Bacon, Leek and Barley Soup

I love soup. It is probably my favorite "type" of food. Recently, I landed on my new favorite: Bacon, Leek and Barley!

I believe that bone broth is extremely nourishing and healing. So, I love to get as much of it into my family and myself as possible. 

I recently tried making the English Bacon, Leek and Potato soup from the Nourished Kitchen blog. Seeing as I live in Ireland, I had no trouble finding the right kind of bacon. I loved this soup SOOOO much. 

This soup made me nostalgic for the soup my granny used to make. No one I have asked seems to know what her recipe was and it has been over 30 years since I have tasted it. So I am not sure if it even tastes like this, but this definitely brought me back. One big difference that I did notice though:  Granny's soup had barley in it. 

I tend to oscillate between following a strictly paleo diet and experimenting with traditional grains. So I decided to try their recipe with added barley. It was fabulous and even more like granny's soup. Either with the barley or without, this soup is a winner and my current fave. Here is the recipe:

Bacon, Leek & Barley Soup

250g rashers (English/Irish bacon)

80g leeks chopped

100g carrots chopped

470g potatoes chopped

100g barley

1-2 Tbsp butter

Sea salt to taste

8-10 cups bone broth*

1. Sautee the leeks in butter until they soften.

2. Add the carrots and sautee about one more minute

3. Add the bacon and cook til nicely brown

4. Add bone broth, potatoes and barley. 

5. Simmer until the potatoes and barley are both soft, about 20 minutes

6. Add salt to taste.

*Note. Every week, either on Sunday or Monday I roast a chicken for dinner, so that  afterwards I can stick the bones in the crockpot overnight and then have broth for the weeks cooking. From one chicken I end up with about 10 cups. (I fill three empty passata bottles and keep them in the fridge)

Knitting : Grey cable tunic sweater

Today I finished knitting my first sweater. Of course, it is grey.

I have actually been able to knit since I was about 7 years old. It's something that we learned in school in Ireland. I'm also very happy to say that both of my children were taught to knit in school last year too.

Anyway, prior to knitting this sweater, I had only ever knit scarves. Maybe three scarves total in my 35 years of being able to knit! My mom is such an amazing knitter, so I never bothered. I would just ask her to knit me what I wanted. 

A few months ago, I was invited to a "knit and stitch" night. My good friend, who is also an expert knitter, convinced me that I actually knew enough (plain, purl, cast on, cast off) to knit something other than a scarf and she showed me how to read a knitting pattern.

I headed to my favorite little wool and craft shop Winnie's Wool Wagon , I bought this Debbie Bliss pattern book:

I also bought ome beautiful bamboo needles (they were a little more expensive than the plastic ones, but so much prettier). I found the most beautiful grey wool,  Drops Andes Light Grey #9020  and got started on my "Cable Yoke Jumper"

I am so very excited. I want to wear my new sweater every day. I have been pinning and pinning sweaters to my to pinterest knitting board. I have joined Ravelry. I am now all set to embark on amassing the ultimate grey sweater collection. 

Cottage in Rathfriland

One of the reasons we moved to Ireland is that we really want a little cottage in the Irish countryside. Ideally we want something remote, rural and peaceful, with enough outbuildings to use for workspace. Til we have our own cottage though, there is nothing we love more than escaping the city to explore parts of the countryside that we have not yet been to. With plenty of long weekends and school breaks throughout the year, I am constantly trolling AirBnB looking for our next adventure. Last week the kids had a midterm break and so we decided to explore "up North." I had seen Tullyquilly Cottage on AirBnb a while ago and fell in love with the pictures.

It looked and sounded amazing and it was in an area that we have only really passed through (less than two hours from Dublin, no less!). We were also lured by the prospect of a wood-fired hot tub. So, off we went for three relaxing nights in Rathfriland

The cottage itself was a beautiful space. Unlike most traditional cottages which are usually laid out as several small rooms, the inside of this cottage was a big open space. It was a bit like a loft in a cottage. This was nice for our family to both spread out and be close simultaneously. There was a fabulous collection of musical instruments and vintage toys. The kitchen was the perfect combination of old and new: I enjoyed cooking on the old aga-style stove, especially with the added bonus of under floor heating.

