakfast·brunch·glute·Kid Friendly·sweets
There is a phenomenon known as “breakfast for dinner” whereby seemingly normal people choose to ingest breakfast foods, namely French toast, pancakes and bacon for dinner. Why they would want to do this, I have no idea. I may have mentioned it before, but standard American breakfast foods (with the exception of toast, which may be my favorite food) are not my idea of a good time.
I can blame this particular quirk on my mother, who took a firm stand against eating sweet foods for breakfast, which led to a deprived childhood lacking in things like Cocoa Krispies, pancakes, french toast casserole, blueberry muffins and donuts eaten before noon. My mother was convinced that these foods would give me low blood sugar and lead to headaches and feeling unwell, and unfortunately, the few times she relented on this policy, she was proven correct. Now, even as an adult, I look askance at things like pancakes, and rarely eat them, so the idea of replacing a normal meal that ordinarily provides lots of not-sweet nutrition with stacks of carbs just strikes me as plain odd.
I do, however, make an exception for omelets. Maybe it’s the French in me, but I really think there’s no bad time for an omelet. They’re infinitely adaptable, are an excellent way to use whatever’s in your fridge, and go perfectly with a glass of wine. Now that is what I call dinner.
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Tags: breakfast·brunch·cheese·eggs
