This post is full of Irish

St Patrick's day happens to be my FAVORITE holiday! I have the best memories of spending the whole day (which always comes around during spring break) with my friends, cooking Irish food, listening to Irish music, watching Irish movies, wearing the colors of the Irish flag, and of course drinking Irish drinks.

It was my first st. paddy's day as a 21 year old, but I'm avoiding alcohol (and all its empty calories) at the moment so I was a bit unsure of how I would celebrate this year. I was also scheduled to work from 4-CL, which was a good reason for me to not join the masses at the bar but also left me with very little time to do anything celebratory. And lord knows I can't just let a holiday (let alone my favorite holiday) go un-celebrated.

SO, I did what I could with the time and restrictions that I had... I donned the attire, I ate the food, and I even bought the booze... I just mixed it up with massive quantities of sugar and fat and flour and fed it to my coworkers :) I didn't get drunk, I didn't overeat, I didn't attempt a game on the Devil's Dancefloor, and I spent an insanely long and busy 7 hours asking progressively drunker people the same questions (what can I get for you? any toppings? anything else? what's your name? for here or to go? would you like a copy of your receipt?)... but I still feel like I sufficiently celebrated and enjoyed St Patrick's Day :)

In the morning, I put on my favorite new mint green lace dress. That wasn't quite Irish enough for me so I also tied green and orange ribbon around my wrist and my hair.

Colton and I went out to breakfast, which we do every Sunday. We went to Mother Hubbards, one of our very favorites that specializes in homemade Native American/Mexican influenced breakfast and lunch. So good. Yesterday I had to opt for the St Paddy's Special though... "Irish Rarebit". It was basically a cross between Welsh Rarebit and Eggs Benedict with a whole lot of Irish thrown in there. 4 triangles of 12 grain bread covered with dragoon stout cheddar cheese sauce, chopped corned beef, spinach, and two poached eggs. It was sooooo gooood.

I decided I wanted to do some Irish cooking of my own so we stopped at the store on the way home. I bought ingredients to make homemade Irish cream (to make it a little lighter calorie-wise, not as thick and sweet, and to avoid having multiple open bottles of liquor sitting around the house), Irish car bomb cupcakes, and Irish cream pudding shots.

I used this recipe for the Irish cream, and it turned out amazing. Tasted just like baileys!

I then mixed one cup of homemade Irish cream with one small package of instant vanilla pudding and one cup 1% milk. I poured this into 10 dixie cups to make pudding shots! There's hardly any alcohol in them but they were pretty tasty. I took them to work so everyone could have one after we closed.

The biggest cooking project I tackled was these Irish Car-Bomb Cupcakes! I've wanted to make this recipe for years... I talked about it within the first month that I had this blog 3 years ago when I did my first St Paddy's day countdown. Even though I only had about 3 hours until I had to go to work by the time I was done with errands and at home ready to cook, I decided to attempt to whip these up. I broke out my beloved kitchenaid mixer (which works like a dream but weighs a million tons and is a bitch to store/clean in my teensy little house), used every pot and bowl in the house, and in the end produced 24 pretty little filled and frosted cupcakes. Which tasted AMAZING, by the way.

I used the above linked Smitten Kitchen recipe exactly, except I used greek yogurt in place of sour cream in the batter (I never have sour cream in the house anymore and greek yogurt tastes/works the same but is way healthier) and used quite a bit more whiskey in the ganache filling and Irish cream in the buttercream. I wanted each part of the cupcake to taste distinctly like the Irish Car-Bomb role it was representing and I found that with the measly teaspoons and tablespoons Deb suggested the flavor was lost under the sugar, butter, and chocolate. I just drizzled, tasted, and repeated until I got the intensity I wanted.

Chocolate Guinness cake filled with Jameson chocolate ganache and topped with Irish Cream buttercream. Dusted with green and gold sugar!

I made 24 and brought 12 to work. I broke them out after the aforementioned loooong and busy shift while everyone was closing and I think they (hopefully!) raised everyone's spirits a bit.

After work I promptly went home, got into my pjs, got into bed, and fell asleep. I think the rest of the world partied hard enough without me, based on the debauchery I witnessed on fourth avenue last night.

I hope you all had a nice holiday and spring break! It's back to school at 3 for me today :)

Love,
Em

St Paddy's Countdown Day 2

Today was SUCH an epic day of cooking. Seriously, like 6 hours of it. But you guys are in for some awesome irish fare! I made some delish vegan corned beef and cabbage as well as 4 rounds of irish soda bread. I also made my fave colcannon, which you can find here- I just now added the pics to that post though! On a whim I also decided to make some old fashioned sugar cookies with green 7 minute frosting. In the end, my fam and I had practically a thanksgiving feast in front of us for dinner- and there is tons left for me to take on our st paddy's camping trip tomorrow! yay.

Alright, it's late, so let's dive right in to the good stuff.

