a little Irish food love
March 17, 2010 Buckle in. Lots of photos + food goodness ahead :)
Let’s start with lucky number 38!
Congrats Jessica! You won the Clean Food cookbook!! I will be emailing you shortly! For the non-winners..I urge you to buy it anyway..it is an amazing source for recipes and REAL + CLEAN food knowledge. A big thanks to Terry Walters for donating this book to the blog world :)
….
Happpppy St. Patty’s Day breakfast, thanks to my parents contribution of Irish Steel Cut Oats. Holy moly these were delicious. It’s true they do take 30min on the stove to cook, but they don’t require too much attention. So I stood at the stove for the occasional stir while making 3 annoying phone calls. When I was done, breakfast was ready. mmmmmm
You cook these at a 3:1 ratio. 3c of water to 1c of oats. I have plenty of leftovers :) I layered the oats with banana, Heather’s Jam, pnut butter, and granola + cacao bliss on top. I didn’t even add cinnamon which I’m just realizing…that’s a first!
The Ireland book is from our wedding. We used it as our guest sign in book. I LOVE it. People wrote awesome messages on any page they wanted.
Ohhh goodness. These were creamy + delicious. I loooved the texture of these oats. We’ll see how they reheat.
Enter –> errands + leftovers lunch + trip to whole foods
Hmmmm…any ideas?? Local delicious milk and very un-local Irish butter. Kerrygold butter is delicious and did you know it comes from grass-fed cows :) I don’t use butter too often, and it’s just one thing I can’t give up completely. mmmm butter…. So I decided to make Irish Brown Bread, which I had never had before. After seeing it on Kiss My Spatula’s blog today, I knew I HAD to make it. I was planning on making a whole wheat flax bread for homemade week but decided to go a bit more Irish!
She suggested making buttermilk at home, so I listened. Whole milk + apple cider vin –> super easy and worked like a charm. Also, now I don’t have half a carton of buttermilk to use up.
Had to grind some oats to go into the bread. Mini food processors are super affordable and come in handy all of the time.
butt-errrrr
Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter. This recipe may have buttermilk + butter, but it has no sugar. It also uses stoneground whole wheat flour. It’s one of the only recipes that actually calls for WWF instead of trying to sub it in.
Can you believe I totally followed her recipe? It was THEE easiest bread to make ever. No yeast, no waiting to rise. It takes about 15min to throw together and shape into loaves. I made 2 mini’s instead of 1 large. I would say they were about 4-5” diameter each.
so.excited. now the key was to not over-bake them!
I mean…what do you expect…it’s St.Paddy’s day! I prefer Murphy’s to Guinness. Chris is all about the Guinness.
Creamy + delicious
I think I took it out of the oven at THEE perfect moment. This recipe is complete perfection. Since I literally changed nothing, I’m not going to post the whole recipe. I can’t stress enough how simple this was to make.
ingredient list: stone ground whole wheat flour, ground oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, whole milk, apple cider vinegar, butter – seriously, that’s it! Definitely check out the recipe and amazing photography!!
This is going to become a frequent item in our house now. The outside formed an amazing thick, crunchy crust, while the inside was soft and moist. It would be good with a slew of toppings…
Bread photo session time…
This bread is DANGERously delicious. For real, I can restrain myself from cookies, but not this bread.
What else was on the menu tonight? Vegan shepherd’s pie to go with the very non-vegan Irish brown bread :) I found a recipe but definitely put my own spin on what veggies I used. No way could you tell this was a vegan recipe.
I used a leek instead of onion. I really like the more mellow leek flavor..and it’s definitely used a lot in Irish cooking.
One of my favorite kitchen tools that costs about $30. You can use it for a multitude of things: smoothies, pureeing soups, mashed taters, dressings, salsa, pureeing veggies, etc.
The peeler sliced my finger.
But then I was happy how well the vegan mashed taters turned out! And then I poured wine from a box into the veggie pan :)
There were a LOT of mashed potatoes. Definitely made more than the recipe called for, because wHY not!? The veggie layer was soooo good and I almost doubled that as well. Recipe coming tomorrow!! I adapted it from this one.
This was staring me down in the kitchen. Evil evil delicious bread.
Kurtz came over for dinner again. His g/f Ann is in Europe, so I’m trying to make sure he’s staying well fed! I bought the boys some sausage. None for me…tried a bite and I could have done without it.
Blurry but cute
The best place for a nap is most definitely [NOT!] in the very center of the kitchen.
It maaaay have overflowed. bahahaha
I slaved over the stove tonight and am totally exhausted. Not sure if I’ll be doing anything homemade tomorrow or just eating all the leftovers from this week so far!! I am really loving the granola…I can’t decide if my favorite is the “banana coconut” or the “make you go CRUNCH.” I’m going up to Ft.Collins, CO tomorrow to visit my cousin Elizabeth [14yrs old], who is on spring break. I’m taking her to lunch and not sure what else maybe walk around downtown? Very excited to see her! It was 70* today and supposed to be 65* and then SNOW on fri/sat. Weird CO weather!!
