"An Uncommon Colcannon" & Irish Soda Bread Recipes from Chef Lesa Sullivan

This is a re-post from a couple years ago. Local chef Lesa Sullivan was kind enough to share her recipes for a couple Irish specialties. Also stay tuned for a photo essay from the recent Irish soda bread class I took.

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Getting geared up to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Check out these recipes from local chef Lesa Sullivan, and consider taking her St. Patrick's Day cooking class for even more modern takes on traditional Irish flavors!

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Fresh-Picked this week: food, free & nature events for week of March 11

Hi everyone!

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.

Highlights!

In food: cheap eats, fishing in Washington, cooking with tropical fruit, chocolate, water, “Sugar, Salt, Fat,” chef John Sundstrom of Lark, free fries, “Brews and Bites,” root beer, beer bash, chef Lisa Dupar, “Mondovino” screening, kitchen medicine, tea ceremony and lotsa pork at Cochon 555.

In free: modern ballet masterpieces, 21^st century journalism, bookbinding, Joyce Carol Oates, Jodi Picoult, recycled crafts, yoga, Turkish for travelers, kid’s day at NAAM, and many of the food and free events above and below in the food and nature categories.

In nature/outdoors: “Gifts of the Crow,” winter photography, herons, orcas, snails, slugs, louseworts (not as bad as they sound), arboretum walk, and a guided hike for you and your pup.

Enjoy and have a great week!

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Seattle St. Patrick's Day 2013

St. Patrick's Day is this Sunday, March 17, and you have all week to get your soda bread, corned beef and colcannon ready!

Check out the listing of related events below, and head back this week for Iris recipes and a slideshow of the recent Irish soda bread class from Seattle's Irish Heritage Club.

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Springtime is stingtime! It's stinging nettles season: events & recipes

It is getting to be the time to break out the rubber gloves and paper bags and trot out into the wild to harvest some nettles. In the interest of complete transparency, I actually haven't been out into the wild myself in the past few weeks so I don't have personal knowledge as to the state of our nettle union is right now, but they are in the farmers markets, so they're springing somewhere!

If you're new to the world of nettles, and want some guidance before head out, check out the below nettle foraging classes and events.

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A veritable feast of Seattle-area food book groups

Book clubs can be a great way to keep you on top of your reading list. Nothing like the looming deadline of a book club meeting to help focus the mind away from mindless internet wandering and onto an actual book.

You can form your own, or consider checking out some of these local community book groups as a way to connect with new people who also share your love of reading.

And of course, because Seattle is a foodie town, we have a lot of book clubs and groups that focus just on food-related books. From nonfiction policy or regional food reads, to memoirs, to novels, the selection of books really runs the gamut.

See the calendar below for a listing of local food-centric public book groups.

Also check out May 18: the King County Library System is holding a "Book Group Extravaganza! featuring Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life." If you've already got a book group, you can exchange books or you can pick up tips on starting your 

Check them out! And I'll be at the Slow Food Seattle book groups in March (American Terroir) and May (Yes, Chef), so maybe I will see you there!

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