St. Patrick's Day and the end of Winter

What seems so obvious, can often be overlooked.  St. Patrick's Day, for me anyway, marks the End of Winter, and the beginning of Spring.  One season of the year may attempt to hold on, but it's obvious that another is just starting.   But it is more than just a marking of time, it's a time for family, traditions, laughter, and of remembrance.  

Many people seem to have forgotten that the Irish have not always had an easy time being in America. There was a time others looked down upon the Irish as lower-class citizens. They were the working poor, and believed to only be drinkers, fighters and poets. They were ones that did the jobs no one else wanted, and many died trying to build a better life than the ones they left behind in Ireland.  Some lived to see that come about.  If they could see us today, would they be proud of what we've accomplished, what our people have become?  I'd like to think that my Irish Ancestors would be proud of the woman that I am. 

 

My Irish Grams instilled in me a sense of family, loyalty, passion, and hospitality.  She may have only been a waitress, but she was rich beyond means in love, and  family.  She could be harsh at times, but I never doubted her love and faith in me and my abilities.   She always had encouraged me to go to cooking school, to go out in the world, explore, sing, laugh, dance, and make lots of money so I would not know how being poor felt.  But above all she wanted me happy.  

One thing that Grams wasn't, was a Cook.  Oh, she could bake a few things, but she was a waitress by trade, not a cook.  She had the traditional "Irish Seasonings" in her kitchen.  Salt and Pepper.  I don't think I can recall a time of her using cumin, mustard, chipotle, lemon peel, lime, or even much garlic.  Ingredients like fresh greens, curry, ginger, liquid smoke, rice wine vinegar or even olive oil were not in her cupboard.  Whenever I took her one of my "experiments", she'd try it and tell me if it was good or not.  I loved trying new things out for her, especially when she'd tell me I made her too much.  I would usually reply that it was my upbringing which led me to make too much so that I always had room for one more, should a guest stop by.  I could usually get a smile out of her at that point.  Grams has been gone a few years now, and I miss her every St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and so many other days.  The memories are happy ones.  So if a tear comes to my eye, it's not that I'm feeling the loss of her, but that I'm remembering so many of our adventures....

So this St. Patrick's Day I wanted to create a menu that honors the Irish-American.  The hardworking man and woman that try to build a better life than those that come before them. Ones that try to not to take advantage of others, that live a life full of passion, family, faith, love, and goodness towards others - no matter their background.  That to me, is what being Irish is all about.  It's something I celebrate all year long, not just on St. Patrick's Day.  But then again, any excuse to celebrate LIFE is a good reason to the Irish!

St. Patrick's Day 2014 Menu

Irish Sausage Rolls

Guinness Mustard

Roasted Beets & Carrots

Cheddar and Chive Biscuits

Mashed Potatoes

Boiled Cabbage and Carrots

Corned Beef

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Irish Sausage Rolls

http://www.irishamericanmom.com/2011/12/12/sausage-rolls/ 

Serves            18

Prep time        1 hour 

Cook time      25 minutes

Total time       1 hour, 25 minutes

Ingredients

3 Puff pastry sheets

1 Egg (beaten for brushing pastry )

Sausage Filling

1lb Ground pork (OR you can use FRESH Ground Sausage)

1 teaspoon Dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon Dried marjoram

1/2 teaspoon Dried basil

1/2 teaspoon Dried rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon Dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon Dried sage

1/8 teaspoon Salt

1/8 teaspoon Black pepper

1 cup Breadcrumbs

1 Garlic clove (minced)

1 Egg (beaten)

Directions

1. Grind the spices, salt and pepper in a coffee grinder.
2. Add the ground spices and minced garlic to the breadcrumbs in a large mixing bowl and mix together.
3. Add the ground pork to the seasoned breadcrumbs and combine using your fingers. Add half of the beaten egg and mix thoroughly until the meat mixture begins to stick together. Discard the excess egg.
4. Using your hands roll the sausage, forming 4 cylindrical shapes about 3/4 inches thick and 10 inches long. Set meat aside.
   
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
6. Open a thawed puff pastry sheet on a floured surface. Cut into 3 strips about 3 inches wide and 10 inches long.
7. Place a 3 inch piece of the pre-formed sausage meat on the pastry close to the edge. Roll the pastry around the meat, overlapping underneath by one inch.
8. Cut the pastry roll, then roll it back to brush the lower layer with egg wash. Re-roll and seal the lower seam.
   
9. Using a sharp knife, cut two diagonal 1/2 inch slits in the top surface of the roll. Repeat the procedure to form 18 sausage rolls.
10. Lay the prepared sausage rolls on the baking tray in rows and one inch apart.
11. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash.
12. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 20 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for a further 5 minutes.
13. Remove from the oven when golden brown on top. Cool the sausage rolls on a wire rack.
14. Serve hot or cold as desired.
15. Goes GREAT with Guinness Mustard!