I could see that the grounds would come to fabulous fruition in the summer and be especially magical, but even in winter we still loved the setting, visiting the miniature donkeys (Paddy and Cara) and the chickens. There were potatoes, jerusalum artichokes and the yummiest winter squash ever from the garden. The swings and trampoline were a big hit with the kids and the wood-fired hot tub did not disappoint. Our gracious host had it fired up and warm for us to use on our first night and we used it every night of our stay, even when it rained!

Though we spent most of our time relaxing (and working) at the cottage, we managed to venture out and explore the area a bit, including a beautiful hike in Tollymore Forest Park (where they sometimes film Game of Thrones), a picnic at Murlough Nature Reserve,  a drive through Newcastle and a scenic drive through the countryside around the foothills of the Mourne Mountains. We loved our getaway to Rathfriland and hope to return. Highly recommend it!

Some snaps from our trip:

Tollymore Forest Park

Murlough National Nature Reserve

 Back at "Tullyquilly Cottage"

Visiting Cara and Paddy down the lane from Tullyquilly

The disc swing

The seat swing

Nice light!

The trees are bare, but the ambiance is still special.

The best part!

Check out Tullyquilly for yourselff: AirBnB

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Lamb Heart Chili

In the interest of both budget and nutrition, I make a huge effort to feed my family organ meats regularly. Luckily since moving to Ireland, worrying about finding "grass-fed" meat and dairy is not really an issue. Phew. However, I still go out of my way to find meat that is free-range and organic. This is something I am even more serious about when it comes to organ meats.

On Saturday, I was at my local Natural Food Market trying to get as much nutrition as possible for my limited food budget. Along with some ground beef and chicken carcasses (for bone broth), I also picked up very reasonable lambs liver and lamb hearts.

I know my kids will eat the liver pan-fried (just don't tell them it's liver please) but I knew I would have to do something to disguise the hearts. I have made the PaleoMom's pumpkin chili before and really liked the flavor. So, I decided to do something similar, using ingredients I had on hand. I can't say this was a huge hit with my kids (they thought it was "too spicy") but I really loved it and they ate it at least. Sometimes they need to try something a few times before they come around, but even if they don't, this is a recipe I would make again just because I like it so much. I also suppose I could tone down the spice and see what they think. Anyway, it was fab and a great way to incorporate organ meats into your diet.

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Lamb Heart Chili

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
3 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 lamb hearts, chopped small (I remove the very obvious ventricles)
2 tbsp dripping or tallow or oil
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 jar of tomato passata
1 tsp salt


Heat oven to 350F or 180C.
1. Roast the butternut and sweet potato pieces in the oven for 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sautee the onions, garlic and heart pieces in 2 tsp dripping til onions are translucent and heart pieces are nicely brown.
3. Add the chili powder, curry powder, cinnamon and nutmeg to the sautee pan, toss everything around to combine and then transfer these a crock pot.
4. Remove half the squash/potato pieces from the oven after 25 minutes and transfer to crockpot.
5. Keep cooking the rest of the  squash/ potato for 20 more minutes, til soft.
6. Add bay leaves, tomato passata and salt to slow cooker.
7. When the squash/potato pieces are done and soft, use a stick blender or food processor to puree.
8. Add puree to the crock pot.
9. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. (This will depend a bit on your crock pot. The one I had in the US seemed to cook at much lower temps than the one I have here in Ireland. This one always has stuff bubbling! Not sure I like that.)

So, that's a very simple organ meat dish, that I find quite delicious. We ate it over rice, but you could easily have it with cauliflower rice or on its own. I am also thinking it might be a nice savory filling for my einkorn crepes. It might also be nice with beans added to the mix (if you eat beans).