Food
Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup
Any Iron Chef fans out there? Anyone like to try weird food combinations? Well, buckle up Buttercup, because today I’m going to take your tastebuds on a virtual trip to the beautiful country of Hungary. I learned a lot about Hungary in the last month because my daughter recently completed the mother of all a very lovely school project on Hungary and Slovenia in celebration of European Union Day. The final requirement of her project was to prepare a dish from each of the countries she studied and share it with the kids and parents at school. No pressure. For Slovenia she made a braided bread. Read about it here. For Hungary, we could have gone…
Another Vegetable My Husband Hates
Here’s the deal. 1. My husband LOVES when I write about him. It makes sense because he is my favorite writing topic. Well, one of my favorite writing topics. He’s definitely up there in the top 10 with felt, bread, embroidery thread and fabric glue. Oh, and my kids. Can’t forget them. 2. I purposefully picked a sensational headline for this post because I’m curious to see how long it takes Handy Husband to notice. Also, scandal sells. 3. This is an absolutely, completely true story. I should feel slightly bad about how it ends, but I don’t. First, a little background information. For the entire length of our 20 some odd…
Slovenian Braided Bread
Here’s the cool thing about going to school in Europe. You get to learn about European countries and history in great detail and so do your parents. Your parents get to learn so. darn. much. with. these. school. projects. Aren’t they lucky? European Union Day was on May 9th. Or 9 May as they would type in Ireland. I’m fairly certain I’m one big walking typo around these parts. Oh well. EU Day is intended to celebrate peace and unity throughout the countries in the European Union. Admittedly, the unity part of this day has been put under some strain of late. Hello, Brexit, I’m talking to you! On 9 May, my…
Secret to Making Store-Bought Spaghetti Sauce Taste Good
For all of you Martha Stewart types out there who are canning your organic tomatoes and slow cooking your tomato sauce all day long, please invite me over to dinner. I’ll bring wine. And my undying gratitude. For the rest of us who say “Crud! It’s dinner time. Again!” (and there must be plenty because I see a lot of tomato and pasta sauce on the grocery store shelves) this post is for you. In general and in real loosey-goosey terms, I’ve found the more expensive pasta sauce at the grocery store tastes better than the least expensive sauce. I’m not sure why. Maybe they simmered it longer to let the…
Recipes (Mainly) From Ireland
I’ve done some “research” and came up with a sampling of Irish recipes I’d like you all to try in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day. If I tried them all in the next week, I’m sure my body would protest in one way or another. So let’s spread the love around! While I tried to skew this list in favor of authentic Irish recipes, I did make a couple of exceptions in the interest of culinary expressionism. In other words, I lead with my stomach. Irish Cream The Irish do love their whiskey and Irish Cream is typically made with Irish whiskey. This recipe from Good Housekeeping is not from…
Recipe to Try: Dill Bread
This post is all about delicious dill bread, but I have to tell you the back story first. There’s always a back story. Much to my utter dismay and disbelief, I have discovered that pickles are not big in Ireland. There is no section for pickles at the grocery store. There are not multiple shelves for pickles. There are not countless varieties of pickles: sweet, spicy, dill, stackers, hamburger chips, spears, etc. Nope. None of that delicious excess exists here. How do they survive? Each of the two grocery stores in my area carries one type of pickle. One single type and it can be found in the section with the Polish…
Cheesy Sweet Potato Sausage Bread Knots
Cheese. Italian Sausage. Bread. Seriously. What’s not to love about this scenario? Besides. We’re in the holiday season…I think we can all use a little comfort food right now. These bread knots are like having a sandwich all wrapped up in a nice, convenient, easy-to-devour bundle. If you wanted to be really healthy you could serve these bread knots with a salad. You know, to make it a well-rounded meal or something crazy like that. That’s actually what I did, but my judgment is a little questionable. I recently asked my hair stylist to cut my hair in such a way that when it was whipped by the wind, pelted by rain and…
Apple Cider Muffins
You guys. I got my behind kicked this week by a little bug called strep throat. I volunteered at school for the first time and two days later it feels like I’m swallowing glass. Coincidence?!?! Anyway, I walked (yes, walked) myself to the doctor to get some antibiotics and on the way there I stepped in dog poop. If I hadn’t been looking at the sign that says “bin your poo,” I probably would have avoided that landmine. It really wasn’t my day, but I’m sure it could have been worse. By the way, never assume your doctor’s office is sterile. The doctor prescribed penicillin to treat the strep and I can’t ever…
Halloween Countdown Lunch Notes
I first published this post last September. It is pretty hilarious to note that despite so much changing in our lives this year, the day-to-day has stayed pretty consistent. My children still forget to put on socks. Every. single. morning. And they’ve been asking since August if I’m going to do Halloween countdown notes in their lunch boxes. Why, yes. We are definitely counting down the days for that one special evening when it is suddenly okay to take candy from strangers. Free printable below! My children’s selective memory is quite excellent. Case in point. They have been asking me for at least 3 weeks if I am going to do the Halloween countdown in…
Apple Oatmeal Muffins
My children’s new school wants the students to eat healthy. How dare they. Oh, wait. That’s a good thing. I wanted to come up with a healthy-ish, portable snack that would pass muster with my kids and conform to the school’s healthy eating policy. Now listen. I’ve baked some amazing muffins in my time. Delicious, eat-them-all-in-one-sitting muffins. Healthy? Mmm. Not so much. I think all of my muffin recipes fell off the healthy train somewhere between the powdered sugar glaze and the cinnamon sugar coating. I knew I wanted to incorporate apples and oatmeal into my healthy concoction. I made this important decision while lying in bed one night. By the way, 11:30…
