I'm half Irish. We Irish are a proud bunch. We may have been in the States for hundreds of years, but still our idea of a dream vacation is to head to the "Mother Country" and kiss the Blarney stone. And we very much like the fact that we have our very own holiday.
Growing up, my family didn't have the traditional green supper. We'd often have green cake or some such thing and of course, the traditional wearin' o' the green, but I didn't start celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a specific meal until 2008.
St. Patrick's Day is rather bitter-sweet for me in many ways. In 2003, it was the date of my D&C after my second miscarriage. In 2007, it was exactly a month after Dad's death (where my Irish blood comes from).
In 2008, it was the first meal I cooked following my daughter Emily's death 5 weeks earlier.
picture from our 2008 Green Supper
You might ask:
Why would I choose to make my first meal back in the kitchen following Emmy's death an Irish Supper?
For the same reason we started a
Jesse Tree that year. I felt we needed new memories and new traditions. So much of what we celebrated before was edged in pain because "
last time" Emmy was with us. (this fact is precisely the reason I encourage
friends of grieving parents to offer memberships to museums and such after a child's death--it is something new and different.)
That said, our supper was still painful, just not *as* painful as it would have been had it been something we did *before* Emmy died.
That first supper was prepared using an
e-book from Urban Homemaker. However, I don't think she sells it anymore. Besides, I don't do things the same way anymore. And this year, since we'll be sharing our Irish Supper with several other families, I thought I'd share it with you too!
Corned Beef & Cabbage
Throw it in the crock pot...end of story.
{OK, maybe there's a little more to the story, but suffice it to say, I refuse to slave over corned beef when my crock pot can do it for me...}
Start in the morning with the corned beef on low.
Add the cabbage at lunch time.
Serve for supper on a large platter.
(If you want, you can add onion, garlic, cloves, and bay leaves for seasoning. Corned beef often continues to have a pinkish tint to it even when it is completely done. It's ok, trust me.)
*****
Colcannon
You can do this recipe in addition to or instead of the cabbage in the crock.
1 head cabbage, shredded
4 leeks, chopped or 2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick butter
10 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
In a heavy saucepan, put butter, cabbage, onions, & garlic. Stir & cook over medium heat. Don't brown!
In a separate pan, boil potatoes until soft. Drain, reserving enough liquid to mash potatoes to a soft consistency.
Combine all. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve heaped up into a mound with a well in the center for more butter or sprinkle colby cheese over top and put into a preheated oven until cheese melts.
Serves 6-8
*****
Irish Soda Bread
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. raisins
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 egg
about 1/2 c. buttermilk (you can use milk)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry ingredients using a fork or pastry blender. Mixture should resemble course meal. Add the raisins and caraway seeds.
Break the egg into a 3/4 measuring cup and then add enough buttermilk to fill the cup. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly blended.
Take the dough out of the bowl and knead. Then, split the dough into several small rounds of the same size. Make a cross on top of each round with a knife and drizzle melted butter on top. Sprinkle sugar on top.
Place on greased cookie sheet and bake until golden brown (approx 30 mins).
This bread can double as side dish and dessert if you like.
*****
Dessert
I'm not picky here. If it's green, I'm good. So, you can do:
cupcakes with green frosting
green frosted cake
sugar cookies with green sprinkles
mint chocolate chip ice cream
or whatever your little Irish heart desires!
*****
So, March 17th will find me at a friend's house planting potatoes (we're doing a corporate garden this year) and eating our Irish Supper! What will you be doing?
Labels:
Holidays,
Recipes
