A Pinch Of Good Luck and Great Times

As predicted, mid-March has not disappointed. The longer days and warmer weather opened up a nice evening for some beverages on a patio, all before a weekend with friends gathering in green to celebrate the Irish holiday – also known as my dad’s birthday. Plenty of Guinness to celebrate the old man.

What’s Cookin’

Jumping right into it this week because Sunday Dinner was a nice way to wrap up the weekend. (Maybe pushing off some Sunday Scaries by staying active in the kitchen… but that’s life, baby. We rebounded 👌 and White Lotus was great this week to cap off Sunday night.)

Okay, let’s get back on track. Usually a full meal starts with cracking open a few different cookbooks and seeing what looks good to piece together, at least that’s the hope before I go to what I’ve saved on Instagram recently if the algorithm has been good to me.

This week was a good one: three books for a great meal + a bonus course. Let’s break it down.

Bonus Course: Cacio e Pepe

Jumping right into the bonus. After some research watching a few YouTube videos, I was able to get through the challenges of making the Roman classic first time. Bucatini was the choice of pasta. Successful for the first go, I’d say. Fun fact: this is the first dish I’ve made that was inspired by my Italian travels.

Sugar Snap Peas with Calabrian Chile, Mint and Cashews

From The Four Horsemen: Food and Wine for Good Times from the Brooklyn Restaurant

Borrowing this book to read through turned into a questionably long period, so I felt obligated to cook something. (Sorry again, Jack. Not holding it hostage.) This fresh salad was the perfect choice for the springtime meal – different flavors in each bite that worked with the roasted chicken. This restaurant’s definitely toward the top of my NYC must-try’s.

Roasted Spatchcock Chicken

From Carla Lalli Music’s Where Cooking Begins

Outside of any family recipes, this might be the recipe I’ve made the most. Three ingredients: whole chicken, fennel seeds and crushed red pepper (plus the basics of salt, pepper and EVOO.) Also, shoutout to Wegmans for selling already cut chicken – that questionable word above basically just means to remove the backbone to lay the chicken flat and cook more evenly. Just over an hour and you’ve got a whole bird cooked and ready.

Angel Cake with Blueberry Syrup 

From The Silver Spoon’s The Italian Bakery

To round out the meal, I challenged my mom to take on a homemade angel food cake, with my help along the way. Maybe this book is a little advanced and assumes quite a bit. Long story short: she still swears by the boxed version for angel food cake instead. I say it was a great first attempt with plenty of notes for next time. The fresh blueberry syrup was the highlight.

That rounded out this week’s Sunday Dinner, a successful one to carry into spring.

Not pictured this week: Jef’s Annual Birthday Dinner – Corned Beef and Cabbage

I know my Grandmom is up there proud of my Italian mother who never ate corned beef and cabbage til she met my dad. She whips it up every year without fail. Also served with some green beans and potatoes. As for the cake, she went with the reliable boxed cake, paired with homemade brown butter cream cheese icing at least.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures of the birthday fella, trying to steal something.

Irish Soda Bread Scones

You’re telling me that I featured NYC twice in this newsletter? Woof. The flavor of these scones make up for it. I saw that Food52’s Nea Arentzen shared this recipe ahead of the weekend, shouting out Mary O’s, the local bar that went viral for Irish soda bread. And then when I saw Mary herself on TV this morning, so I knew it was a sign to make them.

So after closing my laptop for the day, 45 minutes later, we had these scones fresh out of the oven exactly as recommended – split in half with a knob of butter (shoutout Kerrygold today and every day) and some strawberry jam. The verdict?

“These need to be added to your usual rotation,” says the birthday fella himself. Enough said.

This past week has been filled with a whole lot of highlights with exciting things to grow into ahead. Sticking with the theme of the day, I'm feeling lucky to be surrounded with friends and family that make these weeks have great moments. And I know it’s just a start, but last week marked 100+ of you now reading this little weekly newsletter 🎉 We’ll find a time to celebrate soon.

Celebrate yourself this week 🤘