Orange Cranberry Filled Wool Roll Bread

Oh my goodness! Just look at this gorgeous Orange Cranberry Filled Wool Roll Bread! You’ve likely seen a loaf of this impressive bread before. It took the internet by storm earlier this year and folks were instagramming it not stop. I gotta tell you, there is a good reason for its popularity among bakers. Not only does this bread look amazing, like a wool roll in fact, but it also delivers on taste. Beneath the crispy light crust, your teeth are going to sink into the most pillowy soft, cloud like bread you have ever had the pleasure of tasting. And is completely customizable. I made this one with a delicate swirl of cream cheese and left over Boozy Orange Cranberry Sauce.

But this bread works fantastically with any filling you can dream up, whether sweet or savory. Yup…you could do chocolate, Nutella, cinnamon and sugar or any flavor of jam. You might want try mozzarella and basil pesto, maybe some gruyere and herbs. Seriously – you can’t go wrong!

Today is February 1st. This particular day lies half way between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is St. Brigid’s Day. Brigid is one of Ireland’s three patron saints along with St. Colmcille and St. Patrick. Starting this year, Ireland will be marking her Feast Day with a new permanent Bank Holiday on the first Monday in February, which is February 6th this year. Hooray! Who doesn’t like more holidays?!! According to Irish hagiography, Brigid was an early Christian nun & abbess who preformed many miracles. She also shares the name with an important Celtic goddess who is associated with the festival of Imbolc which was celebrated at this time as well, which suggests that the early church might have adopted the legends of the goddess and transformed them into the Christian persona. Interesting huh? I don’t know how many of you folks out there remembered to put a scarf out last night. You see on St. Brigid’s Eve you should always place a scarf or other piece of fabric outside.

When Brigid passes over the land that night she will bless it. You then can fetch it back inside the next day and thanks to Brigid, it has the power to protect and heal headaches, sore throats and fevers throughout the coming year! What with all the Covid still lurking around, I wasn’t going to take any chances. My little scarf was frozen solid this morning, but is happily thawing away now, freshly imbued with healing powers. As I mentioned, today marks the festival of Imbolc as well as Candlemas, both of which are associated with fertility, fire, purification and weather divination. And speaking of weather divination, tomorrow my favourite varmint, Punxsutawney Phil, will be stepping out of his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob and letting everyone know if there will be 6 more weeks of winter or if instead Spring is on the way.

One extraordinary rodent!

I don’t know if good ole Phil will see his shadow tomorrow or not. I must admit, I’m kind of hoping he predicts more winter. We haven’t really seen a winter at all this year. We had a few days of really cold weather, but only a few. And barely a flurry at all. Certainly no snow accumulation. I love winter, so I am feeling a bit cheated. But no worries, I might have some plans to head out to a really cold destination in the future, so even if Spring is on its way here, I’ll get my snow fix regardless! So this is quite an auspicious time of year! I’m very happy to be marking another event today as well. February 1st just happens to be the 11th year anniversary of  the my cooking blog! Yup… Eleven years ago today I posted my first recipe. It was for Cream Tea Scones with Currants.

I’ve managed to do an anniversary post nearly every year since. Pretty impressive considering how slack I can be! Last year I shared another Cranberry focused dish – this exquisite Cranberry Chiffon Pie!

And a couple of years ago I was all about this rich & creamy Ground Beef Chili with Chocolate & Peanut Butter. Get. out!

And the year before, I posted about these scrumptious Morning Buns!

One of my favorite recipes that I shared with you on an anniversary was: Model Bakery’s English Muffins:

Then there were those decadent  Banana Rum Muffins:

That jaw-dropping, over the top Crack Pie:

And who can forget that magical “caviar of the South” – Pasture’s Pimento Cheese. Keep this one in mind for the Super Bowl!

But let me get back to today’s recipe – That magnificent Orange Cranberry Filled Wool Roll Bread.

This bread is made with a tangzhong, which you can actually prepare up to five days ahead of time. Tangzhong is an Asian yeast bread technique in which you cook a small percentage of liquid and flour. Think of it kind of like a roux. Once this mixture has cooled down, you add it to the rest of the ingredients. What will this technique do for your recipe? Well, it pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour, meaning they can absorb more water. In fact, the flour will absorb twice as much hot water or milk as it would with the cool/lukewarm water or milk that you’d usually use in yeast dough. And the starch is able to hold onto this extra liquid all through the kneading, baking and cooling process. This not only makes the dough less sticky and easier to work with than usual yeast doughs, but the bread will also rise higher since that retained liquid is turned to internal steam during baking. Furthermore your bread will be softer as well as have a longer shelf life. I can definitely vouch that this dough is easy to work with. In order to get that roll of wool appearance you have to divide the risen dough into 4 pieces, roll them out and then cut the bottom half of each piece into little strips or fringe. I was thinking “Good Lord. This is going to be one of those fiddly endeavors that I hate.” But nope! Super easy. Wow, right?!!! But don’t take my word for it (actually you kind of should…) give this recipe a whirl!

• Servings: one 9 inch round loaf
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

recipe from: customized from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients:

For the Tangzhong (starter)

• 3 tablespoons (43 grams) water
• 3 tablespoons (43 grams) milk, whole preferred
• 2 tablespoons (14 grams) bread flour

For the Dough

• 1/2 cup (113 grams) milk, whole preferred
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon (9 grams) instant yeast
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
• 2 1/2 cups (300 grams) bread flour

For the Filling

• half an 8-ounce package (113 grams) cream cheese, softened*
• 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
• zest (grated rind) of 2 medium lemons
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons (4 grams) freeze-dried raspberries, lightly crushed
• 2 tablespoons (15 grams) bread flour

*The cream cheese should be at warm room temperature, at least 68°F.

*For the bread pictured above I simply mixed 113 grams of softened cream cheese with a pinch of salt and 3 Tablespoons of Boozy Orange Cranberry sauce and 2 tablespoons of bread flour.

Topping

• 2 tablespoons (28 grams) milk, whole preferred

Instructions:

To make the tangzhong: Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.

Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook the mixture, stirring regularly, until thickened, paste-like, and the spoon or spatula leaves lines on the bottom of the pan. This should take 2 to 4 minutes, depending on the strength of your burner.

Remove the tangzhong from the heat and transfer it to a large mixing bowl, the bowl of a stand mixer, or the bucket of a bread machine (whatever you plan to knead the dough in).

