Another Freakin Holiday Food Post...

but seriously, can you blame me?

It's St. Patty's Day, a day of beer and leprechauns and Lucky Charms cereal and Bushmills and...well I could go on, but I have a life to lead cha-cha.

Suffice to say ( I always wanted to write that) I am very busy earning a pot'-o- gold or two and  I wanted this meal to be as easy as finding a four-leaf clover. (Trust me, I have found 100's in my time.) But the thought of boiling a piece of meat that has already been brined in water did not really excite this Scottish/Polish/English/Chickasaw gal. So I mixed things up a little. Like Ireland and England.
Enjoy!

So I opened the bag-o-beef and threw it in the crock-o-pot. I added some leftover wine---a rare commodity---and ignored it for a few hours.

Sometime after Happy Hour I rescued the corn (corned?) beef and slathered it with a soy sauce/mustard/apricot jam glaze and threw it in the oven at 400 degrees.

Then I tentatively approached the chou-chou.

I tossed it in boiling water for a couple o' minutes... (are you catching on to the theme?)

I boiled some Yukon Golds and mashed them with sour cream, half & half  and butter. Lot's o' lots o' butter. (I'm out of control.)

Here is the brilliant part; I tossed the warm, buttery cabbage into the mashed potatoes. Oh sweet Jeezuz!

Sliced the baked corned beef...

Mixed it all up on my English China....and ...Ifreann na Fola! Delicious! 
I'm as surprised as you are!

And for dessert- Irish coffee and molasses cookies...I actually had some left from this afternoon. Ahem.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, May good luck pursue you each morning and night. ~Irish Blessing

N'Awlinz: Dis, Dat or d'Udda.

Dis...I mean, this is my Mardi Gras post. I found some beads buried in my closet and put on my best carnival apron and cooked up some of Chef Paul Prudhomme's Chicken and Andouille Smoked Sausage Gumbo-  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

It was just The Husband and I and a huge pot of gumbo, but I managed to give some away. Still...we'll be eating it for weeks making this month, Fat March!

Mmm..spicy sausage..
  

Chicken breasts instead of the whole chicken- it's a personal choice...

Mix up a little Lake Chelan Hurricane...

Everything nice and greezy...

Start cooking the roux- it's basically grease and flour- yum!

The secret of a perfect roux? Stir the shit out of it and don't wander off.

Mix in the vegy's and the meats....

Cook a little shrimp and hot sauce in butter to top off the gumbo...(I like it better this way... shrimp tends to get disgusting after a few days in the fridge. )

Cook up a pot of white rice and mix it all together....ahh, the Big Easy!



"I don't think life is to be taken too seriously. Take it too seriously, and it'll getcha." Paul Prudhomme

Food Poisoning Or...

broken heart?
Not exactly sure but ever since someone stole my laptop my stomach has hurt.
Yep, some lowlife stole it from my mom's house. That's right, walked right in and stole my words. And photos...
Okay, boo-hoo and all. I'll get over it. And part of my recovery was to eat something...comforting. Something without any redeeming value. And so I went into the depths of my pantry and found it...

Oh my---wheat flour and glyceryl monostearate!

 

Admit it---you were hoping for this.

                                                                 It just got better.

                                                    For dessert- the perfect pan-popped popcorn.

So now I feel better. Well, not really, but now my stomach hurts for a completely different reason.

"I am going on a diet. From this day forward, I pledge there will be no pork chop too succulent! No donut too tasty! No pizza too laden with delicious toppings to prevent me from reaching my scientifically-determined ideal weight! As God as my witness, I'll always be hungry again!" H. Simpson

 The Perfect Pan-Popped Popcorn

I bought The Husband an air popcorn popper for Christmas. It lasted three pops. So back to the stove. Which is the best. This recipe leaves you with zero kernels..if you do it right.

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp canola oil
• 1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
• 1 3-quart covered saucepan
• 2 Tbsp or more (to taste) of butter
• Salt to taste

Method

1 Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat.

2 Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3 When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (Count out loud; it's fun to do with kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4 Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.

With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop (I counted 4 unpopped kernels in my last batch), and nothing burns.

5 If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan.

6 Salt to taste.

 

I Left My Heart...

In San Diego...yes, fine, those are not the words, but it's my blog.

Our last few days in San Diego were spent at The Daughter's new little beach shack in Ocean Beach. It's a little town of hamburger joints, saloons, hippies and smoke shops- ahh yes, the dodgy end.

Since Ocean Beach is where I was born I can't judge. The kids love it and so I love it. The Daughter and The New Husband made dinner for eight of us- people I invited- and  proved that simple is best! (Val brought guacamole and chips ....

and Hilda brought Spinach dip...Hilda catches bad guys so no judging.)

What could be better in February than grilled hamburgers and all the fixen's? (don't you just love that word? Fixen's.)

 

Enjoy the photos they will make you wish for summer. Eat em' up!

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Wimpy