Ireland

The land of my ancestors. It so happens that I am 100% Irish American. That comes with all the baggage you can imagine--moods, potential for addiction, love of stout, Catholicism, a propensity for playing sad songs (or as a member of the Irish band Solas once said, "We Irish love our uplifting songs of sorrow and despair."), and a constant pull back toward the motherland. This latter trait is a bit interesting, in that Irish-Americans tend to view the motherland more favorably than other immigrant groups to the Americas, yet they had the lowest return rate. Hmmm. 

Anyway, I was able to have a memorable trip along the western coast in 2007. We were hoping to get back there this year, but due to my husband's current spinal issues, that is on hold. So, I go back to the old pictures and reminisce. I wrote this last year, about An Blasket Mor.

That's another Irish trait. We spend a lot, maybe too much time, reminiscing about things past. It's a profound, inherited preoccupation with loss. Here's a quote from Timothy Egan's Op-Ed in the NYT:

"To be Irish," said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "is to know that in the end the world will break your heart"

Egan goes on to say, "And it's true that Irish history is an epic of misery and tragedy, interrupted only by occasional periods of joy. For almost 700 years, it was a crime to be Irish in Ireland." This history seems imbedded in our genes. Sorrow passed down through the generations.

On the other hand, we can be a blast at a party, go figure! There is no denying that light that can come on in most (we have our curmudgeons just like any group) Irish when they are around people. 

Now, onto food to celebrate this Irish holiday! 

First, I found this interesting, that corned beef is not the meal eaten by the Irish on St. Paddy's day.  ????? Figures. Things don't always translate "across the pond". If you haven't already discovered farmette.ie, go there now!

I wrote this post last year. I was completely un-creative this year and sort of just tweaked last year's cupcakes by copying this from Smitten Kitchen (she's awesome, btw). Her use of a whiskey chocolate ganache filling is perfection, I think. My cupcakes are mini's. That allows me to eat just one (or two) with minimal guilt. These babies are rich. I added a tablespoon of finely ground dark chocolate espresso beans into the batter while mixing, as well as a sprinkling to the tops of each cupcake before baking. Also, I topped them with shaved dark chocolate curls and homemade whiskey coffee flavored sprinkles, which are surprisingly tasty. The sprinkle recipe is Michelle's at Hummingbird High. Instead of 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract, I used 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp whiskey, and 1/4 tsp coffee extract.

If you make these, make the sprinkles at least a day ahead of time, as they can take that long to dry. Also, you will need a surface large enough to place them while drying. My kitchen is ridiculously small, so these took up most of the space on our dining room table. 

Honestly, nothing gives me a lift like making mini-cupcakes. They're cute and decorating them can be creative. Most of all, people love them. It's so fun to give them away to people who can enjoy them. Made my St. Paddy's Day a good one. Erin Go Bragh! 

Autumn in the Maineiac Kitchen

My friend Denise is a fantastic cook and often my go-to for hep with my novice skills. She had made a date, bacon, and mozzarella pizza for a get-together in late summer.  It was scrumptious and inspired me to give pizza a try. 

Newsflash for novice cooks: easiest food to master! I don't have a pizza stone or peel. I thought about what might be somewhat equivalent for holding consistent heat and used a cast iron skillet. Turns out I am not the genius I thought I was, as a Google search turns up lots of these recipes. Anyhoo, I decided to make a fig, Jarlesberg, and caramelized onion pizza. (No bacon, as my husband is a vegetarian.) It was perfection. 

I used this Jim Lahey no-knead pizza dough recipe and seriouseats.com video for technique

Ingredients:

9 oz. package of Golden California Figs (my friend Denise has done this with (more if you need it to thicken the liquid)

1 tbspn. butter, one large onion chopped,

1/2 c (or more) of Jarlsberg cheese, one round of pizza dough (recipe link above) warmed to room temperature. 

Preheat the oven at 500. 

