A Question for Monday
Respond to my simple poll, help a recipe developer and listen to Rachel Vindman
Good Monday morning to you. I’m on spring break this week, so I trust you are now all imagining me somewhere in the middle of this:
Owing to the fact that I’m just an adjunct professor with a penchant for oversized cardigan sweaters and not a college student, I’m not on the beach, and instead just at home in mud-luscious New Jersey, with the wind howling about. We’re under a high wind advisory today, so every few minutes or so there is a loud THUMP on the roof above me as a branches and/or those horrid gum tree sticky balls (poss squirrel?!) bombard me.
My plans for the week include, among other things, working on recipes for this here newsletter, putting the finishing touches on a cookbook proposal (Hi, Sharon), and digging into a few other choice projects, including something for Pi Day, one of the holiest days in the liturgical dessert year.
I’ve been noodling over a recipe for a Guinness treacle tart that I want to share for St. Patrick’s Day, but it calls for Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which has a distinctive caramel flavor that corn syrup or honey aren’t suitable replacements for. You can buy it in every grocery store, corner shop and megastore in Ireland and Britain and, while it easier to buy in U.S. groceries than it used to be, I try not to publish recipes that will frustrate you. Which brings me to my Monday Poll Question (MPQ):
Thanks for your help with this. I hope to be able to share the treacle tart recipe, along with the story of the very strange image of the dead lion on the Lyle’s Golden Syrup bottle.
If you have other recipe requests for Pi Day or St. Patrick’s, lmk in the comments.
And, one more question: If I were your fairy godmother and could transport you to a spring break anywhere this Monday, where would that be?
Please have a listen to the latest episode of The Secret Life of Cookies. My guest is the wonderful Rachel Vindman and we take on the news of the week. And, if you can, please leave a review with Apple podcasts, to help, help, help boost the podcast’s profile.
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For some unknown and I remembered reason I *have* Lyle's syrup in my pantry. 😊 My problem is, I read a great recipe - with obscure ingredients, then excitedly order said obscure recipe necessaries, and by the time it (or they) arrive, I forget what recipe it's for! So - I *have* Lyle's syrup! I just don't know how or when to use it! 😊❤️
Pi Day is pretty much sacred in my kitchen too but somehow I usually forget that it's coming until the day of or close to it and have to just wing it with whatever I have on hand. My go-to has become a Shepherd's pie abberation composed of leftovers in a pie dish topped with instant mashed potatoes. Which does sound unappealing, but sometimes it really works.
Last week I was reading Anne Byrn's newsletter about meatloaf (https://open.substack.com/pub/annebyrn/p/a-more-perfect-and-never-boring-meatloaf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=kg5g) and what she said about cooking it free-form producing more delicious browning suddenly made me wonder why I'd never baked a meatloaf in my cast iron skillet then topped it with mashed potatoes and now I know what I'm doing for Pi Day this year.