From Hangovers to Leftovers: Dealing with what St. Patty's leaves behind (Part One)

Whether it is a pesky hangover and/or tons of leftover potatoes, corn beef and Irish soda bread. I will help by dealing with the leftovers may help nurse you back to health from your hangover. 


Here is a recipe for Corn Beef Hash to have with eggs to drive your headache away and use up your abundance of potatoes and corn beef.


INGREDIENTS

• 2-3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2-3 cups finely chopped, cooked corned beef
• 2-3 cups chopped cooked potatoes, preferably Yukon gold
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley

METHOD

1 Heat butter in a large skillet (preferably cast iron) on medium heat. Add the onion and cook a few minutes, until translucent.

2 Mix in the chopped corned beef and potatoes. Spread out evenly over the pan. Increase the heat to high or medium high and press down on the mixture with a metal spatula.

3 Do not stir the potatoes and corned beef, but let them brown. If you hear them sizzling, this is good. Use a metal spatula to peak underneath and see if they are browning. If nicely browned, use the spatula to flip sections over in the pan so that they brown on the other side. Press down again with the spatula. If there is too much sticking, you can add a little more butter to the pan. Continue to cook in this manner until the potatoes and the corned beef are nicely browned.

4 Remove from heat, stir in chopped parsley. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and add salt to taste.

Serve with fried or poached eggs for breakfast.

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Side Notes: This seemed to go over very well with my fiance. I used the leftover roasted potatoes with my corn beef. I did cut back on the salt and pepper as my roasted potatoes were well seasoned. This is also a good recipe for any big breakfast.


I hope your hangovers are better and you have fewer leftover.


To follow soon: Part 2- Irish Soda Bread Pudding

I'll drink to that! My first Irish feast.

I have always loved to participate in St. Patty's day festivities but the traditional food have never been on the menu. It has always been much more a  liquid-based holiday f0r me. But as per the request from my Irish-blooded fiance I was willing to give it all a shot.

My family never cooked corn beef and cabbage. I actually have never had it before-I know, crazy! I mean I was not even sure what corn beef was-thank you google for clearing things up. So since this was going to be my first time making this traditional dish, I decided to take a side step away from the norm and do it Anna's way.

I started by cooked my corn beef in a crock pot. First I rubbed the corn beef in brown sugar and the spice packet that came with the beef on all sides and then poured in a beer (after all it is St. Patrick's Day).  The recipe I saw called for Guinness, which would be good but I was not going out of my way to buy a Guinness, so I used a Narraganset. Now just let this cook for 5-6 hours on high or 10-12 on low and when it pulls apart it is ready to go.

Potatoes are traditional Irish fare but boiled is not my style. I roasted my yukon gold potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and adobo seasoning. Then Iput them in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and I flipped the potatoes. Then baked the potatoes for another 15 to 20 minutes until brown and crispy.

And of course I needed to bake some Irish soda bread to finish off this feast. I used Ina Garter's recipe from Food Network. For some reason I feel like I have heard that soda bread is hard to make. This could not be farther from the truth-it is a quick bread (super simple.)  

Here is Ina's recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken
• 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1 cup dried currants

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.

With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.

Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Side Notes: I swapped the currants for dried cranberries-I just think that the cranberries go wonderfully with the orange zest. I also did not have any parchment paper in the house, so I sprayed the baking sheet and covered with corn meal. This seemed to work very well and I enjoyed the corn meal on the bottom of the bread.

This feast went over very well with my red head who was craving a St. Patty's feast. I hope your St. Patrick's Day was wonderful!

Got old brown bananas? Anna Banana to the rescue!

Everyone has been plagued with a plethora of bananas that have started to get brown age spots like your grandma. You buy a bunch of bananas at the store with the good intention of throwing  one in your purse each day for a health snack. Either this simply just does not happen or you find a brown hot mess in the bottom of your purse a week later. So the real question is how do we fix this situation.

The most obvious solution is banana bread. I love banana bread-it is easy to make and it is a crowd pleaser. Here is my recipe:

Banana Bread 

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1cup chopped walnuts

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour and walnuts last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Side Notes: These could easily be made into muffins. I actually made mine in a bunt cake pan.


So yes banana bread is great but can get a bit mundane if you are making it every time your bananas get old. So I thought of a few ways to spice up.
 The first is Banana Bread French Toast.
To make this treat- mix a few eggs and milk with about a tsp. of vanilla and a few dashes of cinnamon. Slice the bread to your desired thickness and dunk the slices in the egg mixture. Then cook in a frying pan as you would any french toast. This is a great way to shake up a breakfast favorite.

