Robb + Jessie Married & in the Badger State
Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
On rainy days
I like nothing more
than to sit with a cup of tea
and watch the rain fall
outside.
And, perhaps, listen to
The Man Who.
Traditional Irish Soda Bread
(Yes it is true, this is actually a post written by Robb.)
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, the day when the food abounds, the beer is green, and everyone, no matter their heritage is Irish for a day! Most people know Patrick as the guy who cast the snakes out of Ireland (a myth), but in truth he was a great man whose story is worth remembering.
This year, our friends Pete and Tony hosted their annual St. Patty’s day celebration with the theme of authentic, traditional Irish food. No corned beef (an American invention) was at this party, only such dishes as the more traditional bacon and cabbage and colcannon.
I decided to bake a simple and traditional Irish soda bread to bring us back to the old country. Up until the 19th century, the Irish could not make very good bread since the only flour they had access to was hard and did not rise well. But during the 1800s, baking soda was introduced to the Emerald Isle. By combining basic baking soda with acidic buttermilk, gas was released and the Irish could finally produce bread that rose.
I followed this simple recipe:
4 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
14 oz of buttermilk
It is important to use cake flour as this simulates the type of soft flour (lower in gluten content) that the Irish had access to in the 19th century. You will need either a dutch oven or a cake pan that has some sort of lid. For example, I used a springform cake pan with a cast iron pan that I inverted and used as a lid.
Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF and grease a cake pan. Sift the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula or spoon. With your spoon make a well and pour in the buttermilk. Mix the buttermilk into the dry ingredients with your spoon until it becomes like dough.
Knead the dough a few times until it takes shape, but too much or you will lose air. Form the dough into a flat round shape, cut a cross on the top, and place in the cake pan and cover. Bake 30 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered or until the loaf sounds hollow when struck on the bottom.
Let it cool, and you will have a deliciously rich loaf of bread from only four ingredients that took less than an hour from start to finish.
mmmMâche
I tried mâche for the first time when I was visiting Cathy in France. This newly discovered green was adored by Cathy because its delicate but sweet flavor. She served it dressed in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper aside some gnocchi, a baguette and some creamy cheese. From this moment on, I was hooked.
After moving to Wisconsin, I discovered that Trader Joes carried mâche. For us, it is always a splurge as the tiny bags are expensive. But this week I decided we needed a treat. After searching Epicurious.com for the perfect recipe I settled on one that contained pomegranates and blood oranges. I love the vibrant red colour against the grass green mâche.
Mâche Salad with Blood Oranges, Pistachios, and Pomegranate
Adapted from Bon Appétit | December 2004
Ingredients
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons fresh blood orange juice
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 teaspoon honey
3 tablespoons olive oilFor the salad:
2 blood oranges or regular oranges
1 4-ounce package mâche
1/4 cup shelled natural pistachios, toasted
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds or dried cranberriesPreparation
Whisk orange juice, vinegar, shallot, and honey in small bowl. Gradually whisk in pistachio oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
Using small sharp knife, cut off peel and white pith from oranges. Working over small bowl, cut between membranes to release orange segments. Divide mâche among 4 plates. Divide orange segments, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds among plates. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.
Happy Pi Day!
Happy Pi day to everyone. I do hope you had a lovely time celebrating the perfect number, 3.14 this past Saturday.
Robb and I had made a cranberry-cherry pie with some of the leftovers from our trip to the cranberry festival this past September.
I used my favourite pie crust recipe from the Rose Bakery. If you have not tried it before, I implore you to check it out. It’s seriously the most simple crust recipe ever.
Wisconsin’s Best Cranberry Cherry Pie
¾ cup sugar plus ½ cup sugar
3 T cornstarch
2 cups fresh pie cherries (pitted) thickened
2 cups fresh raw cranberries
Pastry for double crust pie (9 inch deep dish pie plate)
Milk and additional sugar with cinnamonPre-heat the oven to 400ºF.
Mix first 4 ingredients and place in pie crust. Sprinkle extra ½ cup of sugar on top. Top with other pie crust. Brush milk on top. Sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture.
Bake 400ºF for 50 minutes. Cover with a square of aluminum foil with a circle cut out in the middle. This prevents excessive browning of the crust. Remove foil after 20 min before pie is done to allow crust to brown.
How do you read your blogs?
For the past few years, I have been using Mail.app to read my blog RSS feeds. But in the past few weeks I have become hooked on Google Reader. I didn’t appreciate it at first because that would mean I’d have to re-import all of my feeds, but I had some spare time one day so I went forward with it.
On top of that, there is this lovely code that you can use to improve the interface of your reader called Helvetireader. I recommend you install this immediately as it will immensely improve the readability of your favourite blogs.
Recently, Google Reader has updated their program to include sharing favourite feeds with your contacts and just in the past few days you can now add comments (or “chat”) about these feeds. This leads me to ask, do you want to be friends on Google Reader?
That is all.