To make the dough: Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Place the flour into the bowl with the tangzhong and add the remaining dough ingredients. Mix to combine, then knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — until a soft, smooth dough forms, about 8 to 10 minutes on medium-low speed of a mixer. (The dough may be tacky and stick to the sides of the bowl slightly; that’s OK.)

Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest in a lightly greased bowl or dough rising bucket, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.

To make the filling: Combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, and salt, mixing until smooth.

Add the freeze-dried raspberries and flour, mixing until the berries are completely crushed and evenly distributed.

To assemble: On a lightly floured surface, gently deflate the dough, divide it into four pieces (about 170 grams each), and shape each piece into a ball.

Cover the dough and let rest for 10 minutes.

Line a 9″ springform or a 9” round cake pan (at least 2” deep) with parchment and lightly grease the parchment.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it into a 6” x 12” rectangle. If the dough begins to snap back during rolling, set it aside and begin rolling out the second piece. Return to the first piece to continue rolling it to the full size after a couple of minutes, giving the gluten a chance to relax.

Portion 2 heaping tablespoons of filling (about 50grams) onto the top half of the rectangle. A tablespoon cookie dough scoop works well here; use two rounded scoops per piece of dough.

Position the rectangle so its 12” sides are vertical. Starting at the top, spread the filling across the entire width of the rectangle (leaving about 1/4” bare on each side) and down about 6” or 7”, leaving the bottom 5” to 6” bare. If the filling is difficult to spread, warm it in the microwave for 15 seconds and stir; check the consistency. Repeat, if necessary, until it’s an easily spreadable consistency.

Using a bench or chef’s knife or a pastry wheel, cut the uncovered dough at the bottom into very thin strips (anywhere from 1/8” to 1/4″ wide).

Fold the long edges of the rectangle in to prevent any filling from seeping out.

Starting from the filling-covered top and rolling toward the uncovered strips, roll the dough into a log about 6” long.

Lightly press the strips into the rolled log to secure. Place the log, seam-side down, into the bottom of the pan so it’s snuggled up against the pan’s outside edge.

Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, placing them into the pan to form a complete circle around the pan’s outside edge.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cover the wool roll and let it rise for 60 to 75 minutes, until puffy.

To finish and bake the roll: Brush the roll with milk, being careful not to deflate the delicate dough.

Bake it for 28 to 32 minutes, until it’s golden brown on top; a digital thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf should read at least 190°F.

Remove the roll from the oven and cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely.

Storage information: Store leftover wool roll bread, well wrapped, at room temperature for several days.

Enjoy!

Useful links for Kitchen Tools & Ingredients for Orange Cranberry Filled Wool Roll Bread:

Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale

Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer

Lavatools Javelin Pro Instant Read Thermometer

6 Quart Dough Rising Bucket

OXO Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop

Norpro Ravioli/Pastry Wheel

Ground Beef Chili with Chocolate & Peanut Butter

So did I get your attention with that recipe title? I mean “Chili” will always make me look. We love chili around here. But when followed by Chocolate…hmmm that struck me as a bit strange. But then the wheels completely fell of my cart when I saw peanut butter. Peanut Butter?!!! Really?!!! Yup. Totally serious. Peanut. Butter. I could not wait to cook up a pot. And I’m very happy to share the recipe with you today. It is absolutely delicious! The mixture of spices and chocolate give it such a depth of flavor, a real richness and umami. And that peanut butter acts not only as a thickener, but also gives the most silky creamy texture. Comfort food perfection on a cold snowy day!

Today is February 1st. This particular day lies half way between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is St. Brigid’s Day. Brigid is one of Ireland’s patron saints. According to Irish hagiography, she was an early Christian nun & abbess who preformed many miracles. She also shares the name with an important Celtic goddess which suggests that the early church might have adopted the legends of the goddess and transformed them into the Christian persona. Interesting huh? I don’t know how many of you folks out there remembered to put a scarf out last night. You see on St. Brigid’s Eve you should always place a scarf or other piece of fabric outside.

When Brigid passes over the land that night she will bless it. You then can fetch it back inside the next day and thanks to Brigid, it has the power to protect and heal headaches, sore throats and fevers throughout the coming year! What with all the Covid still rampaging around, I wasn’t going to take any chances. My little scarf was frozen solid this morning, but is happily thawing away now, freshly imbued with healing powers. Today also marks the festivals of Imbolc and Candlemas, both of which are associated with fertility, fire, purification and weather divination. And tomorrow, my favourite varmint, Punxsutawney Phil, will be stepping out of his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob and letting everyone know if there will be 6 more weeks of winter or if instead Spring is on the way.

One extraordinary rodent!

Right up until yesterday, much to my dismay, we really had not had any winter at all. But I woke up to snow yesterday! It snowed all day, all night and it is still snowing as I write this. Hooray! So if good ole Phil sees his shadow and we get more winter I’m fine, but even if he says Spring is coming, I will have at least had a tiny taste of winter. So this is quite an auspicious time of year! I’m very happy to be marking an event today as well. February 1st just happens to be the 10th year anniversary of  the my cooking blog! Yup… Ten years ago today I posted my first recipe. It was for Cream Tea Scones with Currants.

I’ve managed to do an anniversary post nearly every year since. Pretty impressive considering how slack I can be. Last year I posted about these scrumptious Morning Buns!

One of my favorite recipes that I shared with you on an anniversary was: Model Bakery’s English Muffins:

Then there were those decadent  Banana Rum Muffins:

That jaw-dropping, over the top Crack Pie:

And who can forget that magical “caviar of the South” – Pasture’s Pimento Cheese. Keep this one in mind for the Super Bowl!

And speaking of the Big Game, today’s Ground Beef Chili with Chocolate & Peanut Butter would certainly be a most welcome addition to your game day spread. You can even play a fun game with folks where you make them try to guess what the secret ingredients are in the chili. The whole time I was making it, I hid the recipe from The Husband. I just called it the “odd chili” with some mysterious ingredients. He did pretty well with his guesses. He got the chocolate pretty quickly. Not that it tastes like chocolate. It doesn’t. But he got that it was a dark richness to the dish. And although he did not guess peanut butter, he did comment on how creamy it was.

Although you can eat this chili on the day you make it, I usually try to allow it to sit in the fridge for a day or two after I make it. I find that the extra chill time allows the flavors to really blend and meld. I guess I always knew chocolate & peanut butter were two great tastes that taste great together. I mean Reese Cups have been telling us so for years. However, I would never have considered smashing a Reese Cup up and stirring it into my chili. But there you have it! So. Dang. Good.