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Guinness Mustard

Ingredients

Mustard of your Choice (Stone Ground, Dijon, Honey Dijon, Hot, Sweet, just NOT yellow).

Guinness

Directions

In a bowl, whisk Guinness into Mustard 1 tsp at a time, making sure the mixture isn't too thin.

Taste. Add more Guinness to your liking.

Cover and Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Serve with Irish Sausage Rolls.

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Roasted Beets & Carrots

Prep Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients
Beets

Carrots

Sea Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Brown Sugar

Thyme, chopped

Directions

1. Pre-Heat Oven to 350
2. Peel & quarter beets
3. Peel & chop carrots at an angle in 1" chunks
4. Toss with Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper place in separate oven safe dishes
5. Sprinkle Beets with Brown Sugar
6. Sprinkle Carrots with Thyme
7. Bake 25-30 minutes or until fork tender and crispy on the edges

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Cheddar and Chive Drop Biscuits

Makes:  2 Dozen

Prep Time:  15 minutes

http://www.marthastewart.com/862725/cheddar-drop-biscuits

Ingredients

cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

8 ounces sharp white cheddar, shredded

1 1/3 cups buttermilk, well shaken

3 tablespoons chopped chives

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees with racks in upper and lower third positions. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.
3. Work butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or your fingers until butter is incorporated and pea-size lumps remain.
4. Stir in cheddar, then buttermilk and chives just until dough comes together.
5. Using two spoons, drop 1/4 cup quantities of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Do not use your hands!
6. Bake in oven until golden brown, 12-14 minutes, rotating baking sheets once.
7. Cool on a wire rack and serve with butter.

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Corned Beef

First, did you know that Corned Beef is not popular in Ireland? It's an American dish. Beef was not as prevalent in Ireland, and most Irish couldn't have afforded it anyway.  But here in America, where we have land as far as the eye can see, Beef is the meat of choice.  One year I'd like to try making corned beef from scratch.  Yes, I mean actually to brine the meat myself and not relying on those wondrous packages that come in the grocery store. 

Yet I shouldn't have to tell you how to make Corned Beef, Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes.  That's something every Irish-American woman should know how to do.....  But just in case you didn't grow up in the kitchen helping cook with your Aunts like I did, here is a fool-proof way to cook your Corned Beef.  The longer it cooks, the more tender it is.

Go to the Store the week before St. Patrick's.  If this is your FIRST time making Corned Beef, buy a Flat Cut Corned Beef.  They are more expensive than a point cut, but it presents nicer to a crowd, is easier to cut and has less fat.  If you're on a budget, and you love to make Corned Beef Hash, save your money and buy the Point Cut. It's got more fat on it, and is non-uniform shape is perfect for funky portions. If you find a good sale on Corned Beef, buy two. Put the second one in the freezer for use for later in the year!

So when should you start cooking your Corned Beef? My fool-proof method is to use a crock-pot. Count back 10 Hours from the time you want to serve your dinner, add 30 minutes for rest.  Write this time down. This is the time you want to start your Corned Beef.  Don't have 10.5 hours during the day? Trying to plan an early dinner?  You can even start your dinner right before you go to bed.  That's the beauty of a crock-pot.

When it's time to start the corned beef, place the Corned Beef, with all package juices in a large crock-pot, cover with water and set on LOW for 10 hours, add the spice packet. 

About 1 hour before the end time, place your cabbage and carrots in the crock-pot with the Corned Beef. The cabbage should be cored and quartered, the carrots cut into thick pieces.

After 10 hours, remove from the water and let rest for at least 15-20 minutes before carving diagonal across the grain.

Remove Cabbage and Carrots when done to your liking.

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Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs of potatoes

Salt

Water

Directions

Peel and halve potatoes. 

Add to stockpot, cover with water, add salt.

Bring to a boil, cook till fork tender.

Strain, return to pot.

Add BUTTERMILK, Butter, Salt and Pepper and Mash.

Cover and Keep warm until dinner time.

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Did you notice I didn't talk about dessert? That's cause it was a failure.  I had a picture, but it ended up being blah.  So I'm about to try a new dessert here in a few minutes....

But enough teasing.. Here are the Dinner Plate Shots.  

There ya go. St. Patrick's Day 2014.  It was good.  So good that I didn't have much leftovers.  So now I need to go back to the store and buy another corned beef to put in the freezer.  

Now that I'm hungry, it's time to go make Beef n Stout Stew with Dumplings and Strawberry swirl Mini-Cheesecakes.

Cold and Corned beef!

Another cold snap is hitting the pacific northwest.  We were down to 14 degrees upriver. It was beautiful!

