How to Sop Up Guinness: Cast Iron Irish Soda Bread

Believe it or not, the Irish are serious about their soda bread. I absolutely love the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread’s website. You really shouldn’t mess around with Irish soda bread wanna-be’s. It’s the real deal or nothing. Go traditional or go home. As an Irish girl and a lover of beer, shamrock tattoos, Irish music, and leprechauns, I can appreciate that. Don’t call something soda bread if it’s not soda bread!

So I think I have done my Irish roots justice in this recipe. Ok, aside from the yogurt, which was not available in Ireland in the 19th century. But, there are no raisins in this bread, nor orange zest, nuts, eggs, baking powder or yeast.

Let me explain. Irish soda bread doesn’t contain yeast. The whole point of the bicarbonate soda was that it was used in place of the yeast as a leavening agent. I even used cast iron like they did back in the day. Plus, I love any excuse to bust out my cute little cast iron skillets.

They are cute. Don’t laugh.

This is a basic, delicious, easy, pretty damn traditional Irish soda bread to sop up the beer that you will drink on St. Paddy’s Day.

Slainte!

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How to Make French Toast for a Crowd

You really shouldn’t be surprised that I have another breakfast dessert. After all breakfast is the meal of champions right? Following that logic I’ve whipped up a sweet hand-to-mouth breakfast exercise that will build your biceps and get your day started right with some sweet goodness.

But let’s clear something up first — that’s no muffin. That, my culinary enthusiast, is an Apple Walnut French Toast served in a cupcake liner with a walnut and graham cracker streusel.

My idea was to make French toast for a large group without running two or three pans and trying to time it so everyone is served in unison. Now of course you can opt for a large French toast casserole, but the problem I have with those is the center is always soggy — and well, that’s no good. So I decided to scale things down for more even baking.

Result: Loveliness between the pleats. (I know — it’s a recurring theme for me). No soggy mess and pretty much no leftovers.

Small note – Almost any bread will do for this recipe. You can use a plain loaf like an Italian or French bread type or a flavored one like I did. For this recipe I used an Apple Walnut bread from one of my favorite local bakeries. Alternatively, if you use plain bread, a quick flavor adjustment can be made by using a flavored dairy creamer instead of regular milk or cream.

Apple Walnut French Toast

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Super Bowl Breakfast Of Champions

With all of the nacho cheese concoctions, mini burgers, and bacon cupcake recipes floating around for super bowl Sunday, I think we’re still missing something: super bowl breakfast. You can’t start a day of eating as many calories as a linebacker without a nice hearty breakfast. My thought process was as follows: super bowl…beer…beer bread…eggs…sunnyside up egg on beer bread toast…touchdown! With this little number, you can have your beer right when you wake up on Sunday morning, and no one can say, “Um, isn’t it a little early to start drinking?” No, no it’s not, because I’m making breakfast. I win.

Beer bread it one of the easiest breads to make because you don’t have to knead it or let it rise or mess with yeast. If you don’t bake, don’t worry. If you can use an oven, it will be delicious.

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Gridiron Grub: Remixing the Mixto

Mixto

A Cuban sandwich is simply a variation of  ham and cheese originally created in Cuban cafes as an easy lunchtime meal. Later on, Cuban immigrants brought it to South Florida where it is still very popular. Traditionally the sandwich is made with ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard. Simple enough, unless, like me, you live in an area where it is almost impossible to find good Cuban bread and when your previous attempts at duplicating the sandwich just didn’t turn out quite right. Despite previous failures I thought I would again attempt what the Cubans call a mixto sandwich, but make some changes to kick it up a few notches.

I  attempted this right after Thanksgiving so I decided to incorporate turkey instead of roast pork to make my Remixed Mixto Sandwich. Ingredients and prep are simple because after hosting our first Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a trip to visit family a few hours away, I was beat on Sunday when game time rolled around. You will need: sweet honey cured ham, turkey, Gruyere, cranberry dressing, bread and butter pickles, mustard and ciabatta.

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Stuff This! Top 10 Most Creative Stuffing Recipes

As you may have gathered by now, we’re not exactly Thanksgiving traditionalists here at Endless Simmer. But stuffing is one thing we simply will not go without. (You gotta have something to soak up all those pumpkin martinis, right?) Of course, we’re not talkin’ bout plain old sausage-spiked bread stuffing. These 10 creative recipes get crazy with the size, shape and flavor of Thanksgiving stuffing.

10. Stuffing Muffins

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We’ve seen this one quite a bit lately and think it is just cute as all hell. Bake your stuffing in a muffin tin and then serve it in place of rolls. Genius.
Recipe: Cooking on the Side

9. Mofongo Stuffing

mofongo

It doesn’t get much tastier than mofongo — a Puerto Rican specialty of fried green plantains mashed up with bacon, sofrito and olive oil. Oh wait, it does get better. You can stuff that baby in a turkey. Yum.
Recipe: Always Order Dessert

8. “Meatloaf” Stuffing

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Cranberry sauce isn’t the only thing that’s allowed to bring a weird pre-packaged shape to the T-day table. Bake your stuffing in a loaf pan and serve everyone a hearty slice of meatloaf stuffing.
Recipe: Bread et Butter

7. Fried Stuffing Croquettes

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This one’s intended for leftover stuffing, but if you’re ambitious you can make it the day of. Rolled-up balls of stuffing are coated in panko (love that bread-on-bread action), then deep-fried. For a special surprise, toss your other leftovers (turkey, gravy) in the center so they ooze out when you take a bite.
Recipe: Menu in Progress

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Continued: I’m Not Eating Ice Cream Every 15 Minutes

Summer 2010 2 (500 x 332)

When I first started working virtually I was nervous I would eat ice cream all day, which you can read about in my post aptly titled, “How Not to Eat Ice Cream Every 15 Minutes.” I got some wonderful suggestions, such as Summer‘s guidance to eat away from my desk and to drink coffee, a natural appetite suppressant. (I’m looking at you, red-headed Olsen with the Starbucks taped to your palm like you’re playing Edward 40Hands.)

So I usually drink tea or coffee in the morning, as I’m not a normal breakfast eater. And actually, the binge eating hasn’t been so bad, especially with the abundance of fresh fruit this time of year. Although there have been some ups and downs in this whole work from home thing, I’m actually loving it.

My favorite part—besides no commuting, no dressing, no showering—is cooking lunch. I look forward to it all morning, if not the second I’ve finished dinner the night before.

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Artsy Photo of the Day

India 102 (500 x 333)

From a roadside stop on the way to the Taj Mahal — one more look at Indian bread, this time parathas that are literally glistening with a buttery sheen.

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