We all know A comes before B in the alphabet.  But there was a time where A actually came after B, and that was for one of my Foodie Fieldtrip Friday adventures.  When I lived in Dublin there were so many foodie places I wanted to try.  But I was literally always working and never had the chance.  So now when I go back I’m like a tourist and visit as many places as possible.  I may not share all of them on here, but some are a must tell!  This past Foodie Fieldtrip Friday is one of those experiences.

The Brown Hound Bakery (our obvious B on today’s adventure) is located in Drogheda, County Louth in Ireland.  It is about 45 minutes north of Dublin and so worth the drive.  Though there isn’t even a full website yet (here is the web place holder), they do have Facebook and Twitter.  But to be honest, you just have to go visit there in person.  Because let’s face it when you make some of the best desserts in all of the Emerald Isle you need to let the food do the talking.  They do sweet and savoury fare and darn good coffee.  A Turmeric Latte is even on offer, which was delish by the way! I only had a little taste but I’m thinking this might become my go to hot drink.

I was not on my own for this Foodie Fieldtrip Friday.  I finally met in person some of my Snapchat friends, sisters Caitriona Redmond and Olivia Kirwin. They live not too far away and though they had been to the Brown Hound Backery before, were game to go again.  It was the perfect venue for a meet, greet and swap tastes of the incredible food. Olivia ordered a carrot cake cupcake, which was lovely and quite moist. I ordered the signature Brown Hound Cupcake which was decadent and chocolate-y with a gorgeous meringue topping.  Caitriona ordered a savory veggie and feta hand pie that looked amazing, though I was in sweets heaven so passed on a nibble.  But I think anything we’d ordered would have been delicious as it is all handmade fresh in house with the best of ingredients!

The owners of Brown Hound Bakery are a husband and wife team Reuven Diaz and Jeni Glasgow.  They also own the Chinese restaurant Eastern Seaboard Bar and Grill next door.  Since Irish born Jeni spent time in New York, she definitely brought some of those sensibilities back with her.  The ambiance of the place, with the repurposed wood and vintage furnishings, felt like a cafe I was once in off  57th and Madison in Manhattan. She brought on board American baker Craig Thompson to help create the menu and train the staff on how to recreate these All American treats.

After our eat up and catch up session we flew over to a community allotment that Caitriona helped start several years ago. Yep, you guessed it, the A for today is the allotment!  And if you remember Caitriona, a foodie and cookery book writer, was one of my Woman Crush Wednesday recipients.  And I said back then she is a true renaissance lady!  She toured us around the communal gardens where I met the pigs they are rearing and tasted some of the gorgeous handpicked strawberries. We had the best time and I loved hearing all the stories about their younger years growing up in a family of four sisters.  I seriously want to seek adoption into their family!

My daughter and her husband used to be involved in a community allotment when they lived in Santa Barbara.  There really isn’t anything more satisfying than growing your own food.  Especially with young children, not just to feed their bellies, but also to feed their souls.  It is so relaxing to be amongst nature and tend to the gardens of fresh herbs, fruits and veg.  It is calming to hear the buzzing of the bees from their hives.  And of course if you are lucky enough to have animals as well,  you get a good laugh at a piggie stampede!  Though I put all of this on my snapchat story (my username is blissbakery) it has since expired.  But here is a link to Caitriona’s post about her allotment and in it there is a link to a youtube video. It really is inspiring to see someone growing their own food for their family’s table!

It was a wonderful way to spend time in my soul home Ireland. To share the day with lovely new friends, enjoy food at a fabulously tasty bakery and appreciate the good earth from which it came!  Thanks again Caitriona (aka @wholesomeie on snapchat) and Olivia (aka @gizmok3 on snapchat) for spending a Friday with me for a fun Foodie Fieldtrip I will never forget!

Growing LOVE,

YDP

P.S. I received the best keepsake of the day when Caitriona gave me a signed copy of her cookbook, as well as a couple of delicious freshly picked strawberries (I might have eaten a few more as well LOL). Thank you so very much!  And you know what?  L may not come before A and B in the alphabet but it does in life.  Because LOVE is truly what I feel for all of you who have taken the time to read this post!

Today is normally the beloved Woman Crush Wednesday series.  However I am currently traveling and don’t have access to a kitchen.  Besides, it is my son’s birthday and in honor of that I decided I would share a recipe that I think you will LOVE.   My son is quite the chef himself and a total BBQ master, however, baking not so much.  Yet, when he was a kid he loved to help!  He was a champion at licking the mixer beaters.  This recipe is so easy he might want to bust out his apron and brush up his pastry skills.