That being said, I saw one of my favorite foods on the store shelves yesterday.. Corned beef.  Irish American food.  It's so bad its good.  And my husband can cook it (crockpots are a wife's best friend!). It got me thinking about St. Pat's day 2014, which is on a Monday.  I think I'll be celebrating on Sunday this year!
I am pleased to announce that this year I may even try my hand at making my own Irish Bacon!

I can't wait for potato oatmeal breakfast cakes, Irish coffee, some Irish car bomb cupcakes, roasted root veggies, champ, colcannon, and more!

All recipes I make will be creates to be featured in my upcoming cookbook, so look for a few sneak peeks as I gather ingredients in the next month!

Until then, keep warm!

Christmas Eve and what it means to me

For many people in America, Christmas Eve is just the day before Christmas.  But for my family it was the BIG holiday. Our Grams was a waitress who worked Christmas Day, so our family (on my moms’ side) always got together Christmas Eve.  Have I ever mentioned that my mom is one of nine children and I am one of 18 grandchildren?  And yes, we all fit into a small house.  Well, most of the time.

Christmas Eve was even more special to my immediate family as it was my father’s birthday.  So every year we gathered, had turkey, birthday cake, ham, ambrosia, green salads, pie, fattigman, julekaka, and so much more food!  Since I was about 5 years old my aunts would put me to work, usually after the boys wouldn't let me play with them. The kitchen was tiny so I was put in the breakfast nook with a peeler and bag of potatoes.   Ah, it still brings back fond memories.

Growing up Christmas Eve was never about the gifts.  We got them yes.  Oranges from one uncle, cordial cherries from another, gifts from Grams and other cousins, and of course, my dad would get birthday presents.  At home that night, if we were really good, we got to open one present!

Everything changed when Grams had a stroke.  We had just moved north to Snohomish to live in the 'country' with our horses, and it was decided that since we had the land Grams could put a mobile on our new property.  Christmas Eve didn't change much.  Family came, grew with new great grandchildren, I played Santa with Aunty H, we got Beer from one uncle, but the cordial cherries stopped, grams gave us all underwear one year, and then for some reason (I think it was due to my dad wanting to have his Birthday Dinner separate and we now lived with grandma and didn't want two huge meals on two days), we stopped doing the huge meals on Christmas Eve.  Someone came up with the idea of buying the big Stouffer's lasagnas. Ever since it's been our Christmas Eve Tradition.

But times change, and so did we.  Cousins stayed home with new babies, moved away.  Almost 15 years later my parents divorced, Grams was forgetting things and after she broke a hip had to be moved to a rehab home.  Given that we couldn't bring her back the her house, we started doing Christmas in Seattle at uncle J's house.  As my parents were divorced and not on friendly terms I had to split up my holidays.  It was really tough, especially since I was juggling birthdays and Christmas! As this is my story and my memories, I’m going to skip over some really rough years and get to the better ones.

In 2008 it snowed.  I did thanksgiving half with Dad, half with Mom's side. Christmas Eve was spent in Seattle, and then went to moms with Missy Kitty.  Christmas Day I went to Dad’s and had a great day with him.  So it was a win win!  I had my own apartment and I was super happy.

But in May of 2009 my world stopped as my dad was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, stage 4, which is the terminal one. Daddy passed away that September, leaving a big hole in my heart. My father was not a perfect person.  He had his faults and made his share of mistakes in his life.  But he loved my sister and me.  There has never been any doubt in my mind that he loved me to pieces and those are the memories that I cherish.

Christmas of 2009 was my first attempt at a Christmas Lasagna. Well, I had made one for myself one time before, but the first time I wanted anyone else to try my food!

You can tell from the picture of little 2nd cousin C and my mom that it was GOOD!  And my grams loved it.  She was always encouraging me to follow my dreams and passions.  

Here’s a picture of her with my uncle, mom, aunt and family friend.  She was in the mix of things and enjoying life!  Unfortunately this was her last Christmas.


Losing two of the most important people in my life changed me.  I wanted to follow my dreams and passions... One of them, obviously, is cooking.  And not just cooking, but sharing with family and friends.  I did a few cooking classes, experimented with lots of ingredients and lived.




The following year, Christmas 2010 I met up with my cousin’s wife D and together she and I made several homemade lasagnas, with fresh pasta, spinach, game meats, lots of cheese and great red wine marinara sauce!  Their townhouse smelt DIVINE!


This was also the year that I had met my husband and I brought him along to our Irish-Norwegian Christmas Eve in Seattle.  Complete with Lasagna, leg lamp and stories galore!  We had a GREAT Christmas, wrapped up in memories of love and laughter with family.

Each year since I make lasagna for Christmas Eve Dinner. It's my way of remembering family and friends, and doing something that I love.  I'm not posting my recipe.  It's something of a work in progress. I change it every year.  But it's simple.  Tomato-Wine Meat Sauce, Cheese mixture (Ricotta Mozzarella, Parmesan and Egg) and pasta.  Layer and bake.  It's really that easy.  