Thanks again for all of the awesome comments on the giveaway post about how you have started to live a healthier life. Loved reading them all :) There are so many more things I want to do for homemade week. I guess I’ll just have to extend it and keep trying out fun new things…but not every.single.day. I have been a mad woman in the kitchen!!
Off to pass out in bed!!!
~Ashley
If you got 1 thing out of this post it’s that you NEED to make that Irish Brown Bread…like, NOW! Oh, and if you’re a sucker for looking at wedding photos, check out the latest blog post: Fuse Photographic Goooodnight!
Family + Friends, bread, potatoes in seasonal, vegan 
Reader Comments (22)
You are so freakin' cute.
Seriously, why do people mess with yeast breads that have double and triple rises? So EASY! Those Irish, they were onto something.
I definitely would love a piece of that bread!! YUMMM!! maybe with some hearty potato soup? ;)
ahh i may have to include some more bread in my life today.
What a kitchen adventure! That bread looks wonderfulllll! :)
As always - great pics!
I have heard that Steel Cut are all the rage! Sound like I need to give these a try.
And I can only imagine that the bread turned out amazing!
Love all of your St. Patty's Day eats! :)
I saw Jessica and got soooo excited!!! Oh well. :)
That bread does look delicious!
That bread looks amazing! I haven't tried steel cut oats but really want to!
Looks like you had a fab St. Patty's :)
i adore baking bread.. it's so therapeutic to get lost in kneading the dough and baking a delicious loaf. i have to say that kerrygold butter is the BEST butter that i have found stateside.. i got spoiled with real european butter when i lived in sweden and nothing quite tastes the same.
I love baking bread! I've baked twice this week alone. I'll have to bookmark this recipe.
I'm amazed you were able to type with that bandage :) I may need to make brown bread soon. I saw it on so many blogs yesterday and its just so darn appealing!
I love all the food in this post...I've got to try a GF version of that bread!
Shepherd's pie looks awesome! I'm excited to see the recipe. I'm generally not a big potato person but lately potatoes just hit the spot...
Your friends are AWESOME photographers - I am a total sucker for wedding photos, but the whole site is great (and the "about us" section is so cute!).
Hope your finger is better and I'm so happy you enjoyed the brown bread, Ashley! You loaves look beautiful. And you are so right, not over-baking is key and it definitely looks like you pulled them out at the perfect moment. I'm excited to try your vegan shepherd's pie! And we are HUGE fans of steel cut oats in our house. We like to make a big batch Sunday evenings to last us the week. Love your Irish wedding guest book - I'm sure you had the most amazing honeymoon! Such a cute photo of the two of you!! Hope you had a lovely St. Paddy's Day!
a tip for oatmeal and something that is our favorite breakfast for a crowd......
we set the crock pot the night before with the steel cut oats so they are ready in the am. then we set out various toppings such as nuts, coconut, brown sugar, and even candy corn for the kiddies!! (they have even put other candy in them, sour patch kids = gross but funnY) i recommend spraying the pot though and it will probably still require some scrubbing.
for st. patty's day i made guiness chocolate cupcakes with baileys irish creme/cream cheese frosting. frosting was great and you could taste the bailey's however i did not particularly love the cupcake, i have had better.
love the tip for buttermilk, i hate having this leftover from recipes.
Such delish recipes!!!! It does seem like homemade week is very exhausting. :) But worth it, wouldn't you say?
I love the steel cut "chewiness." Just a different texture than oatmeal alone. So good!
WOW!!!! I'm so excited that I won :D I can't wait to start cooking and featuring some new recipes from the cookbook - yipee!! It's the perfect time of year for this cookbook too - thanks!!
your pictures are GORGEOUS!!! not that they normally aren't but seriously...beautiful!
I need that bread! Looks sooo good!
I definitely know what you mean about getting lost in something you're cooking. YUM euro butter..mmm
Thanks so much girlie!!
OH would that be good with tater soup!!! ahhhh
Bahahaa...I think the Irish were too busy drinking to mess with yeast breads + rising!!
finally! i regularly follow your (and three other healthy food blogs) and all of you are big oatmeal fanatics... but none of you eat steel cut oats. I've found that they keep me full much longer. have you found a difference?
You can make them "overnight" which is easy and efficient. Boil the water, toss them in at a rolling boil. Then turn off the heat, cover, and leave em on the stove overnight. In the morning I dish out a serving and reheat in the microwave with a banana... top as desired :)
I make a weeks worth and enjoy every morning!