St Patrick's Day

Instead of going to an Irish pub and paying an arm and a leg for an Irish meal on St Patrick's Day, I decided to make our own meal at home.

I added a bag of baby carrots, 1 small sweet onion cut into 1 inch wedges, halved white potatoes and fresh springs of thyme from my garden to the bottom of the crock pot. Then I added the corned beef brisket, fat side up. I sprinked the meat seasoning pack on top. Then I added 1 can of beef broth and added water until it touched the bottom of the beef. I cooked on low for about 6 hours. Then I added 1.5 inch cabbage wedges of cabbage on top of the beef and continued to cook for about 1.5 hours more.

After dinner, I brewed Irish Breakfast Hot Tea with milk and sugar along with a homemade tea cake. I attempted to create a shamrock cut out with paper and sifted powdered sugar on the top of the cake.

This was the first corned beef I actually liked. I hosted my friend, Amy. It was nice sharing some Irish food, from an Irish household!

French Toast

In celebration of my upcoming trip to France, I decided to make French Toast with carmelized bananas on top in my new all-clad French skillet after church on Sunday. I am very excited to announce that I am attending a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2 weekends. Also, I will be touring the school in the event I ever win the lottery, become a chef, and open a French pastry bakery in a large city in the US (dream!).

Mexican Chicken and Saffron Rice

I wanted to clear out my pantry, which seems to be a reoccuring them lately. I used my blender and combined a can of green chilies, a can of tomatoes, 1/2 can of black beans, 2 garlic cloves, cumin, corriander, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I made a sauce and set it aside.

I olive oiled a casserole dish and added 3 large chicken breasts. I topped them with about 3/4 of the sauce. Then I baked it at 400 for 50 minutes.

While baking, I made saffron rice. Also, I used the remainder can of black beans with the 1/4 sauce and heated on the stove until warm.

This made 4 servings. I approve!

Chicken with artichokes and sun dried tomatoes

My parents, brother, and sister are visiting for the weekend and I wanted to make a large dinner that wasn't too stressful so I invented my own recipe. I bought a large pack of chicken thighs and cooked with the an entire jar of artichoke hearts, a bag of sun dried tomatoes, dried basil, dried thyme, and olive oil. I also cubed russet potatoes and roasted them with fresh rosemary (from my garden), sea salt, and olive oil. On the side I served a head of romaine lettuce. I garnished the placed with pickled peppers.

The chicken was extremely juicy and delicious! My picky brother ate it so I know it was good.

Pumpkin Belgium Waffles

Saturday morning isn't complete with a tall mug of coffee and a home cooked breakfast at home. I have 2 cans of pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving in my pantry so I decided to use it.

I used my Belgium waffle maker and combined waffle mix with half a can of pumpkin. Yumm it was delicious. I topped the waffle with sliced banana.

I also made scrambled eggs with spinach and cheddar cheese.

White Lightning Chicken Chili

Southern Living January 2012 page 112 has an excellent recipe for white lightning chicken chili, but your have to make the avocado-mango salsa to top the chili. The chili is too plain without it.

I signed up for a Sunday School food tiding and made a huge batch. I made 3 dinner portions to share and save. I had no idea fresh mango was so good with cilantro leaves and red onion/pepper jack cheese.

As my mother would say, I make a mess in the kitchen (photo of me preparing the salsa). I use about every cooking utensil I own. This is great fun, but it makes clean up a bear.

John's Red Bean's and Rice

Southern Living Jan 2012 page 98

Since I cooked a pork shoulder yesterday, I had a left over pork bone (I forgot to save the fat part). I decided to make John's Red Beans and Rice and substitute a ham hock with a pork shoulder bone. Also, instead of using a dutch oven for the last 2 hours of simmering, I used the crock pot so I wouldn't have to use so much gas on my stove. Also I didn't think my dutch oven was big enough for the 96 oz of chicken broth along with the other ingredients. This makes 12 servings so I will be freezing some for future weeknight meals.

Cooking this smelled so good. It filled the house with the best aroma. Like John Harris of Lilette Restaurant in New Orleans, LA quoted in the magazine, "I really like to invest the time to let the flavors develop. That's comfort." I couldn't have said it any better myself.

All this southern cooking is making me want to take a trip. Southern Living Jan 2012 page 30 lists a Mississippi Literary Trail trip. It outlines places from Jackson to Clarksdale to Oxford. I have a Page Aunt living down on the gulf coast in Mississippi and I promised her I would visit her sometime in 2012. Might be my spring break trip :-) The old houses, gardens, and food are what I want to experience on my Mississippi adventure.