Tuesdays with Dorie - Irish Soda Bread

St. Paddy's Day finally arrived!  I had been anticipating this holiday for weeks so I could make Irish soda bread to go with the traditional corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  Since I'd never made soda bread before and simple recipes with just a few ingredients are often deceiving, I did a little research here and here.  Thanks to Galletista for providing the Epicurious link at the Tuesday's with Dorie Blog Roll where you can find links to the other TWD-BWJ blogs.

This bread is so simple and delicious I can't believe I haven't made it before.  You can see Marion Cunningham making soda bread with Julia Child here.  It takes just a few minutes to assemble and mix the ingredients and minimum handling to shape it.  No special pans needed...it can be baked in a pie plate.  The Irish peasants, who didn't have ovens, cooked theirs in cast iron pots called bastibles over an open turf fire.  The ingredients are things they would have had and could afford; wheat they had grown themselves for the flour, buttermilk left over from making butter, bread soda, and salt.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Rugelach: Taste 10, Looks 7

You say roo-ga-lach and I say roo-ga-la...whatever way you pronounce it these little (or not so little) "cookies" are more like a small pastry and absolutely delicious.  And they provided the perfect opportunity to use all those bits and bobs left over from Christmas baking.  The dough is made in a stand mixer and the fillings went together in the food processor in only a few minutes.  Get the recipe from this Tuesday's hosts, Jessica of My Baking Heart and Margaret of The Urban Hiker.

Nostalgia...

We all have our "go to" cookbooks...the ones we've most recently acquired with the slick, beautiful photos (and no grease stains!).  Somehow our old friends like The Joy of Cooking or the Time Life Foods of the World series get relegated to the bottom shelves or packed away in a box and forgotten, their dated pictures and over-the-top calorie dense recipes replaced with the latest food trend.

The other night I was reading David Lebovitz's blog and he has stirred up quite a pot of nostalgia with his latest post about Masterpieces of French Cuisine, how he acquired it, then lost it, then got another copy, and the memories it evokes for him of an old friend who used to visit the kitchen when he worked at Chez Panisse.  Reading the post and the many comments sent me searching through my own collection of books and magazines, like this one I bought many years ago in a used book store and from which I made my very first batch of crepes...

Tuesdays with Dorie - Chocolate Truffle Tart

First the dough...I made it a few days ahead in the food processor and it came together beautifully. I followed the dough instructions to the letter after watching the YouTube vidoes here and here.  The only deviation I made from the instructions was to use pie weights for the first 11 minutes of baking and then I took them out.

Frissage...(it's really hard to take a picture of yourself doing this! See the shadow of the camera strap?)

Julia's White Loaves Redux and my favorite soup ...

BRRRR...the temperature this morning in north Florida was in the low thirties, which for us is pretty darn cold.  This Florida girl doesn't like cold weather, so when the temperature drops I go into hibernation.  That means comfort foods...warm soups, homemade bread, braised meats, stews, and rich desserts.  The TV weather guys and gals are saying this little cold snap will last a few days, so I decided to make my favorite Curried Zucchini Soup.  I first had this soup in a local cafe on a cold afternoon and was instantly hooked.  It's warm, creamy and satisfying while at the same time light.  Thanks to Google, I had a recipe 5 minutes after I got home.  Martha Stewart gets the credit for this one and no surpise that it costs only about $.65 per serving, takes all of 10 minutes prep time, 20 minutes cooking time, and a few minutes to blend ...et voila! it's ready to eat.  The best part...it's really low calorie.  Add some homemade bread and a salad and you have a perfect lunch.  Also a great way to use up all that extra zucchini from your summer garden.