More ado about March

I realize that while I've been cooking up a storm, the blog has been sitting in serenity.  No more sitting, dear blog of mine. Here's the rest of the kitchen happenings (most in March, and one just at the beginning of April):

St. Patrick's Day.  A time of pinching if you don't wear green, a time of drinking a pint of Guinness, a time of, well, what exactly do you cook on this holiday celebrating my ancestry?  Answer: Irish Soda Bread.  After having many successful runs with the rosemary bread, I thought, well, why not?  I had seen Ina make this on her Back to Basics show on the Food Network, and bonus, this recipe didn't even require rising time.   The results?  Delicious.  Definitely a sweeter bread, and I substituted raisins since I had no clue where to procure currants.  And to me, no difference whatsoever.  This is a lovely, rustic loaf (borrowed some words there...did you catch it?) that could easily be whipped up for breakfast, and I think it would be divine with some honey cinnamon butter.  It's very good, and if you believed me about the rosemary bread, believe me about this one.

Cauliflower.  Is it albino broccoli?  I don't think so, but I sure do like it.  As promised in the previous post, I decided to raid the Pioneer Woman's favorite recipe pantry, and I stumbled upon Cauliflower Soup.  I make a cream of broccoli soup that is very yummy, so I was more than willing to try this one out.  What I didn't anticipate was the size of the finished product.  I kid you not, my 5.5 quart dutch oven was full to the brim of this stuff.  I gave some away to the boys down the street, brough some for my friend Mary to have for lunch, ate it for lunch and dinner most of the week, and STILL had some leftover.  She says it serves 6, but that's clearly a cowboy portion because I think it feeds 12.  Feel free to cut the recipe in half.  And yes, it was good, but I can't say it was awesome.  I felt like it came out a little thin, so I added some potatoes as well as a little bit of garlic (because, really, what do I not cook with garlic?).  As an added bonus, I topped the soup with some parmesan garlic croutons (Nonni's brand), and that added a nice bit of texture and flavor.  Yup, I'd make it again, but I'd lessen the amount of chicken broth so it would be a little thicker.

March Madness.  I simply adore this time of year, and this season brought a pleasant surprise: the Tennessee Vols' first trip to the Elite Eight.  While that game didn't fare so well (sniffle!), the Sweet Sixteen game that brought us to that game certainly did.  After my boys defeated Ohio and landed a coveted spot among fifteen other teams, I decided to throw a party.  Nothing elaborate, but a party nonetheless.  I thought, well, I'm going to be watching this game and I might as well invite my friends to watch it with me.  In case you don't know, this season has not been the best for the locals 'round these parts, so my friends were perfectly happy to go orange for me.  I even made some Tennessee Orange frosting to put on some festive sugar cookies (don't knock my art skills...I stink at piping).  I also enjoy these types of occasions because it gives me an excuse to try out some new recipe.  The choice for this get together was the Pioneer Woman's Restaurant Style Salsa (a crowd pleaser for game food, and it gave me a reason to use the food processor).  Yum.  Yummy.  Yummers.  I loved this stuff, and so did my guests.  It had just the right amount of heat, and man, cilantro is the herb of wonders.  The next day I added some avocado to what remained (which wasn't much) and had a guac of sorts.  Make this salsa.  You'll love it.  Oh, and let me plug a brand of chips: Santita's Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips.  Great crunch and perfect saltiness.

Cooking Club: Frugal Edition.  My lovely ladies traipsed over to my house for another round of cooking, but this time we decided to be budget friendly.  Normally, we spend about $10-15 each, but the challenge this week was $5 each, and I'm proud to say that we succeeded.  Amber brought her beautiful sister Brittaney, and we feasted on some great food, compliments of Ree Drummond and Ina Garten. After munching on fresh-from-the-oven rosemary bread (I make this stuff all the time), we ate Ina's Bay Scallop Gratin with PW's Baked Lemon Pasta.  Both bursting with flavor and freshness, I loved how these two dishes complemented one another.   The pasta in particular was nice because the ingredients are uncomplicated and just plain cheap, thereby making it one to quickly reappear in my oven and then on my plate.  The Pioneer Woman's success didn't stop with her pasta; she scored a home run, make that a double-double in basketball-speak, with our dessert, Dulce de Leche Coffee.  Amber had made this before and agreed with Ree's description: "absolutely sublime."  Coffee lovers, Kahlua lovers, chocolate lovers, whipped cream lovers UNITE, for this dessert can have no other effect.  PW keeps talking about how it's a cold weather treat...I for one will not limit this dessert to the weather's whims.  It's a treat to be savored the whole year long.  And one final note: I felt like a real chef that night.  Grace Anne and I whipped the whipped cream.  Like metal whisk, metal bowl, whipped it ourselves.  Unbelievable.  My arm still might be a little sore.

The last food I have to share with you is my experience at my dad's during my Spring Break vacation.  I promised him I'd make the bread (are you counting yet?), and I wanted to try out PW's Red Pepper Risotto.  So, Dad rounded out the menu with grilled salmon and some sauteed asparagus.  Oh, and let me just tell you, this meal was fantastic, nothing short of delish, and even better because we ate it at home, enjoyed the mountain view, and simply lingered as long as we wanted.  I love that about cooking at home.  And I must give my dad props for the roasted pineapple strawberry salsa that so beautifully adorns the salmon. Yup, he's that guy in the kitchen (and that guy on the grill, for that matter).  He just starts with one thing and the ball gets rolling and POOF: genius food without a recipe.  I'd like to say I inherited a little bit of that culinary instinct...not sure.  I really like a recipe.