Though cake is the common birthday treat, today for my son’s birthday I am sharing a cookie recipe.  But not just any cookie recipe. These cookie are made with pistachios and saffron.   Saffron has long been considered the most exquisite and expensive ingredient in a chef’s pantry.  Each tiny thread is so delicate in flavor and strength. This ancient spice is also known as the stigma of the crocus sativas of the flower. The stigma (like a small thread) is plucked from the flower and dried to use not only in cooking, but also as a dye for fabrics and textiles and medicinal purposes.

On a recent trip to Istanbul Hubby and I went to the famous Spice Bazaar for a Foodie Fieldtrip Friday.   I purchased a tiny jar of Iranian Saffron (said to be the best in the world).  Though I have used saffron in my cooking many times, I have mostly used it in savory dishes.  But I wanted to see what it would be like in a little biscuit that might be able to travel to parts unknown. Here is a close up of one of the saffron threads next to a blueberry just for perspective.

I wanted to do a most special baking recipe because my son and I won’t talk on his birthday. He is in the military as I have shared on here before.  He is deployed at the moment and he won’t have access to a phone.  But I am thinking of him, as I did when my daughter’s birthday passed and I wrote about it on here. Though she lives in Washington State and we couldn’t be together either, at least we were able to Face Time.  I am grateful we live in the modern age so that we can connect even if we are apart geographically.

These little cookies are so delish.  They are ever so delicate and hopefully they will make their way to my son who is ever so special to me!

Scant 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1 tablespoon hot water
4 ounces/ 114 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup/ 110 g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup/ 155 g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup/ 55 g shelled unsalted pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped

Crumble saffron threads into a small bowl and pour hot water over them. Let stand for a few minutes.
Beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar until it is fully incorporated and the mixture is fluffy.  Beat in egg yolk and salt, then saffron-water mixture, until evenly combined.  Add flour and beat on low speed until the flour is fully incorporated and a dough forms. Stir in pistachios by hand with a wooden spoon or a spatula.
Lay a 12-inch-long piece of waxed or parchment paper on a work surface. Spoon the dough onto the paper and shape into a log about 6 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, rolling the paper around it to assist. Press each side against the work surface to square it off.  Twist the ends of the paper closed and place the log in the freezer until firm, about 1 hour. (To store the dough for up to 2 weeks, place the log in a freezer bag before freezing.)
Preheat oven to 180c/350ºF. Remove the dough from the freezer and let it sit at room temperature until it is sliceable but still firm, 15 minutes to half an hour. Using a thin-bladed, sharp knife, cut the dough in 1/4-inch slices. Roll the edges of each cookie in a bit of vanilla sugar before places on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake until firm to the touch and barely golden at the edges, about 10 minutes. Remove cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.

You can really see the bright orange saffron threads peeking through and it just screams JOY!  The yummy green pistachio nuts add that pop of color as well.  I sprinkled a little bit of vanilla sugar on top just to add a bit more sweetness and to make it look pretty and sparkly too.

As hard as it is for a mom to not be with her adult kids on their birthday, I think it is important to focus on the LOVE and happiness and times we have been able to celebrate birthdays together.  And I like to ponder how they have grown and matured into wonderful people.  Since I shared about my daughter in her birthday post, I’d just like to say how grateful I am for my son.  He such a good decent person.  He is creative, smart, hard working and industrious.  He reminds me so much of my dad, willing to do a job to help others, risking his own life in the process.  He has a great sense of humor, very high standards and morals.  He’s adventurous and loves to travel and explore, yet a total home body too!  He has a very tender side as well which was present even as a little boy.  He loves his wonderful wife and their sweet doggie Carl Winslow.  And he really is a superhero!  Even as a child he wanted to make the world a better place.  I admire that so much!

It is natural as a parent to want to protect your kids no matter their age.  But that isn’t always possible.  But both my kids know I would do anything in the world for them.  I was listening to an Adele song “Make You Feel My Love” and these lyrics hit home.

“I’d go hungry; I’d go black and blue,
I’d go crawling down the avenue.
No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love.”

I LOVE you, I miss you and Happy Birthday Son! And I hope you like your  Precious Birthday Cookies because you are so precious to me!

Mom (YDP)

Though this is my fav day of the week because it is Woman Crush Wednesday, today is  a tough one for me.  I just heard the news of the tragedy in Istanbul.  I could do what most foodie/beauty/fitness/lifestyle bloggers are doing on social media.  Ignore it.  Which makes me wonder… why do other places where hate plays its ugly hand get more attention (such as Orlando) and not Istanbul?  It is beyond me.  But since Hubby and I were literally just there nearly a week ago, it really hit home.

