You can serve it with anything from a sandwich at lunch, to dinner—whether your dinner is hot corned beef and cabbage, grilled fish, a burger or anything that goes well with potato salad.

For year-round feasting, leave out the corned beef and enjoy the recipe as a cabbage potato salad.

Prep time is 20 minutes, cook time is 15 minutes. The recipe serves 6.
 
 
CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE POTATO SALAD RECIPE

Ingredients

A yummy twist on potato salad for St. Patrick’s Day (photo © Potato Goodness).

 
Dressing Ingredients

Preparation

1. CUT potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes and place in a large pot fitted with a steamer basket. Add 1-inch of water to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender; let cool slightly. While potatoes are cooking…

2. COMBINE remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl.

3. PLACE all dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well.

4. ADD warm potatoes to bowl and drizzle with dressing; lightly stir to coat salad with dressing. Serve immediately.

Calories: 220 Fat: 12g Cholesterol: 20mg Sodium: 370mg Vitamin C: 50mg Carbohydrates: 22g Fiber: 2g Protein: 7g Potassium: 87mg
  

Bruschetta and crostini are popular hors d’oeuvres that are easy to make. They also can be served as a first course or a light meal, with salad and/or soup.
 
 
BRUSCHETTA VS. CROSTINI: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

The answer, in brief, is the size of the slice, plus grilling versus toasting. Bruschetta (three or four inches in diameter) are cut from an Italian loaf and grilled; crostini (about two inches in diameter) are cut from a thinner loaf such as a baguette and toasted.
 
Bruschetta (pronounced broo-SKEH-tuh) is grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with any variety of items. The toppings can be as simple as extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper, to diced tomatoes and basil, to almost any spread, vegetable, cured meat or cheese—even fruit.

Bruschetta originated in the Tuscany region of Italy, where it is commonly served as a snack or appetizer. It may have been the original garlic bread.

The word comes from the verb bruscare in the Roman dialect, which means “to roast over coals.” If you have access to a grill, grill the bread for authenticity. If not, you can toast it.

Some American manufacturers and others in the food industry misuse the term, using it to refer to the topping only and selling jars of “bruschetta” (it should be bruschetta topping). Show your superior knowledge and don’t allow the term to be distorted: The word bruschetta refers to the grilled bread, not the topping.
 
 
Crostini (cruh-STEE-nee) are croutons: not in the American sense of small cubes tossed into soup or salad, but thin slices of toasted bread.

Smaller than bruschetta, the slices are typically cut from a ficelle, a thinner baguette one to two inches wide (the word is French for “string”). The slices are brushed with olive oil, toasted, and then topped with spreadable cheese, pâté, or other ingredients. Plain crostini are served with soups and salads, like melba toast, or set out with cheese.

While lovely grapefruits are still in season, make this colorful and flavorful Grapefruit Bruschetta recipe from Sunkist (photo above).

We especially like it with a Sauvignon Blanc, which often has complementary grassy/herbal or grapefruit notes. You can use any type of grapefruit, but rosy-fleshed varieties make the most beautiful presentation.
 
 
RED GRAPEFRUIT BRUSCHETTA

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 450°F.

2. PLACE baguette slices on a baking sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Place in oven and bake for 5-6 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remove from oven and set aside.

3. MIX together grapefruit and basil in a small bowl.

4. SPOON onto toasted baguette slices and top with crumbled blue cheese and an optional light honey drizzle.
 
Here’s another variation of grapefruit bruschetta that cooks the grapefruit topping.
 
 
MORE BRUSCHETTA & CROSTINI RECPIES

Any of these recipes can be prepared as bruschetta or crostini, depending on whether you prefer to grill or toast the bread.

[1] With bruschetta, the bread is grilled (photo © California Olive Ranch).

[2] With crostini, the bread is toasted. Here’s the recipe for crostini with white bean spread (photo © DeLallo).

[3] You can top bruschetta—grilled bread—with anything, including rosy grapefruit. The recipe is below (photo © Sunkist Growers).