Another banana bread option is to make a bread pudding. Here is my Banana Bread Pudding recipe:


1 loaf of banana bread (cubed)


2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.


So now there is no reason to throw away your old brown bananas. And if you do have time make these delicious recipes, you can always freeze the bananas for a later date. Let me know what you think and enjoy.

Drunkin' Beef Stew: Spicing up a classic with red wine

People think soups, stews and chowders are very impressive feats but I love making them and taking credit when others are impressed. But to be perfectly honest they are really quite simple-for the most part you just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it all do its thing. This winter my soon to be sister-in-law served us Beef stew with red wine-it was delish and was just so lovely on a cold night. 

Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 beef check in 2-in cubes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon oil

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-in pieces

8 ounces frozen pearl onions (thawed)

2 garlic gloves chopped

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups red wine

1 cup beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 sprig rosemary

Start by seasoning the beef with salt and pepper, Turn the heat on a dutch oven on high.

Then brown beef on all sides 3-5 mins; reduce heat to med-high, Then add carrots, onions 

and garlic,  Cook for about 2 mins; stir in flour and cook 1 min; add wine and stock, 

Then add tomato paste and rosemary and bring to a boil. Cover, place in 350 oven and braise 

for 1.5 hours or until meat in knife tender and sauce thickens.

Side Notes: The red wine that you use should be dry (sweet would not be great).

Wish List: I cooked my stew in a plain old pot. So I would like to add a dutch oven to my wish list. A beautiful one that is enamel and in a funky bright color- perhaps  lime green or orange.

Once this stew is all cooked, I would serve it with mashed potatoes.  Enjoy this comfort food on a nice cold night and let me know what you think. 

And thank you Heidi for this recipe!

Twice Baked Potatoes

I love potatoes...personally I do not know how anyone could not. There are so many to prepare potatoes but one of my favorite ways is to make Twice Baked. I was introduced to this lovely potato variation from my best friend Shawna's mom. She makes amazing potatoes. The wonder of the twice baked potato is that it combines two potato classics: mashed and baked.

To make twice baked potatoes you need to bake four potatoes as you normally would for plain baked potatoes. You want the potato to be fully cooked, so the potato insides are easy to mash and work with. Once the potatoes are baked you need to cut the potatoes in half the long way. I do this while they are still hot, so if you hold the potato with an ovenmit and cut with the other hand this works well. After they are cut in half, spoon out the filling.
In a bowl combine the potato with sour cream, milk, salt, pepper and 1 1/2 cups of your desired shredded cheese. I am always a fan of extra sharp cheddar cheese. Use the same amount of these ingredients as you would to get your desired mashed potato consistency-if you like lumpy have it be lumpy or if yo like creamy and smooth make it smooth (your choice.)
These ingredients are the basics, you can add anything you want to spice up the from garlic to spinach (whatever floats your boat.) I like theses potatoes with steak, so I like to spice my potatoes up with horseradish sauce. Once you have mixed everything up, spoon the filling back into the potato skins. Lastly top your potatoes with shredded cheese. Place potatoes back in the oven at 350 and bake until the filling is hot and the cheese is lightly browned.
These are a crowd pleaser so enjoy!

My Valentine's Day Present

I have so many things on my kitchen wishlist....some more practical than others. This Valentine's Day my fabulous fiance checked off one of the things on my list. I wanted these every since I saw Sandra Lee using them in one of her cocktails. For this Valentine's Day I got Ice Balls.

These are balls used to make solid ice balls. They are perfect for cocktails because they melt slower do to their surface size. You can also put fruit or juice or really anything you wanted. I am so excited to use it for my next speicalty cocktail. Thanks Kammy!

Chocolate Chip-Coffee Muffins

I love love love muffins! But lets be honest, they are really just cupcakes that we have allowed ourselves eat for breakfast. Here is a wonderful recipe that I found in Cooking Light that any muffin lover will enjoy.

Ingredients 

• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
• 
  
• 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
• 2. Combine first 5 ingredients.
• 3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.
• 4. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until done. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack.
•  Side Notes: In this recipe I used skim milk instead of whole milk. If any of you out there are Weight Watcherers' this recipe is 6 points which is pretty good in the muffin realm.  Once when I made this recipe with chocolate covered espresso beans that I ground up; it was a nice twist. 
• This muffin work well for a weekday quick breakfast or if you are having people over for a brunch. Enjoy and let me know what you think.