A Life, Lived

Colcannon Soup

It won't belong until St. Patrick's Day rolls around. One of the dishes that always appears on our table when we celebrate all things Irish is Colcannon - a classic Irish dish of potatoes, cabbage, and onions. Colcannon is normally served around Hallowe'en but we prefer it as a part of our St. Patrick's Day menu.

This soup recipe, from Elise at Simply Recipes, reinvents the dish in what may be our new favourite soup. We were overrun with potatoes and cabbage from our CSA, the temps were sub-zero . . . a bowl of rib-clinging soup seemed to be the perfect antidote; it was.

Colcannon Soup

6 Tbsp butter
2 cups sliced leeks
2 cups sliced and chopped green cabbage
2 cups sliced and chopped kale (we use Tuscan or Dinosaur kale)
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes (about 3 pounds, 3/4-inch dice)
6 cups chicken stock (we had to add 2 extra cups of stock)
2 bay leaves
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 green onions, thinly sliced

Melt butter in a large, heavy bottomed soup pot on medium heat. Add the sliced leeks, cabbage, and kale, toss to coat with the butter. Lower the heat to low, cover and gently cook until the greens are wilted, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Add the diced potatoes to the pot, along wit the chicken stock, bay leaves, and salt. Increase heat to bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are softened and falling apart, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from heat. Swirl in the white pepper, heavy cream, and sliced green onions. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Happy St Patrick's Day

There will be no carousing and carrying on for Paul and I - I have a hectic week at work and with our getting up at 4:45 so Paul can get to work our late nights are limited during the week!  We had our nice dinner with mom yesterday.

It almost didn't get made . . . because of these. . .

Adult Shamrock Shakes. I made them for lunch and they were very 'adult' - to the point that we wanted to do nothing but sleep all afternoon!

We managed to pull it together though and got dinner ready.

This is the first St Patrick's Day in years that we didn't have our martinis outside on the terrace. Rather than don ice skates and skate across the ice to the table we elected to stay inside and sip spiced pear martinis in front of the fireplace.

While I was enjoying my martini Paul was getting the salad ready. This was a complicated salad - baby arugula, boston lettuce, roasted beets, roasted hazelnuts, crispy pancetta, roasted butternut squash ribbons, goat cheese, and an apple cider vinaigrette. It was easily the most complex salad he had ever made but I think it was one of the best!

For the main course we had the usual - glazed corned beef, roasted carrots, colcannon pie, and mom's famous Irish soda bread.

For our St Patrick's Day dessert we usually have something traditionally Irish. This year I decided we needed something fresh and spring-like instead. I made a two-layer key lime pie. It was green so I guess it was ok for the theme. :-)

A Delayed St. Patrick's Dinner

It seems odd posting this well after St.Patrick's Day but such is life at times. I was so knocked out by this sinus infection that I cancelled our planned dinner last weekend. Note: you know that I am sick when I cancel an opportunity to cook and eat.

This new medication seems to be working wonders and I felt up to playing in the kitchen so we got together on Friday with mom (our other guests no longer able to join us) for the big dinner. The menu was the same as always - we don't often shake things up when it comes to festive dinners.

Paul set the table while I finished up the last of the prep in the kitchen. When mom arrived he shook up the martini and we were ready to go! This year we went with a Key Lime Martini which we have made in the past. I had some real key lime juice so we used that and frankly I think it overpowered everything else - this was a PUCKER of a martini!

We rimmed the glasses with melted white chocolate and dipped the chocolate in crushed graham cracker crumbs.

Since it was just mom, Paul, and I we scaled back the appetizers. While we sipped our martinis - and they were so tart that sip was the operative word - we nibbled on an Irish cheddar and stout fondue, curds with fresh chives, and spinach dip with pretzel crackers.

Once we moved into the dining room the first course was a treat we found in the States a few weeks ago - shamrock and pot of gold shaped pasta. They were served with a simple Asiago cream sauce. Not Irish in the least but tasty. :-)

The main course was the usual St. Patrick's Day fare - glazed corned beef, roasted carrots with honey and pistachios, colcannon, and mom's ever-delicious soda bread.

Paul had selected dessert - we made these grasshopper cheesecakes years ago - don't ask me why I haven't made them since but they are so good I should make them more often! I made 1/3 the recipe (thank goodness for all of those years of teaching fractions in school) and cooked them in muffin cups to make for a smaller than normal dessert portion.

Perfetto!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I took this picture in Savannah, home to one of the world's largest St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Funny how a religious holy day in Ireland has come to mean excessive drinking of green beer and loutish behaviour (remembering the riot last year in London, Ontario with torched cars and violence through the night).

We do like to pervert the normal course of a celebration when we bring it to North America and make it 'ours'. I may be critical of North America when I seek to blame it yet so much excess starts here and then the rest of the world 'catches up'. If you don't believe me look at what Easter, Valentine's Day, Hallowe'en, Christmas used to be like in other parts of the world, how it has been transformed to become a huge spectacle here, and how pieces of this spectacle are now flowing back and changing the original celebration.

SIGH

Another good example of this is with the food eaten on St. Patrick's Day. Over on facebook all of my friends are talking about getting their corned beef boiling with cabbage and potatoes. I've mentioned before about how my Irish friend would rant about this every year, declaring that no self-respecting Irish person would ever serve boiled corned beef and cabbage to guests. It would be an insult.

Yet to many of us it just wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without a pot on the stove filled with a lump of pink, cured beef boiling away. In fact, one of my 'happy US discoveries' has been that corned beef in the US is better (and cheaper) than corned beef in Canada (although my experience with other cuts of beef has not been the same). A few weeks ago when we were over the border I grabbed two large packages and brought them home for our St. Patrick's Day celebration. I knew it was as Irish as the hated Olive Garden is Italian, but once a year . . . who am I to stand in the face of North American will?

