International fare with flair

We just returned from a wonderful, weeklong trip to Ireland. Now that I've recovered from my jet lag, I can share a few things about the food I enjoyed there--and will share photos later this week.

For one thing, in Ireland I rediscovered the value of taking time for breakfast. We stayed at various B&Bs the whole week, and I loved taking a half hour in the morning to sit down at a table and drink tea, eat brown bread spread with butter and jam, and sample some homemade Irish porridge. (At one B&B, when I asked the owner about her porridge recipe, she told me her secret ingredient was Bailey's Irish Cream--no wonder it tasted so good!)

Our breakfasts each day were a far cry from my usual workweek ritual: gulp down coffee from a travel mug in the car while simultaneously driving, eating peanut butter toast, searching for my work ID badge and rooting around for parking garage money.

My post-Ireland, late-summer resolution: Each day, I'll take the time to sit down and eat breakfast, even if it's just 10 minutes at the table.