St. Patrick's Day - Not Just for Drinking!

I love celebrating holidays through food - and yes, that includes St. Patrick's Day. Irish food has never been as celebrated as Irish drink, but I think it should be. And boy, do I love Irish drink.

Irish cuisine is based on simplicity - the meats, fish and vegetables available on a small, rocky island. Today I'm celebrating the Irish with roasted herb-crusted lamb, colcannon (mashed potatoes with sauteed kale and Irish cheddar), and chocolate stout cupcakes with vanilla-Irish Cream frosting.

I bought a small rack of lamb ribs - 3 ribs each is enough for two people. I put 1/2 tsp each of dried sage, rosemary and thyme (sorry, no parsley) in a small bowl, with 1 tsp each of salt and fresh cracked pepper. To the herb mix, add 2 minced garlic cloves and just a bit of olive oil - just enough to make it a paste (probably about a Tbsp). I rubbed the paste onto both sides of the lamb, and roasted in a 325 degree oven for about half an hour - the temperature of the meat should be 160 for medium. The photo makes the meat look very red, but it was done perfectly.

Colcannon is a little bit of work, but worth it. You need about 2 lbs of potatoes - I used baby dutch yellows, cut in half, so they would cook quickly. Add the potatoes to a large pot of boiling water, then add about a Tbsp of salt. While they are cooking, grate some cheese if you want it (about half a pound is good) and saute your kale - trim the thick parts of the ribs off and rough-chop the leaves until you have about a cup. Put this in a pan with a splash of chicken stock, beer, water - anything liquid really. Just cook it down enough to wilt the kale without burning it (this takes away the natural bitterness). Once the potatoes are fork tender, drain them and add 2 Tbsp butter and a cup of any of the following: cream, milk or sour cream. Today I used about half a cup of light cream (had it in the fridge), and filled in the rest with reduced fat sour cream. Use more liquid if you like your mashed potatoes creamier. Mash it all together, then mix in the wilted kale (and cheese if using).

For the Stout Cupcakes: I made regular chocolate cake mix, replacing the required water with Guinness. Then I added 1.5 oz (one shot) of Irish Cream liqueur to a tub of regular vanilla frosting. I think this would have been even better with a buttercream or cream cheese frosting, but I already had a tub of vanilla I needed to use. As it was, it was great. I like to put the frosting into a zip-loc bag, cut the corner, and pipe the frosting on so I can pile it up better. Green sprinkles on top, of course.

To round your St. Patrick's Day meal, you should include some Irish whiskey of course. Choose your favorite - Paddy's, Jameson, Tullamore Dew, whatever you like. Drink it neat, or add a couple of ice cubes and swirl. Just whatever you do, stay away from that Bushmills stuff - it's Protestant whiskey.

Valentine's Day

Hal and I celebrated our 10th V-Day this year. I can't believe it's been 10 years since we celebrated by meeting at a Macaroni Grill restaurant halfway between Athens and Hiram, where the two of us were living. Boy, I don't miss the long-distance relationship. Instead, I still love every minute of being married and sharing my life and home with Hal. I like to think of Valentine's Day as a good excuse to make sure to slow down and spend time together, even on a weeknight. I like to make a nice dinner, and just hang out with my husby - my awesome Valentine.

This year, I made sea scallops, dusted with flour and seared in a garlic-infused olive oil that my mom gave me (Sweetwater Growers in Canton, GA is also a good source...and they ship easily). For sides, I made individual potato gratins from a Melissa d'Arabian recipe, and prosciutto-wrapped plums stuffed with Gorgonzola. I intended to use figs or baby pears, neither of which I could find, so I thought I'd try plums since they are a good size too. I put them in the oven for about 5 minutes to crisp up the prosciutto and melt the cheese - yum! I think the key is not to use TOO much Gorgonzola, and maybe next time I'll add a drizzle of honey. The potato gratins, which involve layering potato slices, scallions and shredded swiss in the cups of a muffin tin, then drizzling with lite cream and baking, I must say were a bit of a disappointment. The cream sort of congealed a bit, and the flavor was just a little bland.

To make up for that, I made Molten Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes that I found in a McCormick ad a while back. These were terribly easy, and very delicious. We each finished about half of one, since they were so dense, but they were really lovely! I was glad the liquid center and cakey outside worked so well. Give these a shot - it only takes a few minutes to make up the batter, which can be done ahead, and about 15 minutes to bake. I cut out a paper heart, put it on top, and dusted powdered sugar all over before removing the heart. They were as cute as they were yummy.

I hope you too had a Valentine's Day filled with love and good food, whether with family, friends, or the man you've loved dearly for the last 10 years.

Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas!! I am thankful to God tonight for the ability to provide my family a holiday feast, to be shared in our wonderful home with so much love at one table. Tonight, I'm praying for those who have no feast, who have no home, or who are lonely/far from loved ones. We celebrate Christ's birth as the birth of light and hope for all the world, especially those who most need it. My New Year's Resolution is to further endeavor to deserve the abundant blessings I have been given. Now for the food. :)

I made slow cooker butternut squash soup for an appetizer, from this blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/crockpot-butternut-squash-soup-recipe.html. The only changes I made were to add some cream and use chicken stock instead of broth. I served it in miniature martini glasses so we could walk around with it - I think it came out really tasty.

Duck Burgundy: (I do this every year - so hard to screw up a duck)- Hal cleans out the innards, then I rub the bird with a bit of oil/salt/pepper and stuff the cavities with chunks of onion, apple and orange. Then I douse the bird with Burgundy wine, leaving plenty in the bottom of the roasting pan, to baste with every 20 minutes or so. Always tender and flavorful. I used some of the pan juices, a shot of brandy, a cup of cider and a few tablespoons of cornstarch to make gravy.