[4] Crostini American-style: BevCooks.com used a regular loaf of whole grain bread for appetizer- or meal-size portions. Also consider rye bread. Here’s the recipe.

Turn bruschetta into open-face sandwiches for lunch by using regular loaves of bread. Cut the slices in half, as the blogger BevCooks.com did in the photo above, with the most delicious-looking bruschetta we’ve seen in a while.

You can also make “breakfast bruschetta” by placing eggs and breakfast meats atop the toast. Add a dab of garnish (diced tomatoes, fresh herbs, sliced green onions, a strip of roasted red pepper…). Does ketchup count as a garnish? Sure: This is America.
 
 

[1] Three shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day (photos #1 and#2 © McCormick).

[2] Green food color does the trick.

[3] Themed sprinkles make any cake or cupcake more festive. Find these on Amazon (photo © Man Vs. Cakes).

We love this festive cake from McCormick. It’s an ombre cake: Ombre is the French word for shade, and each layer is a different shade of green. Keep that a secret until you cut the cake: Everyone will be delighted.

You can bake the cake from scratch or use a good white cake mix. Just be sure to have green food color on hand.
 
 
GREEN LAYER OMBRE CAKE RECIPE

Cake Ingredients

 
Frosting Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE cake mix as directed on package, using whole eggs. Stir in vanilla. Divide batter evenly into 3 bowls.

2. STIR 50 drops (about 1/2 teaspoon) food color into one of the bowls, tinting batter dark green. Stir 15 drops food color into another of the bowls, tinting batter medium green. Stir 2 drops food color into last of the bowls, tinting batter light green.

3. POUR each bowl of batter into a greased and floured 8-inch round cake pan. Bake as directed on package. Cool layers on wire rack.

4. FROSTING: Beat butter and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, beating well after each addition and scraping sides and bottom of bowl frequently. Add milk; beat until light and fluffy.

5. PLACE dark green cake layer on serving plate. Spread with 1/3 cup of frosting. Top with medium green cake layer. Spread with 1/3 cup of frosting. Top with light green cake layer. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Garnish as desired.

You can use the same recipe to make a stunning ombre cake for other special occasions. Simply replace the green food color with your color of choice.

 
 
_____________

*Ingredients as required on Duncan Hines White Cake Mix. Use whole eggs instead of the egg whites directed on the package.

Math geeks have declared 3.14 (March 14th) Pi Day. But we’re adopting it as “Pie Day”; and why not, since a pie is a circle, and you can use pi and the diameter of your pie plate to calculate the circumference. (Lame or a good excuse to bake a pie? You be the judge).

Why bake a savory pie instead of a sweet one? The original pies were savory. Fruit pies and other sweet versions did not evolve until the 1300s and later.

There are plenty of delicious savory pies, from that American favorite, pot pie, to British steak and Stilton pie. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, how about a beef and Guinness pie?

 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIE

The ancient Egyptians, who were great bread bakers, also worked out the details of early pastry. But don’t salivate at the thought of it: Until relatively recently, the pastry was tough, inedible and used as a cooking vessel. Pie was a savory dish scooped from the crust—more like a casserole.

What about those noted gourmands, the Romans? Greek and Roman pastry did not progress as far as it could have because both cultures used oil, not butter, which can’t create a stiff pastry. It wasn’t until much later, in medieval Northern Europe, that the traditional use of lard and butter instead of oil for cooking hastened the development of other pastry types.

The Renaissance saw a pie-baking boom in England, but still they were meat pies, including the legacies of shepherd’s pie (lamb and vegetables) and cottage pie (beef and vegetable). Both have a mashed potato top instead of top crust.

By the 17th century, flaky and puff pastries were in use, developed by French and Italian Renaissance chefs. Pastry began to become highly decorated, with pastry chefs working intricate patterns on the crusts.

 
CHECK OUT ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PIES IN OUR PIE & PASTRY GLOSSARY.

The longest of loaves, a baguette is narrow with a very crusty, amber-colored outside and a delicate, tender crumb (inside). A baguette is three or four inches in diameter and can be up to a yard long, although it is typically about two feet in length. (See our Bread glossary for the different types of bread, including the different types of French bread).

