Driving to Dublin yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice the snow-capped mountains and their resemblance to having been heavily dusted with icing sugar, by some gargantuan sieve. The days are getting longer, there is a stretch in the evenings – the children are collected from schools and dropped off at their various extra-curricular activities, for once, not in 4.30pm pitch darkness. I notice customers calling into the shop with a renewed vigour and a Spring –like variance in their purchases – the traditional ingredients for winter stews and casseroles is being slowly diluted with the requirement to tailor seasonal recipes – refreshing Spring dishes. Rhubarb, purple broccoli and spinach are all in season right now and are bursting with flavour, while spring lamb is also a traditional favourite for the next while.weather forecaster on the hourly news bulletin made specific reference to the cold snap of course, but consoled that temperatures would be creeping up again in the next few days. This mountain-top vista and the imminent promise of better, warmer days, coupled with snatched glimpses on Twitter and Facebook, of friends around the world who are enduring the coldest winters for years, reminded me that we are living in a time of extreme weathers right now – gently returning me to childhood classrooms where we were instilled with the March of many weathers truism.
March, of course, brings with it its own festivities and this year is no exception with celebrations of St Patrick’s Day (17th) and Mothering Sunday (11th). It looks set to be a very busy couple of weeks for families everywhere.
Whilst I advocate that mothers should be spoiled on every possible occasion, and at every meal, not just once a year, Mother’s Day and the feast of our national saint are perhaps most easily and joyously celebrated by the first meal of the day – breakfast. Breakfast is something in which all of the family can get involved and there are so many breakfast ideas out there – just Google your way to originality ! Indeed, you can always be flexible and decide on breakfast-to- lunch fare – we have a great selection of meats that we can advise you on for the traditional mixed grill, for example. The choices are plenty and you can run wild with your creativity to ensure a really special holiday breakfast or brunch for everyone in the household.
Maybe a stack of American pancakes accompanied by a skyscraper of maple cured rashers would be just the treat that mum might like (check out the completely fantastic pancake art that is such great fun on Youtube right now – all you need is a recycled clean ketchup bottle, some pancake batter and a frying pan and you can personalise any pancake and make it into something really different).
So make sure you take the time to stick the kettle on and break everyone’s fast with some tasty morning treats. You can satisfy any number of tastes first thing in the morning and with the atmosphere relaxed and informal the potential to create the perfect start to the day is abundant.
In Tipperary we are quite spoiled with the quality of our bacon and the range of artisan sausages and breakfast pudding at our disposal. Whatever your preference; whether it is a traditional rasher and pork sausage or a sophisticated black pudding and herb sausage, there is something for you. Add to this some free range eggs, scrambled or fried, along with some home made breads from any of the several local producers and you have a breakfast fit for any royal household.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit.
Tags: artisan sausages, Bacon, Black Pudding, breakfast ideas, brunch, dry-cured bacon, Foodie Articles by Pat Whelan, free range eggs, fried eggs, homemade bread, James Whelan Butchers, Mother's Day, Pat Whelan, sausages, scrambled eggs, Spring, St. Patrick's Day, The Nationalist, Tipperary Food Producers, white pudding
