Colcannon Boxty Potato Cakes

Ingredients:

2 cups Colcannon
1 small potato
3/4 c up flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg
1/2 c up milk
1 cup vegetable oil


Directions:

Take about 2 cups of prepared Colcannon and set aside in a bowl. Grate a small, peeled uncooked potato into the mix (you can also use frozen hash browns if you have them).

Add flour, salt and pepper; mix well. Stir in milk and egg to form a batter.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Drop batter from a tablespoon into the hot oil, and cook 3-4 minutes on each side; drain on a paper towel. Transfer to your serving dish and serve with sour cream. Bet you can't eat just one!

Breakfast Popovers

For whatever reason, I came up with this recipe this morning out of the blue. I guess you could say it was meant to be. (Yeah, meant to be in mah belly!)

Here's what you need:

Turkey Sausage (pre-cooked)

Egg Beaters

Swiss Laughing Cow spread

Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (I had already popped the can before I remembered to take the picture. Oops!)

Chop 3 sausage patties into bite-sized pieces and combine with 3 wedges of Laughing Cow.

Add 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters and combine.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Place a dollop of the mixture in a crescent and fold up the sides (important to note: make sure the mixture is fully contained in the dough, as the Egg Beaters will run out)

Pop those bad boys in a pre-heated 375 degree oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.

I just made 4 of these but had mixture leftover (no more crescents, though) it would probably make about 6-8.

St. Patrick's Day Feast

St. Patrick's Day has always been a big holiday in my family. I have memories of listening to Celtic music all day while the delicious smells from the kitchens of various family members would waft throughout the house. The parades, the gatherings...it's all a big deal to me and a tradition I hope to continue with my own Irish baby. (A fine wee lass, she is).

This year is the "year of the blog" and I decided when I was cooking the big meal I would share the recipes with you.

I made Corned Beef and Cabbage in the slow cooker - am-AH-zing by the way. SO tender and juicy. My mouth is watering thinking about it. (Click the link for the recipe.)

In addition to Corned Beef, I also made Colcannon (which is mashed potatoes with cabbage and green onion) and Traditional Irish Soda Bread. Both came out spot-on tasty and we ate until our bellies could hold no more.

Irish Soda Bread

Upon researching traditional Irish recipes for St. Patrick's Day, I came across the website www.sodabread.info that gave some very interesting facts:

"All recipes for traditional soda bread contain flour, baking soda, sour milk (buttermilk) and salt. That's it!!!

This was a daily bread that didn't keep long and had to be baked every few days. It was not a festive "cake" and did not contain whisky, candied fruit, caraway seeds, raisins (add raisins and it becomes "spotted dog" not to be confused with the pudding made with suet of the same name), or any other ingredient.

There are recipes for those types of cakes but they are not the traditional soda bread eaten by the Irish daily since the mid 19th century.

Here are a few basic recipe. Note that measurements below are in American standards. (An Irish teaspoon is not the same as an American teaspoon measurement.)

Note for New Bakers: a fluid cup contains 8 ounces of liquid. A dry ingredient cup contains around 4 ounces by weight. Don't use a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients. Tsp means Teaspoon.

Of course our great grandmothers just grabbed a handful of this and a pinch of that to make their bread. We modern bakers need help since we don't do it every day."

Interesting isn't it? All this time I though soda bread was supposed to have raisins! Lets make some the old school way, shall we?

Ingredients:

4 cups (16 oz) of all purpose flour.
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
14 oz of buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees. Lightly grease and flour a cake pan.

In a large bowl sieve and combine all the dry ingredients.

Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape)

Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.

Cover the pan with another cake pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates the bastible pot). Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped so show it is done.

Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Colcannon

Ingredients:

1 pound cabbage
1 pound potatoes
2 green onion (or leeks or scallions)
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup butter

Directions:

In a large saucepan, boil cabbage until tender; remove and chop or blend well. Set aside and keep warm. Boil potatoes until tender. Remove from heat and drain.

Chop green onions, green parts as well as white, and simmer them in just enough milk to cover, until they are soft.

Season and mash potatoes well. Stir in cooked green onions and milk. Blend in the cabbage and heat. Make a well in the center and pour in the melted butter. Mix well.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients:

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
10 baby red potatoes, quartered
1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 cups water
1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet
6 ounces beer*
1/2 head cabbage, chopped

*Note: do NOT use stout - trust me. It makes the vegetables taste horrible, especially the carrots.

Directions:

Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on Low.

Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.

My secret weapon....  Sam Adams!

Quick and Easy Calzones

Since I waited until 5:00pm to start thinking about dinner, I had to pull something out of my bag of tricks pronto. The Tot does not do well when her schedule is compromised. And when the Tot isn't happy...well, you know the rest.

I pulled all of these ingredients from my pantry and fridge, and I would recommend you do the same. I used refrigerated pizza dough because I had it, but feel free to make it from scratch if you feel feisty.

Here's what you need:

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz. or 1 bag)

1/2 cup ricotta cheese (you can also use cottage cheese)

1/4 cup basil

1/4 cup plus about 4 TBSP Parmesan cheese

1 can refrigerated pizza dough at room temp (it's harder to work with cold)

All-purpose flour for dusting

1 large egg

*1 TBSP breadcrumbs

Marinara sauce for dipping

Your favorite toppings (onions, green pepper, sausage)- I used turkey sausage, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking pan with foil

*spray foil with Pam - trust me on this. It's almost impossible to get off the foil without it!

2. Make the filling.

Mix mozzarella, ricotta, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and basil until well combined. 

*NOTE: I recently read in Food Network Magazine that you need to add the breadcrumbs to the ricotta because of the moisture. If you omit this, it makes the dough inside a little soggy.

Divide the pizza dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll out each piece on a floured surface into a 7 or 8 inch round.

Spoon 1/4 of the filling and your toppings onto one half of the round. (Leave about 1/2 inch spaced edge). Take your egg (beaten) and brush the edges of the dough. Fold the dough over to seal and crimp the edges with a fork. Brush the calzones with the rest of the egg and cut two small slits in the top of each for venting steam. Sprinkle the calzones with remaining Parmesan and bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.

Serve with warm marinara sauce in the side and enjoy.