Cashel Blue, Spinach, and Smoked Salmon Tartlets

Go Green
To most people mid-March means St. Patrick’s Day. When they think about Irish food and drink, those same people generally think of potatoes, corned beef, cabbage, lamb and Guinness.

While those ingredients are frequently featured in Irish cooking, the Emerald Isle has so much more to offer. Their cheese alone could occupy most of your time—and don’t get me started on the charcuterie. The Irish know their way around a butchery. While traveling through Ireland years ago, one of the things that surprised me most was the incredible seafood. (I’m not sure why I was surprised. It is an island after all.) The seafood…it was sensational.

Mussels, Herring, Shrimp, Cod, Crab, Haddock, Skate and Salmon (both fresh and smoked) could be found on most menus along with many other native species. Fish was mostly prepared simply but elegantly, and with obvious skill. Occasionally, if you were lucky, you could find a seafood pie. (Yes, topped with potatoes). Yum!

This year for St. Patrick’s Day, set the green beer down and do something truly Irish like these Smoked Salmon tartlets from the cookbook The New Irish Table by Margaret Johnson. You’ll be glad you did. Erin Go Bragh!

Cashel Blue, Spinach and Smoked Salmon Tartlets
Adapted from The New Irish Table by Margaret Johnson
Yields 30 Tartlets

Oak-smoked Irish salmon is often eaten simply with a squeeze of lemon and a slice of brown bread. But its flavor pairs so well with other ingredients, It’s no surprise to also find it in a paté, atop roasted potatoes, or combined with blue cheese and fresh spinach in these tartlets from David Foley, chef-owner of the Wild Geese Restaurant in picturesque Adare, County Limerick. Chef Foley fills handmade pastry cases with the mixture, but these use frozen filo dough shells. Read more…

Spicy Mushroom Tamales

Hot Tamale
We are a pretty non-traditional family when it comes to many things, but most especially when it comes to Valentine’s Day celebrations. We’ve done the giant chocolate chip cookie heart, and of course the heart-shaped pepperoni pizza. Most years, we have the mother of all Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundae Bars so that we can over indulge in creamy iced goodness. This year, my family has gone rogue, again, and it’s weird.

I have been asked to make a Valentine’s Day Thanksgiving. Yup, you read that correctly. The forecast is for the upper 70s this weekend, and I will be roasting a turkey. In all fairness, I did promise back in early December that I would do a Thanksgiving in the new year, because we all agreed that we just didn’t get enough in November. Silly me, I figured we would still be having winter weather in February. It was also before we made our plans for Spring Break. Now I have margaritas, beaches and tacos on the brain.

So, as head chef, I am going to pull rank. We can do the turkey on Sunday and they can just like it. For Valentine’s Day I want a margarita or five, and something hot and spicy (besides the husband…nudge, nudge, wink, wink) and chocolate. Let’s not forget the chocolate.

Tamales are traditionally made and eaten at celebrations, and I think these would be perfect for this weekend. Time consuming, yes, but oh so worth it. Serve them with some tasty beans and a salad and we have our own Fiesta del Amour!

¡Arriba! (I know, just go with it.)

Spicy Mushroom Tamales
Adapted from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless
Makes 6 medium-size tamales
Read more…

Mushroom and Shallot Quiche

Quiche Me

This weekend is our cookbook club dinner and I can’t wait. It seems like forever since we did the last one.

This time we are cooking from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. It is an entire cookbook of French comfort food. Or maybe it’s just MY idea of comfort food (mmmm…butter). The recipes are relatively easy, the food is uncomplicated, and the flavors are fabulous. It’s basically the kind of food you would expect if you were invited for dinner at a friend’s home—in Provençe. May we all be so lucky.

I have made a number of recipes from this book, and have never come across a bad one. One of my all time favorites is Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good which I love and have written about about in September of 2012.

Because the girls have been busy lately, I have decided to make the Mushroom and Shallot Quiche ‘cause I need to use up my eggs. I have always enjoyed a good quiche. They are pretty, easy to make, and a quiche is a great way to make use of the random veggies in your fridge. Paired with a tossed salad, and perhaps a glass of wine, and you have a tasty, très French lunch.

Mushroom and Shallot Quiche
Adapted from Epicurious
Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan Read more…

Champagne Cocktail

9 O’clock New Year
I notice that I’m not a big New Year’s Eve party kind of gal anymore. Sure I like a good party as much as the next person, but there is something about New Year’s Eve that turns me off more and more as I get older. (Older being the key word in this statement.)

That said, I did throw some epic New Year’s parties in my youth. You know the parties I mean… bodies strewn over the furniture the next morning, car in the pool, dog on the roof, and conspiratorial smiles every time the subject comes up among your friends.
(Duuuuude…!)

This year, I will be lucky if I am awake to ring in the New Year on the East Coast. Sad I know, but it’s been a busy holiday season, and I’m too pooped to party. Throw in a nasty cold that came in my stocking (Thank you, Santa.), and my excitement for New Year’s Eve can best be described as lukewarm.

I will at least attempt celebrating with one of these. A token acknowledgment, but there is still enough of the twenty-something partyer in me that I can’t just let it go altogether.

Happy New Year!

Champagne Cocktail Recipe
Adapted from Epicurious Read more…