• Servings: 4 - 6
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

recipe from: Aaron Hutcherson via New York Times Cooking

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 8 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 3 canned chiles in adobo, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional – we like it hot!)
• 2 pounds ground beef or ground dark turkey
• 1 (15-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 cup stout beer (I suggest Guinness…)
• 1 cup unsalted or low-sodium beef stock or chicken stock
• 2 (15-ounce) cans pinto beans, rinsed
• 4 ounces good dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• fresh lime juice ( 1 – 2 Tablespoons – optional)
• Any combination of tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream, fresh cilantro and diced avocado, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and salt and sautée until the onion starts to become translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add Chiles, cocoa powder and spices. Stir to mix ingredients together and cook for 1 – 2 minutes, just until the spices become fragrant.

Add ground meat and cook until cooked through, 5 – 7 minutes.

Add tomatoes and their juices, beer and stock to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the temperature to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the flavors meld.

Reduce heat to low and stir in the beans, chocolate and peanut butter. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the peanut butter is completely integrated. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If you think it is too sweet, you can add a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice.

Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, avocado, sour cream, fresh cilantro or perhaps white onion. Whatever toppings you prefer. I always make up a batch of Skillet Cornbread as well when I serve chili.

Enjoy!

Useful links for Kitchen Tools & Ingredients for Ground Beef Chili with Chocolate & Peanut Butter:

Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale

Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Chili in Adobo Sauce

Crafty Celts – Love that spoon in the chili pics above? You can get one for yourself at Crafty Celts where you will find handcrafted historically inspired bronze and silver jewelry, as well as gorgeous silverware. You might recognize some of their jewelry as it was featured in the Vikings television show.

Fruit Filled Morning Buns

Here it is…February already. And tomorrow, my favourite varmint, Punxsutawney Phil, will be stepping out of his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob and letting everyone know if there will be 6 more weeks of winter or if instead Spring is on the way. Now I think I can say with a fair amount of confidence, and much to my dismay, Spring is already here. There has really been no Winter to speak of this year. Total snow free zone! Given that, I must say I’m hoping that the little Punxsutawney critter sees his shadow!

One extraordinary rodent!

Phil & all the folks up in Punxsutawney aren’t the only ones celebrating now. February 1st, which falls half way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, also marks the festivals of Imbolc, St. Brigid’s Day and Candlemas, all of which are associated with fertility, fire, purification and weather divination. Quite an auspicious time of year! I’m very happy to be marking an event today as well. February 1st just happens to be the 9th year anniversary of  the my cooking blog! Yup… Nine years ago today I posted my first recipe. It was for Cream Tea Scones with Currants.

I’ve done an anniversary post nearly every year since.  One of my favorite recipes that I shared was: Model Bakery’s English Muffins:

Some of my other anniversary edition recipes are the completely decadent  Banana Rum Muffins:

That jaw-dropping, over the top Crack Pie:

And who can forget that magical “caviar of the South” –  Pasture’s Pimento Cheese:

Last year, I shared a recipe for English Muffin Toasting Bread, which is ridiculously easy to make and superb for toasting – just like a craggy English Muffin – but without all the work.

This year’s recipe, Fruit Filled Morning Buns, wasn’t as easy a recipe to pull off, but oh my stars was it worth it!

These delightful little devils are made with a yeasty dough, layered with butter, caramelized sugar, cinnamon and gooey chocolatey raspberry jam! And as if that weren’t enough, as soon as you pop them out of the oven you roll them in a bit more sugar. Breakfast bliss I tell you!

I should say here that you can use whatever your favorite preserves happen to be or even leave the jam part out all together. I had just made up a batch of scrumptious chocolate raspberry jam for Christmas, so I decided to go with that. I chose to spread a thin layer of jam over the dough before rolling it up, however you can also just spread the butter/sugar mixture over the dough and add a dollop of jam on top of the bun prior to baking.

These treats were definitely worth the effort, but there was without a doubt, effort going on. You see, these buns are made with Baker’s Croissant Dough. This type of dough is a yeasted laminated dough. Basically you mix up a yeasted dough, roll it out and place a layer of butter on top of it. You then enclose the butter within the dough and proceed to roll it out and fold it over and over again. This creates a dough which has multiple alternating layers of dough and butter. The butter evaporates when baked and that is what forms all those lovely flaky layers in a croissant or in this case – a morning bun.

I guess this doesn’t sound terribly difficult, but there are quite a few steps involved, a lot of rolling out dough and an overnight refrigeration to complete before you can even begin to assemble the morning buns.

Again – totally worth it. Labor of love and all that stuff. No regrets. But I do want you to know what you’re getting into and allow enough time.

 

And some great news is that the recipe for the Baker’s Croissant Dough is double what you need for the Morning Buns. So you can freeze the other half and be ahead of the game next time whether you’re making more Morning Buns or trying your hand at homemade croissants! That time saver for next time is most definitely a “win”!

 

But not to get ahead of myself talking about the next thing you are going to bake. Stay in the moment – which will be oh so memorable once these little gems come out of the oven and you’ve had your first nibble. Crispy on the outside, soft, tender and flaky on the inside with an enchanting caramelized chewy bottom. Just Brilliant! Happy Blog-a-versary to me!

• Servings: 2 Dozen Buns
• Difficulty: moderate - need to make laminated yeast dough, which requires overnight rest before you can begin to assemble morning buns which require 1 - 1 1/2 hr. rise
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recipe from: King Arthur Flour – Morning Buns & Bakers Croissant Dough

Ingredients:

For the Pastry:

• 1/2 recipe Baker’s Croissant Dough (recipe detailed below)

For the Filling:

• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar plus more for coating the pan
• 1 tablespoon viennese cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind (zest)
• 4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup (53g) packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (170g) fruit preserves, of your choice, optional

Directions:

Generously butter the wells of a 12-cup muffin pan. Spoon a teaspoon of granulated sugar into each of the wells, then tap the pan in all directions to coat the insides. Turn the pan over and lightly tap out any excess.

To make the filling: Combine the sugars, cinnamon, and orange zest, stirring well with a fork to distribute the zest.

To assemble: Roll the dough to an 18″ x 8″ rectangle.

Brush the rectangle with melted butter. Spread a thin layer of jam over the dough if you are using. Sprinkle the dough generously with the sugar mixture and go over it lightly with a rolling pin to press it into the butter/jam. Roll the dough up from the long edge into a tight cylinder. Cut into 1 1/2″ slices. Place the slices, cut side up, in the wells of the prepared pan.

