We decided to celebrate today because it was the best day this week for a family feast. We started by setting the leprechaun trap…at this point, I can only assume that “Lucky” is taunting us!
Of course there were Lucky Charms:
And I made myself my favorite green drink this afternoon…the lavender matcha!
I love baking soda bread:
And we had our traditional corned beef dinner with all the fixin’s:
For dessert I made Guinness mousse to go with the Guinness cake Bunny baked:
This is truly one of my favorite dinners of the whole year!
Two days ago we celebrated Chicago on 3/12, and now it’s St. Louis’ turn…in honor of the original telephone area code for the metro area, we observed 314 Day!
We had a few St. Louis favorites…(frozen) Imo’s pizza for dinner, with the St. Louis classic, Fitz’s root beer:
And a homemade lemon gooey butter cake for dessert:
The celebratory season is far from over…tomorrow we’re having an early St. Patrick’s Day, and then the two March birthdays in our house within a week!
Happy 312 Day, a day to celebrate the great city of Chicago based on the city’s (and my) original telephone area code. I made our favorite Chicago-style pizza for dinner, and Bunny made a Portillo’s-inspired chocolate cake for dessert…it was a most delicious day!
For the last few years, we’ve really looked forward to celebrating MAR10 Day on March 10th. I usually make something Italian in honor of everyone’s favorite plumber…this year, it was bolognese, with a cannoli cake for dessert. I also found some Mario-themed Bubly water, which was an extra special treat!
I don’t do a lot of vegetarian/vegan cooking, but I wanted to try something new for our Lenten Friday. I decided to really step outside of my comfort zone and make burritos that are not only vegetarian, but even use plant-based cream cheese, making them vegan as well. I was little worried that they might be a little too unconventional for my family, but they turned out to be a huge hit, and I’ll definitely be making them again! (I may try a version with cheese and maybe even chicken in the future, though!)
16 days of glory go by very quickly, and the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics have sadly already come to an end. Here’s a quick look back at all of the fun we’ve had!
Of course we had to stop by the Olympic Spectacular outside Francis Olympic Field at Wash U in St. Louis…just last month, (future) Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu visited these same rings!
Chickadee and I made our favorite edible Olympic torches:
And we cooked a ton of (very delicious) Italian food!
Biscotti
Zuppa Pavese
Frullato di Frusta
Italian Bread
Carbonnade à la Flamande
Insalata di Arance e Finocchi
Radicchio in Padella
Limoncello Spritz
Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole
Marinara
Basil Pesto
Ravioli
Zeppole di San Giuseppe
Italian Grilled Cheese
Peposo
Creamy Polenta
Italian Limonata
Sporcamuss
Pork Milanese
Antipasto Salad
Seltz Limone e Sale
Panna Cotta with Berries
We also picked up a few Italian treats from the store:
There were crafts:
And a girls’ outing to go ice skating:
We had fun keeping track of the medal count at the end of every day…here’s a final look at our chart:
I love the Olympics, both winter and summer, so much, and I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with myself now that they’re done…but I’m already looking forward to L.A. 2028!
Bunny and I made a trio of varieties this year, starting with a Milano Cortina 2026 fusion flavor that was filled with cannoli filling in honor of the host country of the Olympics:
We also made plum butter Berliner, filled with homemade Pflaumenmus, which was sehr lecker!
And our final variety was filled with our favorite Guinness mousse and topped with a chocolate glaze:
It was a tasty trio!
As long as I was already frying donuts, I also made German Mutzen from the Rhineland, which turned out very much like beignets:
And here’s a bonus look at our Mardi Gras dinner of “Bayou Queen Punch” and “Tiana’s Famous Gumbo” from Entertaining with Disney:
We had a nice day of feasting, and now we’re ready for Lent!
I’m so excited about the start of the Winter Games, so of I course I planned a day of Italian food for us to try in honor of Milano Cortina 2026. We started the day with a trio of homemade biscotti to enjoy with our coffee (or hot chocolate, as the case may be)…orange-cranberry, chocolate, and traditional flavored with anise.