I don’t even watch the news, but received some messages from Snappers who had seen my snap stories from Turkey.  So they commented that I was so lucky to have gotten out before this happened. Why was I lucky?  To then remain silent?  No!  I posted a few snaps last night sharing my feelings about it.  And I decided I am not going to ignore it on here either.  I am praying for Istanbul and all the victims of hate in this world.  Today I am going to focus on an amazing female chef who just so happens to be half Turkish.  She grew up eating  foods with flavors of the Ottoman Empire and it is reflected in the recipes of her books and menus of her restaurants.  So I am celebrating, honoring and loving all things Turkish today!

Today’s incredible gorgeous gourmet gal is Silvena Rowe.  Though she was born in Bulgaria, her Turkish father instilled in her a passion for the great foods of the country that is half in Europe and half in Asia.  There is an ill conceived notion that all Turkish food is simply kebabs.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes there are kebabs, but it is the delicious and stunning ingredients that make up the palette of this fresh, flavorful and diverse Mediterranean cuisine.

Silvena Rowe moved to London at the age of 19 and shared her talents as a private chef to celebrities and royalty before opening her own restaurant.  Now she is in Dubai and with her numerous award winning cookery books and television appearances, this chef is making her ancestral homeland proud!  Many of her recipes she directly credits to her family, such as her beloved father.  Today, I’ll be doing a cooking tutorial live on Snapchat (username: blissbakery) and sharing the pics on here.  I hope I do her and her family proud, and show the hate mongers that LOVE can and will still go on!

I normally only do one recipe, but I am making an exception today.  I am preparing three very simple dishes.  A main chicken dish with a side of rice pilaf and salad.  Pretty much my favorite meal combo. So let’s get to it!

Honey and Coriander Glazed Chicken

Ingredients:

80ml (3fl oz) clear honey

4 tsp coriander seeds, coarsely ground

4 tsp fennel seeds

2 tbsp grated fresh root ginger

4 chicken thighs

4 chicken legs

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/390F/Gas Mark 6.

First make the glaze by combining the honey, coriander, fennel and ginger.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place skin down in a very hot sauté pan to brown for about 2-3 minutes. Turn over and brush with the glaze.
Transfer to the oven and cook for a further 20 to 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with rice pilaf and salad (recipes below)
Pilaf Rice with Vermicelli, Chickpeas and Pistachios

Ingredients:

2 shallots, sliced
olive oil, for frying
80 g  (2.8 oz)vermicelli
3 tbsp dried berries, such as blueberries and/or cranberries
100 g  (3.5 oz) cooked or tinned chickpeas
80 g (2.8 oz) dried apricots, chopped
300 g  (10.5 oz) baldo or basmati rice
400 ml vegetable or chicken stock
80 g (2.8 oz) shelled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
½ bunch mint, chopped
½ bunch coriander, chopped
½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Instructions:

1. In a medium saucepan, sauté the shallots in olive oil for 2 minutes over a moderate heat. Add the vermicelli and, stirring continuously, cook until golden, keeping a sharp eye on it because the colour changes quickly.

2. Add the dried berries, then the chickpeas, apricots and rice. Stir well to ensure the rice is coated with the oil.

3. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and add some salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, without stirring.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. Lay a cloth between the lid and pan so that the pan is tightly covered and leave the pilaf to steam for 15 minutes off the heat.

5. Once the rice is fully cooked, add the pistachios and chopped herbs. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Shoksa Salad

Ingredients:

3 large tomatoes, cut into cubes

1 cucumber, cut into cubes

1 green pepper, cut into cubes

6 spring onions, roughly chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

150g (5oz) Feta cheese

10 olives

Small bunch parsley, finely chopped

Instructions:

Mix together the cucumber, spring onion, pepper and tomato in a large bowl.
Pile up the mixture in a salad dish.
Drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar.
Grate over the feta cheese to form of a “snow cap”.
Garnish with the olives and the parsley.

Even though there were three dishes, they can be easily coordinated to finish at about the same time.  If I can do it while snapping, then anyone can do it.   A simple supper to make for family or friends this summer.  And it is really a menu indicative of the Turkish mentality, let the spices do the talking!  Bursts of distinct flavor that work in harmony creating a peaceful summit on your palate!

Thanks Silvena! You are not only beautiful and talented, you know how to marry food with LOVE!

Love with all my heart and soul,

YDP

P.S. Props to Jamie Oliver, who funny enough I was slagging only a few days ago. He posted the gorge flower (first pic at the top of this post) in memory of the victims of the Istanbul tragedy.