Let the buns rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a room no warmer than 75°F (any warmer and the butter may begin to leak out). The buns should increase to one and a half to two times their original size. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375°F.

If desired, just before baking, butter the back of a spoon and press down on the center of the buns. Place 2 teaspoons of the preserves in the indentation.

Place the pan on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the buns are deep golden brown.

Place a cooling rack over a piece of parchment. Remove the buns from the oven and immediately (and carefully) transfer them out of the pan onto the rack. If desired, roll the warm buns in granulated sugar and sprinkle the tops once more. Let cool slightly and eat warm or at room temperature.

Store, lightly covered, at room temperature for up to two days; freeze for longer storage.

Baker’s Croissants Dough

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 2 large eggs + enough warm water to make 2 cups (454g) of liquid
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar, divided
• 5 1/2 to 6 cups (659g to 723g) All purpose Flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons (28g) butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (71g) Bakers Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk, optional
• 1 scant tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional; for sweet pastry)

For the Butter:

• 1 7/8 cups (425g) unsalted butter, cool to the touch
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (60g) All purpose flour

Directions:

For the dough: Put the eggs and water in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the sugar, 3 cups (362g) of the flour, and the yeast. Mix until well blended; set aside to let the sponge work.

For the butter: Cut the butter into 1˝ chunks and combine with the salt and flour at low speed in a stand mixer just until smooth, with no lumps. Be careful not to beat too much; you don’t want to incorporate any air.

Spread the butter on a piece of plastic wrap and shape into an 8˝ square. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Finish the dough: Add the melted butter to the sponge. Whisk together the remaining sugar, 2 1/2 cups (298g) of the flour, the dry milk, and salt and add to the sponge. Mix until the dough forms. Knead for 5 minutes; touch the dough lightly with your finger. If it’s still sticky, add the remaining flour 2 tablespoons at a time until the dough is the desired consistency. Once the dough is smooth and elastic, pat it into a 9˝ square, then wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Laminate the dough: Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and gently roll it to a 12″ square.

Unwrap the butter square and place it in the center of the dough at a 45° angle, so it looks like a diamond in a square. Pull the corners of the dough into the center of the butter diamond. Moisten the edges with a little water and pinch the seams together well to enclose the butter. Dust the top with flour and turn the packet over.

Tap the dough all over with a rolling pin, encouraging it into a rectangular shape. Once it’s pliable, roll it to a 20˝ x 10˝ rectangle, picking it up and dusting lightly with flour as needed.

When you’ve reached the proper size, use a dry brush to sweep off any excess flour and fold the dough in thirds, like a business letter. Take care to keep the edges straight and line them up directly over each other. If the dough slides around, use a little water at the corners to tack them in place. This is your first turn.

Rotate the dough out so it looks like a book about to be opened. Roll the dough out once more to 20˝ x 10˝ and fold it as before. This is the second turn. Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for 30 minutes to allow the gluten in the dough to relax.

Give the dough two more turns after its rest, then wrap the dough well and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight before using. You can also freeze the dough at this point.

Enjoy!

Fruit Filled Morning Buns brought to you by: Runcible Eats (www.leaandjay.com)

Useful links for Kitchen Tools & Ingredients for Fruit Filled Morning Buns:

Oxo Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale

Kitchen Aid Artisan Series 5 Qt. Stand Mixer

SAF Instant Yeast

Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer by Thermoworks

Whole Milk Powder or here from King Arthur

Dough Rolling Mat

Wilton 12 – well Cupcake/Muffin Pan

 

Sunflower Cupcakes for our Anniversary

Hmmm….Talk about laziness. I made these adorable little Sunflower Cupcakes for our anniversary! Yup…our anniversary which is way back in April! April 26th to be exact, and I am just now getting around to posting about it. Oh well, better late than never I suppose and I definitely wanted to share the recipe for these little gems with you. I Love, Love, LOVE cupcakes. I’m sure that comes as no surprize to anyone who has been following my blog for any time now. Indeed I love them so much that when my husband and I were married, 4 years ago now, we decided to forego the traditional wedding cake and have a tower of sunflower cupcakes instead.

So I thought I’d do up my own version of sunflower cupcakes for this year’s anniversary. Mine looked a bit more rustic than our wedding version. But on the plus side, I did not use fondant at all, but my all time favourite frosting, Swiss Meringue Buttercream. And the center of my cupcake sunflowers was an Oreo cookie!

Who doesn’t love Oreos?!! If there are some Oreo haters out there, which I simply can’t imagine, but then again folks never cease to amaze me, you could sub out the cookie for a bit of chocolate frosting with some chocolate sprinkles or mini chocolate chips sprinkled over top of it for texture. We were quite pleased with the Oreos. It was like having a cupcake and a cookie all at once, which is a definite win if you ask me.

Every year we dream about spending our anniversary in some exotic locale. It never seems to work out that way for some reason or another. Though to our credit we did actually manage to get away from home this year. We went off to a lovely little cabin retreat in Fayetteville West Virginia.

I know I’ve blogged about Fayetteville before, but I just adore the place. It has an abundance of hiking trails with drop dead gorgeous views.

And although it is a pretty tiny town, it has several top-notch restaurants. I know I’ve mentioned Diogi’s before, which is our all time favourite Mexican Restaurant. Pies and Pints serves up stunning handmade pizzas and plenty of delicious craft beer to wash it down with. And this year we visited the Secret Sandwich Society for the first time. Let me tell you, it completely knocked our socks off! After a long day of hiking we were able to relax out on their breezy deck with some unbelievably tasty sandwiches served up with homemade ketchup and pickles…oh and perhaps a couple or four or so bottles of beer.

And although we are always sad to leave, we are consoled somewhat by our usual stop by Tudor’s Biscuit World for some ginormous breakfast biscuits on our way out-of-town. That’s right! A veritable WORLD of biscuits. And when I say ginormous, I am not exaggerating. Basically you have a huge biscuit wrapped around hefty portions of egg and sausage with a serving of hash browns thrown on top as well!

You can hardly get your mouth around this monster! It is a wonder I can get my husband, or puppy, to leave that town at all! (see all of our Fayetteville Photos here)

But back to my adorable Sunflower Cupcakes. I won’t fib to you, these guys took a bit of work.

