irish brown bread

Each year for St. Patrick's Day, I like to make a loaf of Irish brown bread to share with friends in celebration of my Irish heritage. I learned this little tradition from my mother, who also makes a loaf each year. Every year when I make it, I can't help but revel in how simple this bread is to make and delicious it is to eat! It deserves a place on our tables all year round, so here it is - Irish brown bread in September! 

Irish brown bread requires no yeast, and no waiting. It's a quick bread that relies heavily on the rising powers of baking soda, so you can have it on your table in about an hour! It is dense and wheaty, and will form an amazing crust if you bake it in a cast iron pan instead of on a baking sheet. 

So please, take a little break from your busy life to make this beautiful bread, and enjoy it warm with a table of your favorite people. Or standing in the kitchen just as soon as it's cool enough to cut, as I've been known to do! 

Now, for the biggest secret of all! My mother has long been lauded for her brown bread, rightfully so as it is quite phenomenal. Her secret? Bob's Red Mill Irish soda bread mix. It comes out so beautifully, there was never any reason to search for the best recipe to make from scratch. For a long time, I too swore by the "family recipe" whenever I was craving a loaf. But no longer do I rely on that trusty crutch! 

This past March, I searched the stores of Traverse City high and low, but couldn't find the mix anywhere... leaving me to my own devices. I couldn't be more thankful for this problem of small town life, because now I can always rely on this amazing from scratch recipe any time the hankering comes - no frantic shopping required! 

I recommend eating this bread warm, slathered generously with butter. It's perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack, and goes wonderfully with a bowl of hearty soup. Here's to the arrival of fall and the return to our ovens! 

This recipe has been slightly adapted from The Cook's Illustrated (my bible of cooking). 

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cup all purpose white flour

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cake flour (use all purpose if you don't have cake flour) 

1/2 cup wheat germ or oat bran 

2 Tbsp cane sugar 

1 1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 

1 1/2 tsp salt 

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

Instructions:  

• Place flours, wheat germ, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk until fully combined. 
• Using fingers, rub softened butter into the flour mixture until completely incorporated. 
• Create a well by pushing some of the flour to the sides of the bowl, and pour in 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk. 
• Using a fork, stir the mixture gently to incorporate the buttermilk into the dry ingredients. The dough will come together in large clumps. 
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to bring it together to form a 6 inch round. It will be a little uneven, don't worry! 
• Place the dough in a 12 inch cast iron, or on a baking sheet, and score a deep cross into the top of the bread, nearly reaching each edge, and about half an inch deep. 
• Bake bread at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for about 20 minutes, then dig in! 

coconut lime creamed corn

Sweet corn is one of those crops that has an almost cult-like following. In Traverse City, when the corn would arrive at market folks who rarely took the time to shop the farmers market would show up in droves to buy dozens of ears. The joy of super fresh sweet corn is a force to be reckoned with! 

I can't say I'm any different than the crowds. I rarely eat corn throughout the year, but when the season for it arrives I just can't get enough! So one can imagine the happiness I encountered when discovering that corn season lasts for months in Oregon, as opposed to the short lived weeks of fresh corn in Michigan! 

What a joy! 

This recipe for creamed corn was inspired by a magically simple corn dish served at Portland's most-loved Thai spot, Pok Pok. Its nothing more than slightly charred grilled corn on the cob served with decadent coconut cream as you normally would use butter. You should make it, you won't be sorry! 

I wanted to take the coconut corn to a different level, and decided to remove it from the cob for a creamed corn sort of effect. You'll have this dish on the table in 20 minutes or less, and I promise you'll love it! 

ingredients: 

2 ears of fresh corn, kernels removed 

about 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped 

1 tsp butter or oil 

1/2 tsp whole seed cumin 

salt & pepper to taste 

1/2 cup coconut milk 

1 Tbsp lime juice 

instructions: 

• Sautee onions in butter/oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. 
• Add cumin, a few pinches of salt, and a little pepper. Continue sautéing for a minute or so longer, to toast the cumin a bit. 
• Add corn, coconut milk and lime juice and let cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has boiled off and you're left with a thick creamy sauce surrounding your corn! 
• Enjoy! 

make your own pesto, without a recipe!

In my opinion, freshly made pesto is one of the big joys of summer! There is a magical feeling in tossing together a quick batch of pesto and slathering it over your dinner in massive quantities. Then again, I just might be obsessed with pesto in all forms! But I do promise you that a batch of homemade pesto always beats out the store-bought alternatives. 