Last night the “Luck of the Irish” was in full effect and it was celebration time for anyone with Irish connections.  The Irish Soccer team beat Italy 1-0 in the Euro 16 Tournament to advance to the round of 16.  Even people who never ever watch soccer were glued to the set. The pubs, clubs, houses, even the churches erupted in excitement when Robbie Brady scored a goal.  Hilarious tweets started flying including my favs:

Even though Hubby and I have a television set, it isn’t connected.  We just aren’t TV watchers to be honest, and rather than waste money we don’t have a Skybox.  We watch DVDs or connect my laptop computer and watch Netflix.  But how to watch the Irish game?  With Hubby being under the weather, as I mentioned yesterday, we couldn’t go to our local pub (especially when we couldn’t even guarantee they’d have it broadcasted).  But luckily Snapchat friends were kindly posting updates and fantastic revelry.  I felt like I was there!

It is times like this that I really miss Ireland.  I know our stay here in London is temporary and I am doing my best to soak up all I can of this great city.  I get back to Ireland fairly often,  still have the Irish plates on the car, and my Irish mobile phone is with me all the time.  But my soul longs for a chance to sing “Come on you boys in green” at the top of my lungs with my fellow country men and women!  So what is my way to deal?  Get into the kitchen and get baking!  Cooking is great therapy folks.  I threw together a recipe ad hoc with what I had on hand in my pantry.  But mainly I wanted to use my fav Irish Flahavan’s Porridge Oats and the best sweetener in the world, the Highbank Organic Orchard Syrup.  I visited the Highbank Farm for a Foodie Fieldtrip not long ago and using their syrup brought back lovely memories of my time there.  Here is the link if you’d like to relive the visit as well!  I did a very quick tutorial today on Snapchat (my username is: blissbakery) if you’d like to watch me make this “home away from home” Irish treat.

Since Hubby isn’t the best about eating breakfast during the week I am always trying to make healthy treats he can take on the boat for his morning commute.  So hopefully he will enjoy these Applejacks.  That’s what I decided to call them.  They are Flapjacks and there are three grated apples in them, so I am sticking with the name Applejacks.  Of course, most Americans would think I was talking about THE Apple Jacks, the sugar laden breakfast cereal.  But I’m here to say, there’s a new kid in town. He is vegan, gluten free and sugar free.  And he goes by the name of Applejacks!

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

2 Tbsp Nut butter of your choice (I used peanut butter)

3 Tbsp Highbank Organic Orchard syrup

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 handfuls of regular pitted dates (85g)

1 ripe banana

3 apples (I used organic Gala apples)

Generous pinch of sea salt flakes

225g regular rolled oats (I used Flahavan’s Organic)

100g pecans, roughly broken

Handful of mixed seeds (I used a combo of chia, pumpkin, sunflower, flax, sesame)

Handful of dried currants

(1) Preheat  oven to 170 Celsius / 325 Fahrenheit / 150 fan-assisted. Line an 8×12 baking tray with parchment paper

(2) Using a saucepan, gently melt the coconut oil with the Highbank Orchard Syrup for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the peanut butter, vanilla and cinnamon and stir until very creamy.

(3) Grate the apples.  I did not peel them first, just washed them, cored them and put them through the food processor with the grating attachment blade. Remove the grated apples and place in a bowl.

(4) No need to wash the food processor, just make sure there are no grated apples left inside and then switch to the blade attachment.  Blitz the dates followed closely with banana until you they are a chunky puree.

(5) Now in a large bowl combine the oats with the warmed coconut oil mixture, the grated apples and the date/banana mix and salt.. Fold in the pecans, seeds and currents.

(6) Mix well and pop into your pre-lined tin.Press down firmly with your fingers.

(7) Bake for 30 minutes until lightly golden, Remove the tray from the oven. Cool completely on a rack  in the tin. Then remove from the tin, but further cool in the fridge before cutting into bars.

They turned out delicious if I do say so myself.  And guess what?  While the house was smelling amazing during the baking, a lovely package arrived in the post.  A little pressie from IRELAND!!!  OMG!  Sharon Leavy of Behind Green Eyes blog (and one of my Sunday Spotlight Snap Sistas) sent me a care package.  So generous, and it made me feel totally connected.  Especially with her handpicked treasures like the “Luck of the Irish” leprechaun magnet (see pic on top of the page)!   Sure I still miss our lovely home in Dublin, and our family and friends there, but with my Applejacks and my care package I’m feeling the Emerald Isle LOVE!

Go raibh maith agat agus grá agat,

YDP