The baking of the cake part was easy and tasted superb. The vanilla bean really shined through. Though I suppose if you are a fan of chocolate cupcakes, you could substitute your favourite recipe in here. The dark colour of a chocolate cupcake base would look a whole lot more like dirt, but I really like vanilla cupcakes and they were for my anniversary, so decided to indulge myself here. It was the decorating of the cupcakes that was a bit time-consuming and fiddly. Let me just say M&M’s are pretty small, as if you weren’t aware of that fact, and getting those lady bug spots on them was really interesting. Not to mention it took me a little bit of practicing with the Wilton tip #352 to get those flower petals done properly.

A little patience goes a long way here. I’d recommend doing things in an assembly line sort of way. You know, all the lady bug spots, stick all the Oreos on the center of the cakes, then pipe all the sunflower petals on, then perch all of the lady bugs up on top. Get some good tunes queued up and the time will go by pretty fast. That is if you don’t get pastry bag induced carpal tunnel syndrome in your hand by the end of it. But they were so worth it! Not only a visual delight but also really delicious and reminiscent of our wedding day as well. They went along famously with our Veuve, but then what wouldn’t?!! Just perfect for our  4th anniversary! Keep your fingers crossed for us for next year’s travel plans…I’m eyeing St. Petersburg, Russia or maybe Positano, Italy. Any suggestions?

Sunflower Cupcakes

recipe adapted from: Damn Delicious (for the cupcakes) Runcible Eats (for the frosting)

yield: 21 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

for the cupcakes:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

for the frosting:

• 5 Large Egg Whites
• 1 1/2 Cups Sugar
• 2 Cups (4 sticks) Butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, cool but not cold
• 1/4 tsp Salt

Directions:

For the cakes:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Line two 12-cup standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, sour cream and egg whites.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in vanilla until well combined. With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients and sour cream mixture alternately in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.

Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Place into oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

For the frosting:

Now for the frosting. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and sugar together. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water but do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and the color is milky white, about 2-3 minutes.

Transfer the egg mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on medium-high speed (start slowly at first) until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Remove the whisk attachment and replace with the paddle attachment. Add the cubed butter and beat on medium-high speed (start slowly at first) until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. If the buttercream looks like it is breaking, don’t worry, it will eventually come together.

Add the salt and beat for 5 seconds to combine. Add food coloring to frosting until desired shade of yellow is reached. I used Wilton’s Gel food coloring in the Lemon Yellow shade.

Place frosting in piping bag with a Wilton #352 tip attached.

Cupcake Assembly:

Set out 11 Oreo cookies. Carefully pull each cookie apart, like you may have done when you were a kid, taking care not to break either cookie half.

Pick red M&M’s out from bag and set aside. Using chocolate decorator’s frosting pipe on a little head, line down the center of the back and a few spots on either side of the line to turn each M&M into a lady bug. I have also seen this bug decoration done with black food colouring and a small paint brush.

Pipe frosting around the underside edge of cookie half and place in the center of the cupcake. Pipe petals of frosting going from the edge of the cookie out to the edge of the cupcake. Place the petals right next to each other. Once one row of petals is done, add a second row slightly off-set from the first.

Put a little dot of frosting on the underside of each ladybug M&M and stick it on top of each flower.

Enjoy!

Happy 50th Anniversary Mom & Da!

So would you believe me if I told you I had caught yet another vile cold straight from the pit of Hell? I must admit, I almost don’t believe me, but right after I posted my last blog about how sick I’d been, Wham-O…I was afflicted with yet some new virus. Luckily I was able to kick that one sufficiently to make it to my Mom and Da’s big day. Back in 1962 they got hitched! 50 years together! You don’t hear of that much any more these days.

For the celebration, my self, my brother, sister-in-law and husband took them to the Inn at Little Washington. Located about 2 hours from Washington DC in the scenic little town of Washington, Virginia, The Inn is a 5 star restaurant which is ranked as one of the Top 10 Restaurants in the World. I’ve been hearing amazing things about it as long for as I’ve lived around here and always wanted to go, so I was very happy we could take our parents here to commemorate this special occasion.

The Inn At Little Washington

Though I must admit, with all the rave reviews folks were giving the place, I was a bit nervous it might not live up to all of the hype. As it turns out, there wasn’t any need for me to worry whatsoever. The Inn not only met, but quite simply exceeded all of my expectations. The entire staff from the valets on were warm, friendly and made you feel welcome.

The whole gang at the Inn

The service was incredible! It was as if you were dining in the finest French establishment, but without any stuffy attitude or pretension. There was a wonderful attention to detail. We were all quite pleased to see “Happy Anniversary to Russell and Joan” printed across the top of our menus. The decor was romantic and whimsical. Oh, and let me tell you about the food. Phenomenal! Without a doubt it was the best meal I’ve ever had! Chef Patrick O’Connell is amazing. His focus on using locally grown and organic ingredients and long predates the recent farm to table movement. He is so proud of all of the neighbouring farms from which he sources the outstanding ingredients that he features in his superb dishes that he notes them on the menu. Chef O’Connell’s creations not only look spectacular but you just can’t believe how incredible they taste. After eating our first amuse bouche, which was pork belly, my husband, who grew up in Southern Virginia said, “I’ve eaten a lot of pork belly in my life, but none of it can compare to that! It’s almost as if it were a different animal!”

Pork Belly Amuse Bouche

Our second amuse bouche was called a Shot of Liquid Autumn. It was a shot of butternut squash and apple soup served with a Gruyère puff pastry.

Liquid Autumn

Unbelievable! It really was like drinking in Fall. I could go on and on about this sublime dining experience! But I will simply show you the pictures of these exquisite dishes and tell you that the taste of each decadent offering far exceeded anything you can imagine.

Selection of delicious breads and a delightful amuse bouche

First Course: Lemon-Lime Lobster Largesse-Chilled Maine Lobster with Caramelized Endive and Citrus-Sake Gelee

First Course: Carpaccio of Herb Crusted Baby Lamb with Caesar Salad Ice Cream

Second Course: Nantucket Bay Scallops sautéed with Curried Cauliflower, Sultanas and Garlic Chips

Second Course: Aged Gouda Macaroni and Cheese with Virginia Country Ham

Second Course: Grilled Breast of young Pigeon Marinated in Blueberry Vinegar on a Zucchini Crepe

Main course: Blackened Tenderloin of Beef with Bone Marrow Custard, Caramelized Fennel and Fennel Puree

Main Course: Pan Roasted Maine Lobster with Tomato Butter, Garden Spinach and Garlic Custard

Main Course: Juniper Crusted Venison Loin on a Tangle of Tart Greens with Caramelized Endive and Mustard Spatzle

Desserts: Butter Pecan Ice Cream Sandwich

Desserts: Lemon Curd Tart

Although this indulgent meal was a bit of a splurge, it was worth every penny and was the perfect way to celebrate a 50th Anniversary!

