Sunday, March 18, 2012

Oishii: Colcannon

Mr. Q's great grandparents came to Boston from Ireland and he is proud of his Irish roots. We love celebrating St. Patrick's Day in our house. Leprechauns, shamrocks, parades, folklore, and antics are all a part of our celebration. Oh, and food! A few years ago we discovered a wonderful dish that has become part of our traditional meal on St. Patty's: colcannon. Here is our version, adapted from The Country Cooking of Ireland by Coleman Andrews.

Colcannon at the Q's
Ingredients
5 or 6 good size russet potatoes
6 Tablespoons of butter
3 cups of spinach leaves
1 1/3 cup buttermilk or whole milk
4 scallions, minced
salt and pepper

Directions
Put the potatoes in a pot and add water to come halfway up the potatoes. Cover and boil over high heat. When the water begins to boil, carefully drain half the water and return pot to heat, cover again, and reduce heat to low to steam the potatoes for about 40 minutes. Remover from heat. Add milk and spinach and gently mash the potatoes, leaving large chunks. Gently stir in butter and scallion and add salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer potatoes to serving dish and cretate a well in the center. Place a large pat of butter in the crater and serve.

our little leprechaun gnomes made from a pattern from Wee Folk Art a year or two ago

Beware of Leprechauns who may make an appearance and try to swipe your colcannon. It's that good.

Friday, March 16, 2012

{this moment}

A Friday ritual (inspired by Soulemama).
A single photo--no words--capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your "moment" in the comments for all to find and see.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Who would've thought we'd have 80 degree weather in the middle of March and spend the afternoon at the beach? Bizarre.



Friday, March 9, 2012

{this moment}

A Friday ritual (inspired by Soulemama).
A single photo--no words--capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your "moment" in the comments for all to find and see.
Have a wonderful weekend!



Friday, March 2, 2012

{this moment}

A Friday ritual (inspired by Soulemama).
A single photo--no words--capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your "moment" in the comments for all to find and see.
Have a wonderful weekend!



Thursday, March 1, 2012

hope grows in the garden

My basket of seeds has been taunting me these past few weeks. Those little seeds are longing to burrow down into the dark earth and begin their growing process. I've been putting it off... after all, February is too early to begin spring planting, right?


But I, too, have been feeling the same stirrings as those little seeds. Let's hurry up and grow already! But before I could jump into my raised beds with my seed packets, I had a little project I needed to complete first. Inspired by these from Pinterest:
via


I decided to make my own:
a few stones from our collection and some acrylic paints that we had on hand...

voila! (I gave them a little coating of Modge Podge just in case...)


























So yes, they are already hard at work in the garden... let's hope I didn't jump the gun by getting those snap peas in the ground. But it's March now, after all. I expect happy, little shoots to make an appearance any day now...