Photo: Thinkstock

We know: they don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Turns out they don't eat soda bread with raisins, butter or eggs in it, either. So traditionalists, hide your eyes...

Irish Cheddar and Bacon Soda Bread from Homesick Texan
This savory version includes tangy Irish cheddar and smoky Irish bacon, along with scallions for a bit of green.

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread from Eating Well
Sometimes the addition of whole wheat flour to traditional baked goods seems forced, but not with hearty soda bread. If you can find a wholemeal flour with large flakes of bran and wheat germ, even better.

Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread from Gluten-Free Girl
A mix of almond, sorghum, sweet rice, teff and potato flours combine for a crackly crust, a soft crumb, and firm slices.

Irish Soda Bread Muffins from Recipe Girl
These slightly sweet muffins would work well as dinner rolls, especially if you make them in a smaller muffin tin. Or, make larger ones, slice one in half and top it with a fried egg for an Irish-American breakfast.

Irish Soda Bread Cookies from Food52
Finally, a way to dunk Irish soda bread in your tea (Irish Breakfast, naturally) without it disintegrating into a soggy mess.

Keep Reading
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Lemon-Pear Breakfast Bread
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Photo: Lynn Andriani

Just when I'd thought I'd seen every possible iteration of the famed combination of pasta, cheese, butter and milk, along comes a dish that reminds me there are always new ways to reinvent the wheel. This one just happens to be literal.

Spaghetti Pie—which I'd tell you about even if today weren't Pi Day—goes against all traditional mac ‘n’ cheese “rules”: it’s not made with shells, elbows or any other cut pasta, but spaghetti—and you don’t bake it in a casserole dish, but pan-fry it in a nonstick pan. Then you turn it out onto a cutting board and slice it into wedges using a pizza cutter. Chef and restaurateur Marc Murphy, of Landmarc and Ditch Plains restaurants in New York, started making it for his children and their friends as an after-school snack. Turns out adults love it, too. When I made it this weekend, everyone at the table, regardless of age, went back for seconds. Their mouths were clearly too full to express any disappointment over this new twist on a classic.

And if you're still looking for other versions of macaroni coated with cheddar, Parmesan or Gruyere, check out this slideshow of 11 ways to make mac 'n' cheese, from veggie-heavy to lobster-studded.

Keep Reading
7 healthy potato dishes that are tastier than cheese fries
Casseroles for every taste
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Photo: Travis Rathbone

Pop quiz: Which would you rather eat, a big bowl of rice and beans, or a burger made from said rice and beans, packed with flavorful ingredients like jalapeno or feta, topped with slices of avocado or cheese, and sandwiched between a bun?

Thought so. Here are three meatless burgers that are easy to make and infinitely more satisfying than a plain old plate of rice.

Lentils
When chef Nancy Silverton was trying to come up ways to make veggie burgers delicious, she asked herself what she could add to a bowl of, say, plain rice, to make it delicious. Answer: Sharp cheeses like shredded white cheddar, and smoky roasted red peppers. Her burger includes uncooked lentils and freshly steamed brown rice, which is sticky and helps hold the patties together.
Get the recipe: Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers

Keep chugging along with those soups and casseroles, but throw in these four fun foods this month, too.

An Irish souffle. Who says you need to make soda bread on St. Patrick's Day? This collection of Irish comfort food recipes features shamrock soup, a seafood bisque, apple and chive flower salad and other "who knew?" dishes. (Traditionalists, relax: There are also recipes for tried-and-true dishes like shepherd's pie and fish and chips.)

Oreos. The iconic cookie turns 100 years old this month, and while we're loving all the tributes, from using the treat to illustrate the phases of the moon, to a taste test of the real deal versus a homemade "Fauxreo," Ina Garten's recipe for Outrageous Oreo Crunch Bars is at the top of our must-make list.

Photo: Thinkstock

We may be losing an hour of sleep from Daylight Saving Time this weekend, but come Monday, we'll have an additional 60 minutes of daylight. They'll be most noticeable right around dinnertime, so many of us will find ourselves eating our evening meals a little later. Why not use those few minutes to try something new (and healthy) in the kitchen? Here are four fast fresh ways to turn everyday vegetables into meals that wow.

Roast your own peppers. Cheaper and much more flavorful than jarred, homemade roasted peppers are a snap to make. This recipe explains how to do it (and how to make a soup with the finished product).

Slice your greens. Adding leafy greens like arugula and spinach to couscous or quinoa isn't always seamless: rip the vegetables into shreds and they overpower the tiny grains; chop them finely and they get lost. Slicing them into slender ribbons takes some time but ensures they'll be easy enough to pick up on a fork with the grain, and still lend substance to the dish.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Ozwald Boateng: In the Kitchen on Nowness.com.