The Happy Couple!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The Middleton Inn, as it was a big part of what made this Anniversary celebration so special. When we made our dinner reservations, there were no rooms available at the Inn. (Seems apropos around Christmas, no?) Luckily I knew of a beautiful B&B, The Middleton Inn, which is just a stone’s throw away from The Inn at Little Washington.

Middleton Inn

They had rooms available, so my Mom and Dad and Brother and Sister-in-Law all stayed in the Main House. My husband and I stayed in the cozy Guest Cottage and were thus able to bring our dog along with us.

The Guest Cottage

Our stay in this historic, elegant country Inn was utterly fantastic! The house sits up on a hill and commands gorgeous views of the Shenandoah Mountains.

View from the front porch

The proprietor, Mary Ann, was very warm and friendly and  just embodied hospitality. She truly went above and beyond to make this weekend special for us. My parents found a complementary bottle of chilled Champagne awaiting them when they checked in to their room.

Cheers!

Because our dinner reservations were earlier, she set out some complementary wine and cheese for us to enjoy a bit ahead of the usual schedule. And she even went as far as to leave a little gift package for our pup, complete with two chew toys and bag of  chicken griller treats!

Gimlet guarding one of his new toys

And then there was breakfast. After our indulgence at the Inn the night before, you’d think it would take a lot to get our attention. Well, that is just what we got! Breakfast was just delicious.  Light and fluffy Cherry Scones right out of the oven, fresh fruit and an amazing Italian Eggs Benedict.

The breakfast crowd

A stellar breakfast!

Further culinary bliss in a weekend that already held so much! What can I say, if you’ve never considered splashing out at the Inn at Little Washington, start making plans. If you have, but haven’t acted yet, do so NOW! Life is too short. Everyone should experience this culinary nirvana at least once! And Happy 50th Anniversary to my wonderful parents! May they see many more!

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Swiss Buttercream Frosting for our 3 year Anniversary!

Three years ago today Jay and I got hitched at Cloghan Castle in Kilcreest, County Galway, Republic of Ireland! Happiest day of my life thus far.

Apparently the traditional anniversary gift for three years of marriage is leather. Really….leather? I’m not sure what an appropriate leather gift would be. The first things that come to mind when I think of love and leather are somewhat naughty and definitely not items to be discussed here, much less presents we would be happy to receive from our parents. Oh my! Moving right along…So what are we doing to mark our three-year anniversary? Well, I’d love to say I’m writing this post from a luxury spa in Ireland.

Or perhaps from a gorgeous balcony overlooking the beaches of the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

But nope, I’m writing from good ole Virginia. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on just recently and as a consequence, were not able to schedule a fabulous vacation to coincide with our anniversary date. But I’m happy to say my wonderful husband has promised to whisk me off on several romantic getaways later this year, a couple of visits to a cozy mountain cabin in West Virginia, a jaunt in Nashville and back to Ireland and possibly even Wales. Yippee! I am so ready! But besides daydreaming about all of our future travel today, I decided to make us some Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Swiss Buttercream Frosting.

As those of you who know us are aware, Jay and I love Champagne, especially Veuve Clicquot. I’m telling you, that widow knows what she is doing on the champagne making front! I can assure you that we certainly will be drinking a bottle (or two….who knows once you get going…) to celebrate today.

And cupcakes go along brilliantly with champagne. I think so anyway. But then again, I LOVE cupcakes, so I think they go along brilliantly with everything. Or devoured all on their lonesome. We actually had a tower of cupcakes as our wedding cake.

They were adorable. Sunflowers, ladybugs and bees. And they not only looked cute, were really yummy.So with that fond memory firmly in place, I got to baking!

I had to cobble this recipe together somewhat. I took the cake part of these cupcakes from one source and the frosting part from another. Recently Jay and I discovered that we really like the Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting, much more than the regular simple buttercream.

The results? I must say, these Champagne Frosted Champagne Cupcakes rock! So festive, they are just perfect for our celebration today. The cake was very moist and the frosting sweet, but not tooth-achingly sweet. I did sprinkle a bit of vanilla sugar ever so lightly over the tops of these little gems. They were completely scrumptious!

And on that note, I’ve gotta get going. The Veuve is a calling! Cheers!

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Swiss Buttercream Frosting

recipe from: cupcakes: Sprinkle Bakes, Frosting: Brave Tart

yield: 17 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup champagne

For the Frosting:

• 5 oz. egg whites
• 5 oz. sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 2″ chunks, room temperature
• Champagne to taste- I used 3 Tablespoons

Directions:

For the Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup champagne and 1/2 cup sour cream (mixture will fizz and bubble). Add flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Batter will be thick.

Fill cupcake papers with 1/4 cup level measures of batter.

Bake for 17-22 minutes.

Set aside.

For the Frosting:

Combine the egg whites, sugar salt and vanilla bean together in a clean bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of water and turn the heat on medium-low.

Whisk frequently to prevent an egg white omelet forming on the sides, but continual mixing isn’t necessary. Aim to get the mixture to at least 145°F for food safety reasons, but reaching 150°F would make for a nice margin of error. If your egg whites are at room temperature, this won’t take very long, maybe just a few minutes.

When the mixture is sufficiently hot, remove from the heat and whip on medium-high speed until the mixture has doubled in volume and turned snowy white. Continue whipping until the meringue is cool. Use your hands to feel the bowl itself, rather than simply testing the temperature of the meringue. You want it to feel perfectly cool to the touch with no trace of warmth.

Change to the paddle attachment and turn the mixer down to medium-low and begin adding the butter, one chunk at a time. If you didn’t let your meringue cool enough, this is when you’ll really regret it. By the time you’ve added all the butter, you may need to scrape down the bowl to fully incorporate any butter or meringue that’s stuck to the sides.

Finally add your champagne. Just keep adding 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it suits your tastes.

The buttercream freezes beautifully. I had about 1 cup’s worth left over.

Enjoy!

Banana Rum Muffins to celebrate my food blog’s 1st anniversary!

So wow! Today, February 1st marks not only Imbolc, St. Brigid’s Day and Groundhog Day ( I hope the little critter doesn’t see his shadow, not that we’ve had much of a winter thus far), but also one year of blogging about food for me. The first recipe I published was Cream Tea Scones with Currants, which are fantastic if you have yet to give them a try.

