Midnight in Madame's Lair

Color shot

It was indeed a dark and stormy night. The wild wind blew in today's unseasonable temperatures pushing an October degree busting 70 F/20C, quite unbelievable. 

I hope it cools a bit before dinner tonight. I'm making what seemed like a seasonable meal for late October, Colcannon Soup. G usually comes for dinner one night a week. We call it Candlelight, in homage to the once a week meal my parents served in their candle lit dining room for G& S when they were young children. I think it gave my mother a chance to use her antique dish ware and semi-pretend she was living in the day of Emily Dickinson I imagine, one of her wishes. For us it's an evening of spirited conversation, laughs and the wonderful company of a young man we dearly love. Anyway, tonight we may need the AC!

For the Record,
This day came in dark and stormy with subsiding rain and windy weather bordering on hot!

All hands healthy


A warming treat of comfort food — potatoes and cabbage

By Adam Ried   OCTOBER 25, 2015

Three pillars of traditional Irish cooking — potatoes, cabbage, and butter — come together in colcannon, a much-loved comfort dish of mashed potatoes and greens. As with many age-old dishes, variations abound, so other greens like kale, or combinations of broccoli or cauliflower leaves, spinach, parsley, or sorrel, may stand in for the cabbage. In Ireland, colcannon is strongly associated with Halloween, and the dish comes with a heavy dose of folklore, particularly related to portending marriage. One example: Young women wearing blindfolds would be sent to the garden to pick cabbage, and the cook would hide a ring in the colcannon — she who found it in her serving would be married by the next Halloween.