For lunch, Chickadee and I enjoyed “Zuppa Pavese,” which is toasted bread swimming in beef broth and topped with an egg and parmesan cheese…super warming and delicious! We also made a light “Frullato di Frusta,” a slightly sweetened fruit smoothie.
I guess maybe I do bake bread? I sliced this Italian bread pretty well, too!
The star of tonight’s Olympics Opening Ceremonies dinner was Carbonnade à la Flamande, a delicious beef stew braised in beer:
The best special meals include a special drink, and we really enjoyed a non-alcoholic limoncello spritz made with homemade lemon oleo saccharum:
I think this was one of the best Opening Ceremonies dinners I’ve made!
For dessert Chickadee and I baked a Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole, which is a Roman sour cherry and ricotta tart. The filling was very similar to a cannoli filling minus the chocolate chips, and spread over sour cherry jam.
I’m looking forward to immersing myself in winter sports and Italy for the next two weeks!
Time for a last look back at the festive feasting season!
We started Thanksgiving week by baking…Christmas Funfetti cupcakes? There’s never a bad time for Funfetti!
Of course, the main attraction Thanksgiving week was the turkey dinner:
And seven pies!
We celebrated Nikolaustag with chicken Döner Kebab and gingerbread tiramisu:
The next special dinner was a week later, for Santa Lucia Day, featuring potato pancakes and kielbasa, with cranberry fluff for dessert…and let’s not forget the lussekattes for breakfast!
We had a gingerbread layer cake filled with gingerbread mousse and frosted with molasses cream cheese frosting on Christmas Eve:
And our favorite cherry coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas Day:
But the best meal of the year is the Christmas Day pick-out dinner!
For our “fancy” Christmas dinner, we had bolognese, breaded artichokes, and fresh baked Italian bread:
In keeping with the Italian theme, we had cannoli for dessert:
On New Year’s Eve, we had black bean soup and corn bread:
And our traditional hot chocolate bar, of course!
Our New Year’s Day dinner was enjoyed a day late…I made pork medallions and spaetzle:
And we had a Glühwein-Kuchen for dessert:
We also had a special “Lord of the Rings Day” celebration (on Tolkien’s birthday!), featuring one of the fanciest chicken recipes I make, and “Westfarthing Fairings” from the Recipes from the World of Tolkien cookbook:
For the last feast of the season, Ryan’s birthday dinner, (which also happens to be Epiphany), we had fry bread and chili:
And Boston Cream Pie for dessert:
We did lots of other baking along the way, including a pair of Italian Christmas cookies for Christmas school:
And all of our favorite fancy Christmas cookies…chocolate crinkles, linzer augen, chocolate peppermint, raspberry almond thumbprints, peppermint meltaways, and fig thumbprints:
With the addition of a few of the pudding cookies Bunny made, they created a beautiful Bunter Teller!
For our New Year’s Eve hot chocolate bar, we baked two kinds of hot chocolate cookies:
In addition to the Christmas cracker candy I usually make, we also tried a new recipe that had sliced almonds on top:
And on the last day of Christmas, we baked and decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies:
I made a couple of bonus pies along the way, too:
And a bevy of festive drinks, including standards like egg nog and wassail, and some frappe kits from Aldi:
And just as we made a special dessert at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, we ended Epiphany week with a carrot cake:
I think that’s it for festive feasts and holiday baking…I’m ready to close the Markel bakery for a bit!
Today is Epiphany, but it’s also Ryan’s birthday, and we had one last festive feast to celebrate!
I made chili for dinner, and making chili means also making fry bread to go with it:
And for dessert, I baked a Boston Cream Pie…it’s been years since I attempted this particular cake, and back then, I had a problem with the filling being too thin and running out of the cake. If anything, this time I over-thickened it, but it tasted good, and it stayed put!
The days have long since passed when I used to make baklava every year on Epiphany, and our church doesn’t have an extra service during the week, but I still wore my favorite star-shaped brooch from Erstwilder…it is the absolute perfect star for Epiphany!
I still have one more cake to bake yet this week, and then the festive feasting season will draw to a close!
