La na gCeapairi.

No, my fingers didn’t get lost on the keyboard. This is Gaelic for “Day of the Buttered Bread.”

(Or “Day of the Sandwich,” depending on which translation tool I use. Any Gaelic-speaking reader out there who can set me straight?)

These days, the Irish celebrate New Year’s just like most of us, I imagine – with bonfires and parties on New Year’s Eve, a verse of Auld Lang Syne at midnight, and church on New Year’s Day.

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Just look at this coffeecake, would you?

It’s delightfully moist, its texture a perfect balance between heavy and light: substantial, yet not unpleasantly dense.

Its cinnamon-streusel topping is the perfect crunchy counterpoint to the thin layer of soft cranberry sauce just beneath the crust, and to the cake itself.

Looking to add fiber to your diet? This cake’s 100% whole wheat. And boy, does it taste good…

But looks? Well, if looks were everything, this coffeecake would be less than nothing.

It’s just so… beige.

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Paula Deen does it.

Allrecipes.com does it.

Taste of Home, cdkitchen, and food.com all do it.

Even LiveStrong does it.

But sometimes, King Arthur Flour just does it better.

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Now I ask you, does this look like a pizza that would elicit doubt? Not just doubt, but apprehension.

To say nothing of puzzlement.

Yea, even a touch of “Ewwwww.”

That’s just how my Web teammates greeted this pizza when I brought it, hot from the oven, into our office for a birthday lunch a few weeks ago.

“What IS that on top? That’s not potatoes, is it?”

“Yes,” I replied, “Those are most certainly potatoes, and they are indeed on top of this pizza. Along with chopped scallions and melted chunks of Asiago cheese. Ya got a problem with that?”

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Biscuits.

Snowy white, high-rising, light-as-air biscuits. Best friend of sausage gravy, ham, fried chicken, and strawberry shortcake.

Well, not always.

The biscuits you see at the top of this post are dense, moist, and nubbly, studded with nuts and darkened with whole wheat  and the foodies’ newest, coolest flour: grape seed flour.

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A few months ago, we posted a blog written by a friend of mine, Dani, detailing her daughter’s wedding, and the gluten-free cake she baked for it.

The couple was married in the bride’s hometown here in America; then traveled to Israel for a second ceremony, in the groom’s native country.

Wouldn’t you know it? Out of that ceremony came the inspiration for another blog – this one focusing on one of the memorable foods Dani enjoyed in Israel.

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Wouldn’t you just love to hear that someday? “Your breakfast awaits.”  Sure, “Come and get it!” has a certain homestyle appeal, and “Just eat something, the bus is coming!” carries a certain energy, but “Your breakfast awaits” conjures up a whole new set of images, such as… (more…)

“Give us bread recipes with more fiber! We want to bake healthy!”

That’s what we say in public, at least. But when it comes right down to it, do we put our money where our mouth is (literally), and buy whole-grain flours, and bake whole-grain breads?

Uhhh…

Guilty as charged, right? (more…)

Think about it. They both fit any occasion, from day into evening. They both dress up or down with equal aplomb. And they’re both appropriate, no matter the circumstance.

But whole grain? Isn’t that like wearing a burlap sack to the prom?

Au contraire. Not when you have the right recipe. (more…)

On a recent trip to New York City, I had a conversation with Regina Ragone, the Food Director of Family Circle Magazine. She said she’d had a note from a reader whose child had an egg allergy. The reader’s question was, “what can you do to make eggless French Toast?”. I got that glazed look I often do when I’m thinking about a new food invention, (more…)