First, Irish soda bread!
My dad used to make this from time to time, and my grandma made it when he was a kid (and sometimes for me as well!). They make it with caraway seeds, so I wanted to be sure to do the same. I also found a yummy recipe for soda bread made with browned butter, rosemary, and black pepper, though- so I decided to double the batch and do half with rosemary and half with caraway seeds. They both turned out fantastic! I did figure out a bit too late though that the recipe already made two rounds of bread- so i ended up with four. No big deal though ;)

Start by preheating the oven to 375 and mixing together 3.5 cups of flour, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 cup oats, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp black pepper, and 1 tbsp caraway seeds or fresh, chopped rosemary. as you can see from the pic I didn't add caraway seeds or rosemary at this point, but rather waited until the dough was formed so I could easily halve it.

Next, melt 1/4 cup of butter in a small saucepan and allow it to brown quite a bit. Once melted, pour into the dry ingredients along with 1.75 cups buttermilk (I used milk and a few tbsp vinegar set out at room temp for a few minutes)

Mix well and then turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Divide in half.

At the point I added 1 tbsp caraway seeds to one half and 1 tbsp rosemary another half. I then divided those halves in half.

Form into round loaves and score the top.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 45 minutes or until a knife stuck all the way through the middle comes out clean.

yummy! serve hot with butter- whipped with honey or herbs if you like!

Now for the vegan corned beef and cabbage. This is so simple, so delicious, and quite healthy!

Begin by cutting two medium yellow onions into wedges. Sautee in a large pot with 1 tbsp of olive oil for about ten mins, or until just beginning to turn brown.

Then chop up 4 carrots into two inch, quartered pieces. I used about 50 baby carrots instead because walmart didn't have any regular carrots. can you believe that? ridiculous. Also thickly slice two stalks of celery and finely slice half a head of cabbage.

When the onions are slightly brown, add the other veggies to the pot along with four cups of vegetable broth, 1 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp rubbed sage, 1 tsp mustard seeds (or dry mustard), 1 tsp vegan horseradish, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp black pepper.

Stir to combine and then cover the pot and allow the contents to cook for 15 minutes. Then add one pkg (about 8-9 oz) of beef substitute- I typically use morningstar steak strips, but there are many other yummy brands as well. You can also use seitan. Cover and cook for another 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Once the 15 minutes are up, use a slotted spoon to remove the veggies and meat from the remaining juices in the pot.

In a small bowl, combine 1 tbsp red wine, 1/4 cup water, and 2 tbsp flour. slowly add this mixture to the remaining juices and  stir well. Cook until the gravy reaches desired consistency, and then pour over the veggies and meat. Serve and enjoy!

yummmm. admittedly not the prettiest dish I've ever seen, but it is very tasty. definitely something every vegetarian should have on their st patrick's day menu!

I also made some cookies, which weren't too exciting, but photographed well.

yikes, total sugar bombs! haha. don't forget to check out last year's colcannon post to see the pretty new pictures that go along with the recipe!

hooray! tomorrow I am driving a few miles out of town with some friends to spend the day out in nature camping and having a blast- but i'll try to get that last blog post up anyhow!

Love,
Em

St Paddy's Countdown Day 3

Just pretend this was posted yesterday, ok? ;)

St Patrick's Day drinks pretty much revolve around three things: beer, whiskey, and irish cream. You could combine all three in an epic curdle-y gross irish car bomb, or you could just stick to one poison... and there's also always the option of going through the mcdonald's drivethrough for a shamrock shake- but the idea of going to mcdonald's is almost as gross as the idea of an irish car bomb.

I wanted to do something different. I'm sure people have made these before, but a quick search on google didn't bring up any results. The drink is called a Green Irish- a twist on the White Russian.

The components are pretty much the same- one shot hard alcohol (vodka in a w.r.), 2 shots liqueur (coffee liqueur in a w.r.) and half and half to fill the glass. My version swapped irish whiskey (jameson is a good option) for the vodka and bailey's irish cream for the kahlua coffee liqueur. The half and half stays the same, but I added a few drops of green food coloring to give the drink a fresh, irish tint.

Tastes just how you would expect- like a white russian with an irish twist! Very yummy and decadent. whip up a few for your st paddy's day party :)

1 oz irish whiskey
2 oz irish cream such as Bailey's
half and half
green food coloring (opt)

mix whiskey and irish cream in a glass. Fill with chilled half and half. add a few drops of food coloring and stir well. serve!

Later today I will be back with some awesome irish eats. So excited! I'm going to start cooking right now :)

St Paddy's Countdown Day 4

 Welcome to day two of my St Patrick's Day Countdown! Today is a Movie Monday- Irish style! Now, usually when I do themed Movie Mondays I write up a quick list of several movies you could watch for the occasion. This time, however, I'm just going to do one movie that's pretty special to me because I grew up watching it!

The movie is Called Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Heard of it? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't- it was made in 1959. It's also one of those few disney movies that features real people, not cartoons. It's so very silly and dripping with irish stereotypes- but that's what makes it so fun to watch!