If you live in a large city, you can buy a baguette in any food-centric neighborhood. But is it great, passable or merely “masquerading” as a baguette?

This article is a tutorial from Maison Kayser, a boulangerie and pâtisserie* that has people standing in line for its baguettes in Paris and at a number of global outposts.

“Good bread doesn’t lie,” says founder Eric Kayser. “It says everything about the quality of its ingredients and the know-how of its creator.”

Executive master baker Yann Ledoux of Maison Kayser in New York City gave us this valuable lesson in understanding great baguettes:

All ingredients are not created equal, even when they’re as seemingly simple as flour, water, salt and levain (sourdough starter). (There’s more about Maison Kayser’s levain and flour later in this article.)

And all training is not equal: The best bread bakers have extensive training from masters, and bring their own passion and commitment to quality and to creating loaves that lead to lines of customers snaking around the corner.

Ledoux attributes these percentages to the creation of a great baguette:

 
*A boulangerie is a bread bakery, a pâtisserie is a pastry shop. Traditionally in France, the two crafts are separate, as each requires a different artisan skill set.

†Each municipal water supply imparts unique undertones of flavor.

HOW TO BUY THE BEST BAGUETTE

You can tell a lot just by looking at the baguette. If you want to follow this lesson closely, pick up all the different baguettes you can and compare them to each other. You can turn it into a wine and cheese party and demonstrate this information.

Start By Looking

A Great Baguette

 
A Mediocre Baguette

Bread is divided into the external crust and the internal crumb. Cut a six-inch piece from the baguette in half and examine the crumb.

Crumb

The perfect crumb should have small air holes that are present consistently throughout the baguette. It should have a certain level of elasticity, so when you press it with your fingers it always returns to its original shape and form. If it does not return, it is because the crumb is either too dense (not fermented enough), too moist (not baked enough) or too hard (not fresh enough).

The texture of the crumb should have a creamy color, taste and smell of hazelnut and have a hint of acidity that brings a balance and enhances the flavors within the baguette.

If the holes in the bread are vastly varied in size, if the color is cream rather than white, if you can smell the delicious aroma of the levain and hear a crisp crunch while squeezing the crust, then (voilà!) you have the best baguette.

The crust should have a beautiful consistent golden brown (amber) color throughout the entire baguette, except at the scoring, where the color is slightly lighter.
Sourdough Starter (Levain)

What sets a great baguette apart is the use of homemade, mineral-rich, natural liquid levain, which achieves a richer balance and flavor than commercially purchased starters. At Maison Kayser there is no commercial yeast or pre-mixed dough arriving in freezer containers from Paris: Everything is made from scratch on the spot.

Although baking with liquid levain is a timely process, it is an essential element of a true artisanal, hands-on process to enable the sourdough to reach its full potential. At Maison Kayser, the liquid levain is constantly monitored by a trained baker and tested for acidity, texture and aroma. As a result, the baguette has a stronger flavor, a slight hazelnut taste in the crumb and an appealing—we say “beguiling”—aroma. As importantly, the baguette made with liquid levain bestows a longer shelf life (how often has the afternoon’s baguette become brick-hard by evening?).

Baker’s secret: In addition to the organic flour sourced in upstate New York, Maison Kayser uses a little bit of Gaude flour imported from France. Made from roasted corn, Gaude gives the bread the nutty, sourdough flavor and creamy, yellowish hue, rather than the stark white of too many American baguettes.

Fermentation

“Greatness cannot be rushed,” says Yann Ledoux, and the best baguette doesn’t rush things. The proper method involves a longer and slower fermentation or rising of the dough. Each of Maison Kayser’s baguettes takes 12 hours from mixing to baking.

Artistry

Great bakers enjoy creating a “signature” baguette. Eric Kayser likes to create different signature baguettes based on the neighborhoods in which his bakeries are located. For example:

 
FOOD TRIVIA

While it is the longest loaf, baguette means “a small rod” in French.

‡Maison Kayser is located at 1294 Third Avenue, between 74th and 75th Streets.