* Laurence Fishburne wanted to help his friend, the designer Ozwald Boateng, to become a better husband and father, so he channeled his considerable charm into a cooking lesson. Lucky for us, it was caught on tape. (The Nowness)

* If you're looking for a little inspiration, take a tour of the mechanical wonders and vintage toys in cartoonist Chris Ware's home and studio. (Trip City)

* Mantyhose: Are men ready to wear tights? Are we ready for men to wear tights? (The Week)

"Dreams, for most kids, stay in a blur. For John, it's starting to clear."—Will Orozco, a retired sanitation worker in the Bronx, on his gymnast son John's Olympic hopes. (NYTimes)

Photo: Thinkstock

If you're like my mother, you keep all food except bananas in the refrigerator, and have a strict toss-it-after-two-days policy. If you're French, on the other hand, your fridge is set at a barely cool temperature, and eggs and butter sit out on the counter, right alongside the brie and baguette. Where's the happy medium? A new infographic on healthy living site Hella Wella explains how long all different kinds of foods will keep, refrigerated, from soup to lunch meat; while artist Jihyun Ryou's Save Food From the Fridge project is finding untraditional ways to store foods to help them last longer.

So what's the best way to store eggs? Hella Wella's infographic says they're fine in the fridge for three weeks. But Ryou prefers to keep them out. She explains that an egg has millions of holes in its shell, so it absorbs odors easily--leading to an off taste if you store it in the same closed space where you keep onions, ground beef and blue cheese. Ryou's solution: A shelf hung on a wall, with a clear cup of water hanging off of it, so you can test an egg's freshness (it's best when it sinks).

I'm taking advice from both the chilled and non-chilled camps, printing out the handy infographic and taping it to the inside of a kitchen cabinet. But Ryou's suggestion to store apples and potatoes together is one smart step I'll definitely take: the ethylene gas the apples emit prevents potatoes from sprouting. Brie and baguettes, though? They're easy to decide about: they don't stick around long enough in my house for storage to be an issue.

Read More:
12 egg dishes for any time of day
6 kitchen skills that will transform your cooking

Photo: Sue-Jean Chun

Granola is the king of breakfast toppers; sprinkle a little on yogurt, fruit, or milk and you have an instant meal. But the cereal's classic crunch takes a star turn at lunch or dinner when it shows up as a savory topping (think of it as little croutons) on soups, salads, cottage cheese, and dips. Try this version from Chef Robert Wiedmaier, of the restaurants Marcel’s and Mussel Bar in Washington, D.C. He adds his granola to parsnip soup. Once you've make your first batch, though, the real fun begins as you adapt the mix to suit your own taste. The options—Parmesan? Rosemary? Raisins?—are endless.

Photo: Thinkstock

The year after I graduated college I clocked approximately 80 million hours steaming milk, pulling espresso shots and moaning that my feet ached at a grocery-store coffee bar. I liked being a barista, but I also found myself bristling when people snapped things like, "This milk isn't foamy enough!" or "This milk is too foamy!" or "This milk is too... milky!"  I'm a really a creative person! I found myself thinking. How dare they treat me like some food-dispensing servant? (I concede that it's possible that I lack the correct attitude to succeed as a service professional.)

But as creative as I thought I was, the truth was: my lattes always looked like plain old cups of sad boring beige. Try as I might, I never figured out how to make those lovely leafy designs that elevate a coffee into a liquid work of art. I love them, though, and as it turns out, I'm not the only one: there is actually a World Latte Art Competition.  As Jeshurun Webb writes for Salon.com this week, the judges at this competition assess the milky masterpieces based on the following criteria: "Balance and Symmetry (dividing lines are even and show no hesitation), Harmony (between the size of the cup and the size and position of the design), Clarity of Design (contrast), Quality of Milk Texture (yes, it takes a lot of practice to perfectly texture milk)."

It's not just my fiendish need for caffeine that makes this list sound like poetry, right? Because these are qualities I'd like to have in everything I do. Balance and Symmetry? I love the idea that creating something beautiful involves showing "no hesitation" It's all about doing things with confidence, whether it's presenting at a meeting or painting a picture or creating a cup of coffee. Harmony? May we all match the scope of our creations to the size of our cups, so to speak. Clarity of design? May we all have vision (please). Even the phrase "quality of milk texture" seems to me to apply to everything—because shouldn't we all master whatever materials we choose to work with?

Plenty of us toil away at jobs that, like slinging java, don't immediately suggest creativity, but we can all strive to achieve balance and symmetry, harmony and clarity, in every day. Even the dullest task can become a canvas. I wish I'd been able to see this while I was sullenly concocting endless cappuccinos myself, but that's okay—when it comes to my day-to-day now, there's no end to mundane tasks that I can try to make creative. Here I come, Slow Cooker Casserole Art Competition!

You must see the rosettes gathered on the Salon site, which are displayed alongside the barsita/artists' signatures, as a study of line quality.

Read More:
Three Ways To Tune Out and Get Creative
How Everyone is a Creative Person

Photo: NASA/Markowitz/Stafford

Maya Cooper is grinding wheat berries to make flour, which she will then use to make bread and pasta. But Cooper, 36, is not an ambitious home cook preparing brunch for friends. Instead, she's ensconced in a pristine NASA food laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston, surrounded by freeze-drying machines and vacuum-packing equipment. Cooper's mission: to figure out what to feed astronauts during their first trip to Mars, tentatively scheduled for the 2030s.
            
From a cuisine standpoint, a mission to the red planet—estimated to take three years, much longer than the typical one- or two-week trip to the moon—poses unique challenges. Most of the prepackaged foods on which astronauts have long relied can spoil in half that time. Cooper, who studied chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, helped develop organic snacks for Frito-Lay before becoming a contractor for NASA. There, she researches the costs, benefits and risks of extraterrestrial farms on which astronauts may someday grow food during extended exploratory missions.