I also made a scalloped potatoes recipe I got out of an old Irish cookbook I have called The Irish Isle. Start with 3 lbs of potatoes, sliced thin. Bring to a boil with 4 cups of milk, 1 tbsp butter, salt/pepper, 1-2 sprigs of thyme and some fresh grated nutmeg. Once it boils, simmer for 10 minutes until potatoes are tender. Stir frequently to prevent a film forming at the bottom. Once tender, use a slotted spoon to pull out half potatoes, spread across a casserole dish. Top with a drizzle of cream and 1/2 to 1 cup of white or marbled cheddar. Repeat with remaining potatoes. Bake at 375 for 1 hour or until browned on top. These were awesome - everyone had multiple helpings.

I also roasted some asparagus in garlic and olive oil (with a bit of lemon zest over the top), and my mom made a salad with pears, walnuts and bleu cheese. Mmm-mmm.

For dessert, I made my first cheesecake! It was a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I got from my sister's mother-in-law. I made a gingersnap crust and topped it with a cream cheese/sugar/hazelnut spread. The crust was good, but it was really crunchy - not what I expected. I may not have used enough butter. And the cheesecake fell a little more than I would have liked, but it was still incredibly tasty. It may not have been perfect, but it was still delicious.

Overall, I was thrilled with how dinner went. We had a semi-full house. Only 9 people, instead of the 16 (!) I'm having for brunch on Monday morning. Thanks as always to Hal, his parents, my sister-in-law Ginna and nephew Zane, my parents, and Granddaddy Stokes for making me feel like the Santa Claus of the kitchen. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Cookie Trees

Boy, do I love holiday cookies. I also love that its tacitly okay to eat like 10 a day. (Please don't tell my gym instructors I just said that). But if you're going to eat that many, you need a nice variety, right? So it doesn't seem like you just ate the whole package of cookies? No no, you just sampled a few here and there from different groups. It's totally fine. What I love to do is make a "cookie tree" - stack different types of cookies in layers on a large paper/plastic plate, to make a pyramid. Wrap it up in green cellophane (or recycled paper), tied with curling ribbon right at the top of the pyramid. You can leave it there, but I like to add a sparkly star-shaped "pick" to make it festive. I find those at all the craft stores, or places like Garden Ridge. It's an easy way to make a simple, homemade gift that much more festive.

This year, I made my favorite Snickerdoodles and Peppermint Brownies, decorated store-bought sugar cookies with a few nieces/nephews and tried out a new spice cookie that turned out great: chocolate-garam masala-gingerbread cookies from Aarti Sequeira on the Food Network:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/garam-masala-chocolate-gingerbread-recipe/index.html

Give those a shot if you like a spice cookie. I was really happy with them, and I love Aarti - she was my favorite on Next Food Network Star from day 1 this season, and all of her recipes that I've tried are fantastic. For the Peppermint Brownies, just add about a Tbsp of peppermint extract to your regular brownie mix. The Snickerdoodles are here (you can use red/green colored sugar for the topping as well, but don't use JUST that - mix it in with the white sugar or they look TOO festive):

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/snickerdoodles-recipe/index.html

Here are my other favorite cookies that didn't make the Tree group this year, but that I plan to make next week:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Candy-Cane-Cookies-233372

Happy Eating!

Leftovers

One of the best things about big food holidays is the leftovers. If you have extra turkey, try it on a roll with Brie and cranberry sauce. I make my cranberry sauce with horseradish, which is great on this sandwich too. The kick is especially nice when it's cold and raining. I hope everyone had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as I did. I feel truly blessed. And very full.

Pumpkin Stew

Thanksgiving week has started! Its the best cooking week of the year, so I like to try a few new things with the traditional. Tonight, my sister and brother-in-law arrived at the beach with us, and I made an Argentinian Pumpkin Stew in a pumpkin shell with cracked pepper biscuits. It was the first time I made a stew inside the pumpkin, and I was disappointed that the pumpkin wasn't as tender as I'd hoped on the inside. Next time, I'll cook it less in the pot ahead and longer in the pumpkin. It looked great though - very festive. And the stew was incredible. It came from a recipe on cooks.com that my old violin teacher, Lynne Webster Sawyer, lead me to last year. As we give thanks this week, I'd like to include that I'm thankful Lynne is still in my life, that Lindsay and Scott are awesome and willing guinea pigs, and that I'm able to indulge in my love of cooking for a whole week with my family. Cheers!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1948,144178-239207,00.html

(PS - the only changes I made were using beef stock instead of broth for a more robust flavor and swapping the sherry for white wine.)

Getting Ready...

Thanksgiving is coming up quickly - Hal and I are having Thanksgiving with my family in Hilton Head this year, and we're taking the whole week off. Woohoo! That means we're leaving in one week. So today I've spent my non-football-watching time making some food to freeze and take with us. I also made some Wassail in the crock pot, and have been drinking on it all day - one of my favorite holiday traditions: getting half drunk while I cook. My wassail is easy:
1 gallon apple cider
1 bottle red wine (I like something light, like a Pinot Noir)
12-16 oz of orange juice
12-16 oz pineapple juice
couple of cinnamon sticks and cloves
Mix together, heat it up. You can make it in crock pot, large stew pot on the stove, or a large coffee percolator. Its also very easy to cut that recipe down for consumption by only two people while cooking.

I hope everyone is getting as excited about holiday food as I am. Most of my make-aheads today were breads - blueberry croissant French Toast, cracked pepper biscuits and cider-pumpkin muffins. I'm getting my plan ready for the rest of the make-aheads that I'll take care of closer to time also, to make Thanksgiving as easy as possible since we'll have a lot of people in the condo kitchen. And all I'll want to be doing is drinking anyway. :)