I've looked at many a pesto recipe for inspiration, but I've never actually followed one. So I wanted to pass along some of that homemade pesto without a recipe knowledge to you wonderful folks. With a little tasting along the way - you'll be just as happy with your recipe-free pesto as I am! 

Of course late summer is pesto season, when your home basil plants are finally producing high yields, and farmers markets are piled high with the fragrant herb. This is the time of year when I always take an afternoon to make a mega-sized batch of pesto and freeze it away so I can get that fresh taste of summer all winter long! 

I like to freeze my pesto in little 4oz glass jars. It's the perfect size for a few small meals or one meal for a group, and defrosts quickly. Plenty of folks also recommend freezing it in your ice cube trays, then tossing all the cubes into a sealed container for single-serving pesto. 

Everyone loves a simple meal of pasta with fresh pesto and some lovely veggies, but there is plenty more you can do with your creation once it's made! Mix it into a simple cream sauce for a creamy pesto sauce. Put it on your sandwiches. Mix it into some hummus for an awesome veggie dip. Slather it on toast. Use it as a pizza sauce. The options are endless! 

So head down to that market of yours, buy up all the basil you can dream of, and get to it! 

basic ingredients: 

basil, and lots of it! 

olive oil 

lemon juice 

parmesan cheese, freshly grated 

garlic, roughly chopped 

salt 

walnuts (or pine nuts, if you're feeling rich and want to be traditional) 

instructions: 

The basis of pesto is just creating a puree of your ingredients, but you don't want to totally demolish the basil leaves as a perfect pesto still has little bits of the leaves intact. So to start, pick the leaves from your basil and give them a rough chop (so you're starting with smaller pieces). If you're making a big batch this is absolutely the most time consuming part, so pour yourself a glass of wine and crank up some tunes, or find a friend to keep you company and lend a hand! 

Once your basil is prepped, the rest is just a matter of tossing your ingredients into a food processor or blender in the right proportions. A food processor really works best for this, but I use my vitamix with great results! If you're using a blender, just be extra careful to get the mixture to cycle through the container to create an even texture and prevent you from finding giant chunks of leaf in your pesto! 

I like to start with about half of my basil, and add more as the mixture purees. So add half your basil to your machine's container, along with the rest of the ingredients. Here are some notes on how much to add: 

• I start with a heavy pour of olive oil (you'll be using quite a bit, so you're not likely to add too much at the start). 
• Just a splash of lemon juice, you can always add more to taste! 
• A small handful of parmesan cheese is a good place to start... but I don't really believe there can be too much cheese in my pesto. So if you're not a huge fan of cheese, start with less! 
• Garlic is a personal thing, if you love it add a few cloves to start. If you don't, just add one! 
• Pine nuts are classic for pesto, but I use walnuts because they're much cheaper. Start with an amount similar to the cheese you added. 
• Sprinkle in some salt! 

Now, start pureeing and let it go (with constant attention) until most of the leaves have been broken down to small specks. Add about half the basil you have remaining, and puree again. Then the rest, and puree! 

You'll likely need to add some additional oil throughout the process. I don't like my pesto to be overly oily, so I just add what I need to keep the mixture from being too dry for the blender to work smoothly. Add more if you like a more oily pesto, or if you're worried about it oxidizing to a darker green. The added oil will prevent oxygen from reaching the basil. 

Give it a taste each time you add more basil, and use your gut to tell if you need more lemon, garlic, cheese, nuts, or salt. Learning to cook by tasting and adding what the dish needs is the first step to getting creative in the kitchen! 

When it's finished, use some as soon as you possibly can! If you've made a small batch the pesto will keep in the fridge for a few weeks. If you've made a lot - freeze it for a taste of summer in the middle of winter! 

alternatives: 

This recipe is for a classic basil pesto, as it's been made for ages. You can mix it up for a fresh pesto vibe if you like though!  Try one of these ideas for something new: 

• Mix up your basil a bit - cut it with some spinach or arugula 
• Vegan? Use nutritional yeast in place of cheese 
• You can use any variety of hard cheeses - grano, asiago, romano, piave 
• Add in a spoonful of miso for a bit of umami flavor! 
• Totally remove the basil, and make your pesto with another herb - my favorites are wild leek leaves in the early spring, arugula, or kale!