To me, Christmas Eve is about celebrating life with those that you love.  As I've had a long road of recovering from Viral Meningitis, we won't have a houseful tonight.  There may just be two persons and one cat tonight in attendance, but they’ll be more here with us in spirit as we have Christmas Eve Lasagna and watch a movie in our Pj's.

Happy Birthday Daddy.  We all miss you.

What do you make with all your Basil?

So a few months back I was at Hagens in Burlington, and they had a steal for Basil Plants.  They were 2.99 each and I simply knew I was buying one.  I ended up buying two.  They came home with me and alongside my two other basil plants I was growing from seed, they became huge!  And then I knew I was in trouble... what was I going to do with all this Basil?

Last week, after I knew that daily watering was a must, and that a few were starting to bolt, I knew it was time.  I had to make something with all this Basil.  Being me, I've added it to Panang Curry, spaghetti, Caprese Salads, and next I'll be drying some for winter.  But the jar of Creamy Pesto from Costco reminded me that  I like Pesto Pasta.  It's a new favorite in our household.

So I figured that I'd look up how to make Pesto.  An hour later I knew I had a few options.  But one thing, I've heard stories about Pine Nuts, and I can recall how expensive the buggers are.  So more research went into Pesto without nuts.  And sure enough, I found tons of variations.  So armed with my new knowledge, and all my fresh basil and my little food processor, what I created was divine!

Pesto
3 cups basil
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
Splash Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper to taste


Directions:
1. Pulse Garlic
2. Add Basil & Cheese
3. Drizzle in Olive Oil
4. Add Lemon Juice
5. Season to taste, adding more olive oil or lemon juice as needed.

Freeze in Ice Cub trays, pouring olive oil over the tops.

When frozen solid, pop them out (had to do the running water -upside down trick), and put them in  freezer bag, where they'll stay good for at least a year! ( Can you say FoodSaver bags and they're good for up to 2 years, if they last that long?)

So, now you want to know what we do with this goodness?  We make Presto Pesto Pasta!!



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Presto Pesto Pasta

Prep time:  5 Minutes      Cook Time:  15-20 minutes    Feeds: 2-3 people

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 homemade frozen presto pesto
Butter
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper
Optional:  Cream, Parmesan Cheese

How to make Presto Pesto Pasta
1. Gather all your ingredients, leave the pesto cube in the freezer until it’s ready to be used
2. Add Pasta noodles to pot, cover noodles with at least an inch of water, adding a dash of sea salt and a splash of olive oil to prevent sticking
3. Boil pasta noodles over medium heat until al dente (7-10 minutes)
4. Drain pasta & rinse with cold water, set aside
5. Add Presto Pesto cube to pot
6. As cube thaws, add up to 2 tbsp of olive oil, stirring constantly.
7. If you would like CREAMY Presto Pesto Pasta, at this point you can add the cream (slowly)
8. Add the noodles back to the pot
9. Add a pat or two of butter, stirring to coat the noodles in the pesto goodness…
10. Once coated, remove pot from heat source.
11. Season with Salt & Pepper to taste, adding any Parmesan cheese at this point
12. Serve Warm with a crusty French bread!

Variations:  Add Chicken, Sausage, or Prawns to make this a full meal!

Sorry there is no picture of the final project.  We ate it all!


So.. What have you done with your Basil?

PS - Enjoy!!

Update on "OroGold" Company Spotlight

So... I've removed my OroGold Bad Company Spotlight... Why?  Because they actually came to a resolution in the matter with my friend.

Does that mean that I'd ever recommend a person to buy their products? I'd have them first read all the return policies and be an informed consumer.  But it does give me hope that there are people who truly believe in customer service and in doing the Right Thing.  I was not very happy to have seen a friend's mom taken advantage of... but unfortunately, this is not a new scandal for our wonderful seniors, and LUCKILY this came to a happy ending.  This is not always the case!

So I've removed the letter as I don't want to jeopardize any refunds for my friends.  But this just goes to show, that if you have a problem, instead of just complaining about it, always contact the company that perhaps has done a disservice.  Let them know immediately, don't delay.  

I have another story like the one of my friends mom, but it happened to me. 

I signed up for a free account, and after it expired, I was charged the annual fee.  Well one year later, I was charged again, but I needed that money, and I no longer used the website (it was a hiking website).  So luckily, they refunded my money and thanked me for letting them know within days of the charge. Credit Card Disputes can lead to the merchant being fined by the credit card companies, so it's always best to try and contact the company directly.  Sometimes they'll help you right away like in my case.  But in others, like Mrs. K up in BC Canada, she needed friends to bring her situation to light..

So thank you everyone who sent a letter, who called, and who read my blog.  

Thank you to OROGOLD for making this right.