Process:

Never having cooked with figs, I was no sure what to do with the stems (update: you can leave them on if you want), so I cut them off each one, then sliced/chopped them up, threw them in a pot, almost covered them with water and brought it to a boil. It wasn't thickening enough, so I called Denise. She said, throw in a tablespoon of cornstarch and three more tablespoons of water, and then bring it to a boil, again. That worked! I then threw all of it into a food processor and pulsed it three times. It made a fig paste to spread onto the pizza. (You can decide how much fig you want. I used half of my paste.) I caramelized a large onion in butter (it was probably a tablespoon). Lastly, I shredded some Jarlsberg cheese. There are recipes for this combination with Gruyere, but that costs a fortune at my grocery store up here in the north woods. Jarlsberg is somewhat similar cheese, so I went with that. I spread the figs on first, then put half the onions, covered with Jarlsberg, and then the last half of the onions. 

One of the cast iron pan recipes I checked out said to briefly warm the pan on the stove top prior to putting the pizza in it.  Then, I switched the oven to the broiler, on High. Cooked the pizza for 5 minutes, and it was done! Gooey and golden and delicious, with a crust just crispy enough to make it a bit crunchy. Denise did say to pay attention to the crust and not let it get too burnt. I didn't have to do that. The five minutes seemed just right.

The trickiest part was getting it out of the skillet. I used two spatulas and went at it from either side, and plopped it onto a cutting board.

On to the next pizza! For this I went with maple syrup roasted butternut squash, caramelized shallots and onion, some sliced up left-over green pepper, grated mozzarella and parmigiano-reggiano cheeses, and a white sauce. The inspiration pizza was Brandon's of Kitchen Kofidence. You can find it here.

I peeled and sliced open a butternut squash, scooped the seeds out with an ice cream scooper (works for me), and then diced the squash. I drizzled both olive oil and maple syrup over the squash and mixed it up so all the pieces were covered with both liquids. That was topped by a sprinkling of sea salt and ground black pepper. I threw some fresh lemon thyme leaves into the mix, as well. I put it into a 425 degree oven and roasted for about 25 minutes, stirring around 10-15 minutes into the roasting. You can check around 20 minutes to see if the squash is soft enough to have a fork easily insert into it. It came out smelling lovely.

While the squash roasted I worked on the other ingredients. I made this white sauce adding some seasonings of my choosing (I didn't use basil, but relied on the lemon thyme in the roasted squash), and sauteed the shallot and onion in about a tablespoon of butter (feel free to reduce or add butter to your desire) until they were caramelized. The green peppers were leftovers so I didn't have to do anything there. I had sauteed them a day before for another meal, so you decide how you like them. 

Next, I placed the pizza dough (watch the serious eats video above to see how to "toss" it) into the pre-warmed skillet, slathered the white sauce onto it, scattered the roasted green peppers, squash and caramelized shallot and onion, covered with mixture of grated parmigiano-reggiano and mozzarella, and popped it under the high broiler.

This one went quickly and I forgot to take a picture of the finished product!

Roasted Squash Pizza Ingredients:

(white sauce) 2 tbspns. butter, 3 tbspns. flour, 1 c milk,1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1 clove garlic minced, 1/2 c parmigiano-reggiano; (rest of toppings) 1 butternut squash, two tbspns. maple syrup, 1 tbspn. olive oil, 1 tsp. fresh lemon thyme (or basil), 1 shallot, 1 medium onion, 1 green pepper, 1 tbspn. butter, 1/2 c. mozzarella grated, 1/2 c. parmigiano-reggiano grated.

White Chocolate Tart-cherry Oatmeal Cookies

My father-in-law seems to eat these fastest. That might be because they are delicious. Sweet and tart, with a hint of lemon. Mmmm.

I used this recipe from the food network as the base and adapted by substituting tart, dried, Montmorency cherries for the raisins; and the zest of one lemon for the cinnamon. 

The cherries just perk it up, tangy in contrast to the mellowness of the white chocolate chips. The lemon adds just enough brightness to make these a favorite. 

Chop the tart cherries, as they tend to be quite large. I just halve or cut them into thirds.