Darby O'Gill is your typical "old codger" who enjoys telling stories about leprechauns in pubs- in his case, though, they're actually true. Darby is friendly rivals with King Brian, the small and cunning king of the leprechauns. I honestly haven't seen this movie in FOREVER, I just remember loving it, so I only remember small bits of the plot- like that Darby's daughter and the new caretaker- handsome, young Michael- fall in love and sing the only song I can remember from the movie in which they refer to each other as "my dear, my darling one". I'm also pretty sure Darby gets trapped down in the leprechaun world for a while.

here is the plot summary from netflix:
Irishman Darby O'Gill (Albert Sharpe) finds himself face to face with magical little people -- leprechauns -- in this unheralded Disney gem. One of O'Gill's tall tales comes true when he captures the King of the Leprechauns, who must grant him three wishes. But all the wishes ultimately backfire, with comical results. Partly filmed on location, the movie co-stars Sean Connery (in an early role), Janet Munro and Estelle Winwood.

such a cute, fun movie- especially to watch on st patrick's day! Definitely not to be taken seriously at all- it's pretty corny and all- but still a lot of fun to watch. I don't know how easy it would be to find (i've got it on vhs somewhere I think), but if you can get your hands on it, give it a watch!

Since it's so old, there is no trailer available on youtube- but if you look it up you can find some silly and ridiculous clips.

St Paddy's Countdown Day 5

The countdown has officially begun! Hooray! Today, to start getting everyone in an irish mood, i've compiled a small playlist of some fun irish songs- from traditional to punk rock. Enjoy! Tomorrow I'll be back with an awesome irish-themed movie monday :)

irish day approaches!

Oh my gosh you guys, can you believe that there are only 7 days until St Patrick's day and I have not gushed about it yet? If you have been reading this blog for a while you'll know that I am obsessed with all things holiday. I love celebrating, dressing up, decorating, making themed food and drink, watching holiday movies, making holiday playlists, I love holidays! And that love of holidays is written all over this blog in the form of coutdowns.

I've made a St. Patrick's Day countdown before, although it got kind of broken up because it was the first month of this blog and I flew from Portland to Arizona on st patricks day- so I didn't really have the time or motivation to write out my post on time. Also, I left my camera cord in prescott so when I got back to portland I couldn't put up any st paddy's day pictures. And lastly, that countdown was all about food, something I am totally not against whatsoever, but I think I could expand on it a bit :)

And so, in honor of St Patrick's Day 2011, I am going to be making yet another countdown. hooray!! I love this holiday so, so much. I'm a hefty percentage of Irish, and I love any excuse to have a big ol' celebration. There have been some really great years in the past and I'm sure this one will outdo them all!

The countdown will be 5 days long and will start in 3 days (the 13th) and end on March 17th. Here's what you can expect:

Day 1:Tunes
Day 2:Flicks
Day 3:Potations
Day 4: Irish Eats
Day 5: Throwing a St Paddy's Day Celebration

yay :) exciting. I've got some mighty fine ideas a-brewin', so get ready! Happy Irish week everyone!

<3
Em

St Paddy's Countdown: Day 2- The Irish Car Bomb Situation

Day Two! That means... Tomorrow is St. Paddy's! I've been thinking more and more about how to make this year different from past years, and I've come to the conclusion that I need to change up the Baileys+Guinness combination.

Most people have at least heard the term "Irish Car Bomb". This is a drink that's been around since the late 70's and actually evolved from a couple other versions titled "The Grandfather" and "The IRA". All three of these drinks were coined by Charles Burke Cronin Oat, current instructor at Connecticut School of Bartending, and former owner and bartender of Wilson's Saloon. The Grandfather" was originally a 50/50 shot of Bailey's and Kahlua. Apparently Oat thought the shot needed an extra kick, though- so he added some Jameson whiskey to the top of the shot. The reaction of the hard liquor on the creamy liqueur created an immediate foaming and bubbling action to occur, and the resemblance to a bomb caused Oat to remark, "the IRA just showed up!" (bombs being the weapon of choice for the IRA at the time). Hence, the second generation of the drink.

St. Paddy's Countdown: Day 3- Irish Colcannon

I'm so very excited, because not only will I be in sunny, beautiful Arizona with all my favorite people in less than 48 hours, but also because the same day I get there is St Patrick's Day! This is my second favorite holiday of all time, falling only slightly behind Halloween... But of course, whenever March 17th comes around I always feel like this is really my favorite holiday.

Why, you might ask, is this, one of the most unrecognized holidays of them all, my second favorite? Well, how could it NOT be?! I'm partly Irish- I'm not entirely sure how Irish, exactly, but quite a good amount. That right there is reason enough to get decked out in green and orange and celebrate, but of course there is so much more about this holiday to take advantage of. Any culture that is best known for potatoes, drinking, and general merriment is one I'm happy to be a part of. So, the next three days I will be having a St Paddy's Countdown, posting recipes and such in preparation for the actual holiday.