Category Archives: Holiday

Slow-cooker corned beef and cabbage

I had very good intentions to make this last weekend, but then somehow the timing just didn’t work out as I attempted to calculate what time I would need to start and what time I would need to be home to eat or prep it for storage. Life is all about timing sometimes, isn’t it? 

Add veggies

So save (or pin) this recipe for next St. Patty’s Day when you’re craving a good old fashioned boiled meal. Although I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this article says that corned beef and cabbage is “as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs,” and of course we all know that spaghetti and meatballs is Italian. Or not…I think both of those dishes can only be considered American. It doesn’t stop me from liking them though!

Then corned beef

Slow-cooker corned beef and cabbage
Serves: 6

Ingredients
4 celery stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces
3 carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 small yellow onion, cut into 1-inch wedges (leave root end intact)
2 medium red skin potatoes, cut into chunks
6 sprigs thyme
1 corned beef brisket (about 3 pounds), plus pickling spice packet or 1 Tablespoon pickling spice
1/2 head green cabbage, cut into wedges
Grainy mustard, for serving

Directions
Dinner!
1. In a 5-to-6 quart slow cooker, place celery, carrots, onion, potatoes, and thyme. Place corned beef, fat side up, on top of vegetables and sprinkle with pickling spice. Add enough water to almost cover the meat (4-6 cups).

2. Cover and cook on high for 4 1/4 hours until corned beef is tender (or 8 1/2 hours on low). Arrange cabbage over corned beef, cover, and continue cooking for 45 minutes on high, until cabbage is tender (or 1 1/2 hours on low). 

3. Thinly slice corned beef against the grain and serve with vegetables, cooking liquid, and grainy mustard.

Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Well I managed to burn all of the cupcakes in this recipe. I’m going to call it a “fail” since I’ve used this recipe before without any problems. I’ll have to check my oven to see if it’s running hot. I had a plan to salvage them by slicing off the bottoms, but they looked so short and silly I could not convince myself that they deserved an appearance at Easter dinner.

I was fortunate to snag an invite to the Conforti-Lawson-Pugliano Easter dinner, and lucky for me they weren’t counting on my dessert. It was a good thing I had also picked up a couple of bottles of wine to bring. My Easter dinner included gnocchi with meatballs, chicken braciole, ham, ham pizza (like a quiche), kielbasa, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Then we had pineapple squares, ricotta cheesecake, red velvet cake, and pizzelles. What an amazing feast…thank you Mrs. Conforti!

Mixing in the carrots, walnuts, and coconut

Everything looked fine up to this point…

Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing
Source: Everyday Food
Makes: 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut, plus more for garnish
8 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. In a bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and eggs.
2. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, allspice, and salt. Add flour; mix. Stir in carrots, walnuts, and coconut.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 2 Tbsp batter per cup). Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
4. While cupcakes are baking, combine cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and remaining 1/2 tsp vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth.
5. Frost cupcakes, and garnish with shredded coconut.

Irish soda bread

I remember making Irish soda bread in home ec class. It’s been quite some time since middle school so I decided to give it another shot. The results were pretty tasty, though I think three cups of raisins is a bit excessive.


Irish soda bread
Source: allrecipes.com
Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups raisins
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup sour cream

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round baking or cake pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour (reserving 1 tablespoon), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, raisins and caraway seeds. In a small bowl, blend eggs, buttermilk and sour cream. Stir the liquid mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened. Knead dough in bowl about 10 to 12 strokes. Dough will be sticky.
3. Place the dough in the prepared pan and pat down. Cut a 4×3/4 inch deep slit in the top of the bread and dust with reserved flour.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 65-75 minutes. Let cool and turn bread onto a wire rack.

It was a fun St. Patrick’s day weekend…got to see the Celtics beat Charlotte and the Southie parade.

Go Celtics!

Everyone loves a parade

Irish beef stew

This week I decided to channel my inner ginger in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day. For more Irish-inspired recipes, check out the dishes from last year’s St Patty’s Day potluck.