We had planned our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner for yesterday but when my sinus infection from hell (sorry, there are no other words to describe this mutant virus) decided to make a return visit I cancelled dinner; the first time in my life I have ever cancelled a dinner party.

As a result, there are no photos of this year's celebration to share.

Instead - how about a smile or two and some trivia?

And now some trivia . . .

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday similar to Christmas and Easter.

Erin go Bragh translates to “Ireland forever.”

The very first St. Patrick’s Day parade was not in Ireland. It was in Boston in 1737.

The largest parade in the US, held since 1762, is in New York City, and draws more than one million spectators each year.

Over 100 US cities hold a parade every year. Some of the other biggest St. Patrick’s Day parades are in Chicago, Illinois and Savannah, Georgia.

In 1948 President Truman became the first president to attend a St. Patrick’s Day parade.

The city of Chicago goes so far to celebrate that they dye their river green.

Green is associated with Saint Patrick’s Day because it is the color of spring, of Ireland, and of the shamrock.

The colour originally associated with St.Patrick and his holy day was blue.

o celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, 110 million people will celebrate the day by wearing green, making an Irish-inspired meal, or going out to celebrate.

There are 33.7 million U.S. residents who are of Irish ancestry. That number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself.

15 million cards are exchanged on St. Patrick’s Day. 10% of all St Patrick’s Day cards are sold in New York.

St. Patrick is a hero in Ireland. And there are about 60 churches and cathedrals named for him in Ireland alone. One of the most famous cathedrals is St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. These grounds bear the mark of the place where St. Patrick baptized his converts.

A St. Patrick's Day Feast

Last night Paul and I hosted our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner. We generally plan a menu that is based upon colour/theme rather than traditional Irish fare. I remember a friend from Ireland being scandalized at the thought of serving corned beef for guests. In her mind it was the sort of thing equated with a poor meal at home rather than a celebration. I imagine that there isn't a darn thing traditional about green beer either! Funny how we take traditional holidays and make them all our own in North America!

We had the house cleaned, the table set, and all of the prep work done by 1:30. There was plenty of time for a nap and relaxation until people arrived at 6:00.

The table was set and decorated with a green and white theme.

Each place setting had a 'Pot o'Gold' and some St. Patrick's Day treats.

Mom's spot had this wonderful 'Irish Princess' tiara which she promptly put on as soon as she saw it and wore it all night!

like a princess, she arrived unfashionably late. She was supposed to be here at 6:00 and at 6:10 when I called her she was still at home. By the time she arrived things were a wee bit more cooked than one might normally desire. You'll see in the pictures that things are a wee bit more golden than usual. SIGH

It had been a cool and foggy day so we had been debating our plan to have drinks and appetizers out on the terrace. Fortunately the sun came out and things warmed up so out we went!

The cheese board was a mixed thing - some Irish cheddar, Spanish almonds, carrot jam we had bought in Italy, and other assorted cheeses that we had in the refrigerator.

The real hit was the drink - a Green Lantern. This may seem a titch strange - it's made with 1 cup of parsley - but it really was soooo good. I can see myself sipping this on a hot summer day . . . or trying it with other combinations of herbs.

In addition to the cheese platter I had made the Reuben Dip that we learned how to make in a cooking class a few years ago. This is one of those simple things that causes everyone to ohh and ahh and no one knows how little work you actually did! Hot, goeey, and with all of the flavour so the traditional Reuben sandwich, this is always a hit.

See what I mean about it being a tad more 'golden' than you might normally desire. SIGH

Anyway. I shall move on.

We served pieces of marble rye bread, pretzel crisps, and trarelli with the dip.

The other dish we enjoyed on the terrace was an amazing cheddar and stout fondue. Stout is a dark beer so the fondue takes on an odd colour that some might find unappetizing. I guarantee that as soon as they dip their first bit of veggie into the mixture they'll be past the colour and looking for a spoon to really dig away!

The fondue was served with par-cooked baby potatoes, brussels sprouts, cauliflower florets, and wedges of apples.

As soon as the sun went down it quickly got quite cool. We gathered everything up and raced inside. Paul promptly put on the fire.

We moved into the dining room for the rest of our meal.

Next up was a cheddar soup served with cheddar coins. This course was inspired by our visit to Prince Edward County last December. The inn we stayed at (the Waring House) is famous for their cheddar soup. I found the recipe online and made it with some 8 year old cheddar from the Black River Cheese Company. The cider we used was from the County Cider company. The cheddar coins were bought in the Waring House store - essentially they are cheddar shortbread cookies with a wonderful hit of Cayenne pepper. YUM

For the main course we switched things up a bit. I think we have made everything the same for the past 8 years! The only thing that was the same on the menu this year was the corned beef with a cider/mustard/horseradish glaze and mom's famous Irish soda bread. On the side we served colcannon (a wonderful mixture of mashed potatoes, cabbage, and onions), honey roasted carrots with pistachios, and maple roasted brussels sprouts with chopped hazelnuts.

When I asked Paul what he wanted for dessert he promptly said a key lime cheesecake . . . I'm not sure where that request came from since we're not big cheesecake eaters OR makers and I doubt he'd ever had a key lime version at a restaurant. Anyway, thanks to my good friend google I found this recipe on the epicurious site.

Even though there were a number of steps involvrf they were easy to follow and resulted in a delicious cheesecake that wasn't as heavy as some baked cheesecakes can be. The final result looks impressive with the four layers (graham cracker crust, lime curd, lime cheesecake, and sour cream topping). Happily it tasted great too!