St. Paddy’s Day may be over, but there’s no way I’m waiting another year to make Smitten Kitchen’s Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes – they’re just too good.
The deliciously moist Guinness chocolate cake, smooth whiskey ganache filling, and rich Bailey’s buttercream frosting made for one spectacular and “boozy” dessert. If you’ve ever tasted an Irish car bomb, then you know these flavors work well together – the sum becoming something greater than its parts. Read more
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day 2015, ATG is exploring “All Things Irish.” Below is a small sampling of some great Irish music to play (and dance to!) while cooking Shepherd’s Pie for dinner or baking Irish scones and cookies for teatime.
A few of our favorite Irish songs: Patriots Game, Galway Bay, Irish Rover, Red is the Rose, Fields of Athenry, Shipping up to Boston (Dropkick Murphy’s), Carrickfergus, Mountain Dew, Finnegan’s Wake, Voyage (by Johnny Dunhan) andToora-Loora-Looral (Irish Lullaby). You can also listen to other traditional Irish music.
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day 2015, ATG is exploring “All Things Irish” for the next couple weeks. Below are a couple recipes for a delicious Irish meal with some beautiful Irish music to cook to!
Cook and bake the following dishes to the tune of The Clancy Brother’s “The Patriot Game”, a beautiful Irish song (lyrics below)! Recipes include “I Need Vegetables Salad”, Vermont Cheddar Soup, and Rory’s Irish Scones. Read more
*Given Russia’s prominence in the news and the murder of Boris Nemtsov, we have a few more “All Things Russia” posts for this week! See links below.
If it hadn’t been for the Cold War, Darra Goldstein’s A Taste of Russia (1983) would likely have received a favorable review in The New York Times.
In fact, the Times had scheduled to run a piece doing just that, until, Goldstein writes, “as luck would have it, the Soviets shot down the KAL jetliner on publication day, accelerating hostile sentiments”, thereby halting publication of the review.
Published during Ronald Regan’s presidency in 1983, when the U.S. and Soviet Union were “still locked in the Cold War”, Goldstein’s book provides a plethora of historic information and recipes on Russian cuisine, featuring everything from borsch to blini. Read more
Mystery seems to roll across the vast Russian landscape like a Siberian blanket of snow, spreading a dusting of enigma on nearly every aspect of life – including food. Or so is the case with Borshch, one of the great soups of the world that serves up its own culinary mystery in its seemingly endless varieties and different spellings.
Borscht. Borsch. Bortsch. Borstch. Borshtch. Borsh. Borshch.
But, what exactly is Borsch?
While “cultured” Americans are likely to spell it with a ‘t’ (Borscht) and describe it as “a beet soup served chilled”, with a little detective work we learned that during the long Russian winters, Borshch is served piping hot and is spelled without the ‘t’ (Borshch). Read more
Social commentator Will Rogers once said, “Nobody in the world knows what vodka is made out of, and the reason I tell you this is that the story of vodka is the story of Russia. Nobody knows what Russia is made of, or what it is liable to cause its inhabitants to do next.”
How fitting that the national drink of Russia – a country famously deemed “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” – is also a mystery, defying any concrete understanding.
Indeed, the origin of vodka – which comes from the Russian word “voda”, meaning “water” – is highly disputed. While some believe that it was first mass-produced by the Muscovite monks in the 14th or 15th centuries, others claim it originated in Poland around the 8th century. Still others say it comes from Sweden. Read more
The irresistible power of chocolate was clearly evident after our two-and-a half-year-old granddaughter toddled into the kitchen and in no time at all spotted the milk chocolate Lindt balls on the kitchen counter. Reaching up high on her tiptoes she matter of factly said, “I need chocolate.”
Though it has been written that more women (and obviously little girls) than men “need” chocolate, one learns in The True History of Chocolate that it was a luxury, “an elite beverage”, reserved only for kings and noblemen and their military who “needed” it the most. The Aztecs believed that chocolate had “energy-boosting properties”…and was given to their warriors to “fortify them on military campaigns.” Read more
As part of our celebration of “all things Russia” for Valentine’s Day, be sure to read our post in Rose’s Ridge: “From Russia With Love.”
Enjoy a Russian meal with recipes below for Cabbage Soup, Chicken Kiev, and Russian Tea Cookies.
“Shchi” (Cabbage Soup)
“In Russia, cabbage soup…is made from cabbage, carrots, meat, onions, celery, and garlic, with a sour flavoring from apples, sour cream, or sauerkraut juice. A favorite for at least a thousand years, it can be found in Russian poems and prose, on the table of both rich and poor, and in the fond memory of every exile.” –Taken from Life is Meals by James and Kay Salter
Read more
Settle into February with delicious old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies – good for breakfast, lunch and a bedtime snack! Or try making the classic peanut butter cookie, replacing the hershey kisses with reese’s peanut butter cups. Yum! Read more