Cream Tea Scones with Currants

I really didn’t know at the time that I was starting an actual food blog. I was really just into those scones and wanted to share. This blog started for me almost 3 years ago when my husband & I were planning our wedding, which took place in Ireland.

Cloghan Castle Ireland - Wedding Venue

Yup...no surprizes, it was raining!

We really just used it to easily get our wedding plans as well as travel tips out to our guests who were going to travel to attend. But it seems that now it has evolved into an honest to goodness food blog. In this 1st  year that I’ve been blogging about food, I’ve learned how to do some canning and have some great jams to show for it.

Strawberry Balsamic Jam

Vanilla Bourbon Blackberry Jam

Blueberry Lemon & Chili Jam

Drunken Granny Apple Butter

I’ve not only come across some delicious recipes, but I’ve also learned quite a bit about food styling and photography, so that I’m able to show them off appropriately. (Please see Runcible Eat’s Galleries on Foodgawker and Tastespotting) Not to mention, I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. Thanks to everyone who stops by from time to time to see what I’m cooking! I’m definitely looking forward to year number 2! What can my readers look forward to seeing? I’m hoping to update my site with some fun bells and whistles, like a print button for recipes and the ability to search my published recipes. I will definitely once again be posting a submission for Nutella Day, which happens on February 5th.

Nutella & Banana Stuffed Peanut Butter Ebelskivers - last year's entry

In the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, I will once again be cooking up a bunch of great, Irish inspired recipes. Here are last year’s offerings. All of the recipes for the items below can be found in Runcible Eats/ Recipes.

Cheese & Onion Pie

Irish Soda Bread

Shepherd's Pie

Beef & Guinness Pie

Irish Brown Bread

Drunken Irish Brownies

Curry Chips

Deep-Fried Snickers Bar

Gaelic Boxty

Celtic Pork Tart

Chranachan with Irish Butter Shortbread

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

And I have some great new recipes in store for everyone. Some family favourites like Jewish Apple Cake and Smith Island Cake. I will definitely be trying out more of Peter Reinhart’s bread. Some Bacon Jam is in the works and I’m sure a few more chili recipes will make an appearance. Where is all of this blogging leading to? I’m not certain. Perhaps one day, someone might even ask me to do a cookbook. My husband wants me to open a bakery…I’m not sure I’m on board with that, but am happy to keep making delicious dishes for my family and friends.

In celebration of this milestone, I thought I’d make my all-time favourite muffin, Banana Rum Muffins. My Mom would always make these muffins around Christmas and I just couldn’t wait! And then it occurred to me…I don’t have to wait. I can have them anytime of the year that I want!

These muffins are very moist and the banana flavour is quite promenent. I hate getting a banana bread that tastes as if a banana might have, at some time, been waved somewhere in its vicinity. You won’t get that here. You’ll know its a banana muffin. And then there is the sauce. That buttery, dark rum laden, syrupy sauce. Oh joy! While the muffins are still hot and in the muffin tin, you pour in slowly all over them. I even use a butter knife to pull the edges slightly away from the pan, so that the rum sauce will run down the sides of the muffin and pool in the bottom of the muffin wells. Then you just allow the muffins to sit an soak it all in for a bit. Once the sauce cools, it gives the muffin a slightly crispy sugary rum glaze. Pure bliss! How perfect for a celebration. Especially when paired with a good old bottle of Veuve Clicquot! Happy 1 year Anniversary to Runcible Eats!

Banana Rum Muffins

yield: 24 muffins

recipe from: My Mom

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Rum Sauce:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 Cup dark rum
• 1 Cup sugar

Directions:

For the Muffins:

Pre heat oven to 350°F

In medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until the batter just comes together. Do not over mix!

Pour batter into muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes. If you wish to bake the batter in a 4×8 loaf pan, bake for 60 minutes.

For the Rum Sauce:

Place butter, rum and sugar in medium-sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir to combine.

Bring to boil for 5 minutes. Do not overcook.

Remove Banana Muffins from oven and set muffin pan on slightly larger cookie sheet. Pour Rum Sauce slowly over muffins just as they are removed from the oven. Let muffins stand for 5 minutes to soak up as much of the Rum Sauce as possible before removing them from the pan.

Enjoy!

Two years ago today…

Two years ago today, at Cloghan Castle in Kilcreest, County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Jay and I were married! According to various anniversary gift lists I’ve browsed, I believe two years together entitles us to “cotton”. Hmmm…. I’m at a bit of a loss there. Though perhaps it could be referring to a big, fluffy cotton terry bathrobe that we could wear at a luxury spa….like the Ice House Hotel in Ballina Ireland, where we spent our honeymoon, for example.

Ice House Suite Bedroom

Ice House view of the Moy River

Yes. We had hoped to go back there last year for our first anniversary and it was not possible. Unfortunately, this year is following suit. We are hoping to post-pone any Ireland travel until September. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I really, really miss Ireland!

Conor Pass, Dingle

As far as anniversary gifts to each other (not going to be that spa robe till September at best), we had decided once again to buy something for the both of us. In fact we had our eye on the Harbor Lounge chair by Thomas Moser. I fear however that instead of this:

We will be getting this:

Boooo!

Let me explain. The temperature here in Virginia has already climbed into the mid-80’s several times this Spring. I really think that is totally out of line. It is much too early to be suffering that kind of weather and it really makes me fear what the actual summer has in store for us. Jay and I both despise the least bit of heat and humidity! So we were quite unhappy yesterday when the mercury climbed to 85° F and our sad, older AC unit was not able to keep our house in the mid-70’s, a temperature range in which we can continue to exist. So although I had been picturing myself relaxing in my Harbour Lounge chair, the image became considerably less pleasing when I thought of myself melting all over the beautiful chair come around July. Oh well!

So what kind of celebration did we have today? Very low-key. Of course it involved this (our all time favourite):

And a delicious cupcake from another favourite, Baked and Wired. Best in the DC/Metro area!

We did also go to dinner at Tunnicliff’s Tavern on Capitol Hill.

It was the first restaurant Jay and I went to when we were officially dating. But otherwise we thought we’d save what we could for some vacations we hope to take later in the year, namely Maine and Newfoundland. Both cooler climes we hope to visit during the depth of the oppressive Virginia summer.

Maine Sunrise

Foggy Bauline Newfoundland

Our second year of marriage has been as wonderful as the first. Both of us can truly say we’ve never been so happy. We look forward to many more together! Now, time to go, champagne’s a waitin!

One Year Ago Today…..

I now pronounce you....