Prepping the slow cooker
Slow cooker magic

Irish beef stew
Source: allrecipes.com
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1.5 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium potatoes, cut into large pieces
2 sweet potatoes, cut into large pieces
1 white onion, cut into large pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups beef broth
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp paprika
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Irish stout beer
1 tablespoon cold water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions
1. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Coat pieces of beef lightly with flour, then brown half the meat in the hot oil. Remove cooked meat, add another 1 Tbsp olive oil and brown the rest of the meat. Meat does not need to be cooked through.
2. Place the carrots, potatoes, onion, and garlic in a large slow cooker. Place the meat on top of the vegetables. Mix together the beef broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and paprika and pour into the slow cooker along with the beer.
3. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, then turn down to low for 6-7 hours. During the last hour before serving, dissolve the cornstarch in cold water and then stir into the broth. Simmer on the high setting for a few minutes to thicken, then return to low.

Try it gluten-free: Omit the flour coating on the beef and substitute gluten-free beer

Dinner is ready

Thanksgiving 2012 recipes

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day, filled with great company and good food. I have a lot to be thankful for, including getting to spend the holiday with my family. Over the years I think I have cooked every part of a Thanksgiving meal, but have never been responsible for the whole meal. Kudos to those of you who pull off this incredible feast every year!

I realize that this post is too late for this year, and some of you may not want to look at turkey, stuffing, or mashed potatoes again for another year, but I wanted to share some of my lessons learned when it comes to cooking the turkey (though I’m certainly no expert), as well as the recipes we used this year.  

Turkey Lessons

  1. Don’t forget to defrost it. In college, my roommates and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner at 7H (our apartment) because we got a “free” turkey from Harris Teeter. Two of the three of us didn’t eat meat at the time, so we were useless. Needless to say, the turkey did not get defrosted in time. After a last minute trip to the store, we served Thanksgiving dinner with Cornish game hens. We also didn’t have enough plates for everyone, so some people had to use baking dishes and pie pans.
  2. Don’t forget to take the “bag of stuff” out of the cavity. I think 2008 was my first attempt at cooking the turkey, for a Thanksgiving potluck that I was hosting. Bryan and I both had to call our Moms to figure out what we were supposed to do with the surprise bag of stuff we found in the cavity. Once we figured out that we were supposed to take it out, I’m pretty sure we just threw it out. I now know it’s the neck, and you can put it in the bottom of the pan to flavor the pan drippings that will be used to make the gravy. It can also be used to make stock. GTK, good to know.
  3. Duck fat is the secret ingredient. For last year’s Thanksgiving potluck, Mark and Jimmy kindly offered to make the turkey, which involved a special order of duck fat from Williams Sonoma. Jimmy is also nice to have around to carve the turkey, since he’s a surgeon.
  4. A meat thermometer can be your best friend. This year, my parents’ friends were cooking the turkey in a brand new oven. When it was supposed to be “done”, it looked pretty white and thanks to the trusty meat thermometer, they knew it wasn’t done as the internal temperature was only 120 degrees. With a little more time and a little more heat in the oven, they got it up to a perfect 165 degrees, and it was delicious.

We were in charge of the green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. We used the old school Campbell’s recipe for green bean casserole.

Classic

For the mashed potatoes, I used a mixture of 1% milk and half-and-half. I also added the roasted garlic. I added the milk and butter mixture a little bit at a time, because you might not need it all…often I don’t even measure out the milk and butter.

Sour cream mashed potatoes

Source: Adapted from Everyday Food, November 2011
Serves: 8

Ingredients
4 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes (about 7 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup light sour cream
2 cloves garlic, roasted and mashed
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Place potatoes in a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a rapid simmer and cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes. Drain and return to pot.
2. While potatoes are cooking, combine milk and butter and heat until butter is melted and mixture is warm, but not boiling (on stove or in microwave). Pour mixture into potatoes and mash with a hand mixer or potato smasher until smooth. Stir in sour cream and garlic, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
So much better than that canned stuff!
Cranberry orange relish
Source: Mom
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
1 package fresh whole cranberries (12 ounces)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp orange zest

Directions
1. Combine ingredients in a pot and bring to boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes until berries pop, stirring constantly to prevent it from boiling over.
2. Chill immediately and enjoy!