One year ago today, at Cloghan Castle in Kilcreest, County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Jay and I were married! Thanks so much to all of our family and friends who traveled over for the festivities. We have such wonderful memories and hope everyone else does as well. Everything just went perfectly (thanks to our wedding planner-Kate Deegan, Bernie and Joe with Cloghan Castle, Father Joseph Ryan, Mike Mulcaire, and many more) It rained on that day and I hear there is a chance it will rain today in Galway (imagine that….rain in Ireland ) It certainly didn’t dampen our spirits in the least.

Rainy Wedding Day

Mr. and Mrs. Ridgeway

So, today is our first anniversary, which I believe entitles us to a gift of “paper” according to all of those anniversary gift lists. I think that most likely means a card, though I did pause to ponder whether money could be considered paper….Hmmm…… Jay and I have agreed to forego getting presents for each other and to instead pick out something together for both of us. Thomas Moser catalogues are in heavy rotation here recently. We LOVE nearly all of his stuff, but it is a bit of an investment. No decisions made by us so far on that front.

Thomas Moser Vita Bed

Kinesis Chair

So, what are we going to do to celebrate? We had really hoped to be back in Ireland today at the Ice House Hotel, where we spent our honeymoon. To this day it is my favourite hotel (with the Standard in NYC  holding second place).We only spent three nights there and it wasn’t nearly enough time. The rooms are stunning, the food  both in the restaurant and the bar is stellar, the spa so amazingly luxurious and customer service is impeccable.

Ice House Bedroom

Soaking Tub

View from Suite

Unfortunately, circumstances conspired against us-Mistletoe cat is sick and can’t be left for over a day, further complications become obvious when one reads our previous post-DC Renovation 2– For these reasons, Jay and I are hoping to postpone our anniversary trip for now and try to take a big vacation in September-most likely to Ireland (Ice House here we come!!!) but the Amalfi Coast in Italy is also receiving quite a bit of attention lately. Jay and I did have a lot of fun the other day looking for castles/ruins to buy in Ireland. I would love to be able to spend 1/2 the year there and 1/2 the year here. I did find that there is a castle for sale, Strongfort Castle,  just a short distance away from Cloghan Castle, where we were married, that was built by the same family, The Burkes, in the 1400’s.

Strongfort Castle

We also found an old monastery near Ballinlough, County Roscommon…….

The Old Monastery

and if we win the lottery, there is Seamark in Glandore, County Cork!

Seamark Estate

Hey, a little daydreaming never hurt anyone. I’ll have to write another whole blog on cool properties in Ireland that I’ve drooled over. So, back to the original topic-how will we spend our 1st Anniversary? Well, we know there will be champagne-Veuve Clicquot to be specific-as if there were any other, and cupcakes. We might venture out for a nice dinner, though have not decided where we will go. We did manage to drag that top bit of our wedding cake all around Ireland with us and back to Virginia. It has been residing in the freezer since, until I took it out to thaw yesterday. From what I understand, we’re to eat a piece of it on our first anniversary. I’m not sure why. I think it is supposed to bestow luck. Perhaps it is a Darwinesque-survival of the fittest- test. I’ll have to let you know how that goes. Lets just say I’m glad we’ll have some cupcakes around as a back up!

Pristine Cake-One Year Ago

The state of the cake today. Gimlet is willing to give it a go!

As we were reminiscing about the day and looking over all of the great photos, it occurred to me that although I had promised in blogs past to post the photos from the professional photographer, Mike Mulcaire, I never got around to it. Mike is such a fantastic photographer, it was hard to choose from the literally hundreds of photos he sent along to us. Nevertheless, along with the few pics I’ve included in this blog, you can check out the rest of our favourite photos that he took on my gallery.

I guess we’ve come to the conclusion that we are so incredibly lucky. We not only had a wonderful wedding but have also had a fantastic first year of  our marriage now, finding us both happier than we’ve ever been. We are looking forward to many more years together. Well, gotta go now….there is champagne to be had!

Cheers!

La Feile Padraig Shona Dhuit! (a little belated….)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! No, my cats didn’t go wild on my computer keyboard-the title of this blog is “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” written in Irish. March 17th is also the date that Jay and I were legally married here in the States. We had our actual wedding celebration in Ireland on April 26th, which is the date on which we’ll be celebrating our anniversary. Not that we didn’t acknowledge March 17th at all…there were some cupcakes, champagne, etc. And on March 18th we got to travel up to New York and stay at my favourite hotel….The Standard! Jay’s presence was earnestly requested by his employers for a meeting. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day the previous day, almost all of the rooms were taken at The Standard except the more expensive ones. The powers that be wanted him there so much that they were not daunted by the price (well maybe a little bit…)  so we got to stay in a Liberty King Corner Suite!

Yippee! It was, as usual, awesome but this time had an even better view! The huge window literally wrapped around the room.

 

The shower, always interesting there, had a huge window in it. Hmmm…I guess the showers at The Standard are interesting for their neighbours as well!

 

 

While Jay was off at the meeting, I went off exploring. I ended up in the Soho/Nolito neighbourhoods. It was quite a long walk but it was a gorgeous day and I got to browse through a bunch of cool boutiques along the way. I was also able to locate the John Fluevog Shoe store. Dangerous! Jay and I both love Fluevog shoes and already own several pairs. Jay became the proud, and somewhat surprized owner of one more pair that I picked out for him that day.

That evening we went out to dinner at Molé, a Mexican restaurant there in the Meatpacking District. Sooo….the restaurant looked great-cute tiles and punched tin lanterns-the food was very, very good-second only to my favorite Mexican restaurant-Diogi’s (strangely enough in Fayetteville, WV). However, with all that being said, it wasn’t a pleasant dining experience. The place was tiny to begin with and was super crowded! I mean, think of the most crowded place you’ve ever been squished into and then double the number of people around you. It wasn’t just crowded while we were waiting for a table, but when they actually seated us, our table was literally an inch(if that) from the tables on either side. In order for me to take the inside seat, they had to pull the table out and I had to squeeze by the other diners, nearly sweeping their drinks away in the process. Poor Jay was on the outside, where every single waiter/busboy that scuttled by bumped into his back along their way. I’m not too fond of people in general and was near to a full blown panic attack through the whole meal. I could not wait to get out of there. Our waiter, who I’m pretty sure was Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, was overworked and inattentive. Really a shame because the food really was great. Apparently this is a problem in many New York City restaurants. Overall it was a great trip and I’m already planning our next visit!

 

Trippy shower view