Getting Ready for St. Patrick's Day with Corned Beef and Soda Bread

St. Patrick's Day means Corned Beef and Cabbage around our house.  This year we made one early to get our green underway.  We got a big 6 pound corned beef from the local butcher.  He prepares it himself.  I have always made the kind that comes packaged at the grocery store.  You know, the one with that little spice packet included.  Boil with spices add veg at the end, pretty simple really.

So this time it was a whole new ball game with a great cut from the local butcher.  I found a recipe online that I want to share.  It was definitely the best Corned Beef that I have ever made.  It seems no matter what, I am always tinkering with the recipe.  So here is what I changed:  I used a 6 pound cut of meat, one bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, and 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns.  I used the Sierra because that is what happened to be on hand.  And I really missed those little seeds in the spice packet, so I added some with the other spices.  And seriously, rinse that cut of beef well.

Corned Beef and Cabbage in Guinness

 

Ingredients:
4 lbs flat cut corned beef brisket
1 (12 ounce) bottle Guinness draught (make sure you use Guinness draught, not stout as it will turn it bitter!)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into wedges
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 head cabbage, cut into wedges, rinsed and drained
6 medium white potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 -2 lb carrot, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces

Directions:
1.  Rinse corned beef under cold water, and pat dry.
2.  In a Dutch oven, or other large pot with a cover, brown corned beef well on all sides over high heat.
3.  Pour Guinness over the meat, and add enough water to just cover the brisket.
4.  Add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and pepper to the pot.
5.  Bring pot to a boil and skim off any foam.
6.  Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover pot and simmer for 3 hours.
7.  Add carrots, then potatoes and then the cabbage wedges to the pot.
8.  Cover pot, and continue cooking until meat and vegetables are tender (about 20-30 minutes).
9.  Remove meat and vegetables to warm serving platter/dishes, leaving the cooking liquid/sauce in the pot.
10.  Over high heat, bring the cooking liquid to a boil, and cook until the amount of liquid is reduced by half (about 10 minutes).
11.  Slice the corned beef; serve with the vegetables and the sauce on the side.  Note: Corned beef should always be sliced across the grain.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/corned-beef-and-cabbage-in-guinness-86868?oc=linkback

Don't forget the condiments!    The mustard in the little beer stein is imported from Germany, and it is so creamy and perfect that you almost don't need the horseradish.  Here's a closer look at the label lid--

To go with that amazingly fork tender beef-- a slice of Irish Soda Bread.  So good.  The perfect accompaniment, like cornbread with chili.  And here is another great recipe from online.  I've made it many times, and it always rocks!

 

Irresistible Irish Soda Bread

 

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
2 cups buttermilk  
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened. Stir in butter. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor. 

 Now all you need is a green shirt and a beer!  Or an Irish Coffee!  See you at the parade in San Francisco. . .   

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! 

 

Southern mood, Southern food. . . or what to eat while reading Beautiful Creatures

I'm in the middle of reading the Castor Chronicles right now.  I just finished Beautiful Darkness and just ordered Beautiful Chaos.  I think that I will read Dream Dark next though, since I think that it was written as a bridge between the two novels.  So I guess that makes me about dead set in the middle of the series: two down, two to go.

Food is such a big part of the atmosphere and mood of these books.  You can almost smell the pies and fried chicken cooking, at least I can.  It really makes me yearn for the tastes of my current state of alternate reality.  It's a good thing that I am doing most of my reading on the elliptical at the gym to work off some of these calories.

Here are a few recipes we made this week---

Shrimp and Grits and Stewed Okra

Peach Cobbler

Coconut Refrigerator Cake

We made a few other recipes this week that didn't make it into photos: Red Beans and Rice with Andouille, and Fried Catfish.  The beans were good but not really photo fabulous.  The fish was very good, but I'm not used to eating much fried food, so it was pretty rich for me.

The Shrimp and Grits were so incredibly good!  It is a Bobby Deen lighter version recipe.  You can check it out here.  The only thing that I changed was that I used 2 lbs. of shrimp and real half and half, since I didn't have the fat-free on hand.

Bobby's Lighter Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Canadian bacon, diced
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 dozen large shrimp, peeled and de-veined, with tails on
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can petite-cut diced tomatoes
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fat-free half-and-half
3 cups water
3/4 cup uncooked quick-cooking grits
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Instructions:
Add bacon to a nonstick skillet and saute over medium heat until crisp. Transfer the bacon to a plate; set aside. Add the oil to the skillet and set over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.

Add the shrimp and garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring, until the shrimp being to turn pink, about 1 – 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl; set aside. Add the tomatoes, wine, hot sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to a boil, stirring constantly to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the flavors are blended and the sauce begins to thicken, about 6 – 8 minutes. Return the bacon and shrimp to the skillet. Stir in the half-and-half; heat through.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in the grits, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Serve the shrimp mixture over the grits. Sprinkle with the chives.


The Stewed Okra is another Deen recipe.  Here it is.  This recipe is so good that even my 8 year old ate her whole serving.  Not at all slimy.  But actually, I don't mind when okra is slimy.  So here's what I changed:  I added half a diced green pepper with the onions, and I used a bag of frozen sliced okra.  Using the frozen okra makes this recipe so easy.

The Lady and Sons Okra and Tomatoes

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon, diced into small pieces
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon chicken base
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups fresh okra, cut into 1-inch pieces (may use frozen, if fresh not available)
                                                      Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:
Cook bacon slightly. Saute onion and garlic with bacon until tender. Add tomatoes, chicken base, sugar and pepper. Stir well and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning if needed. Meanwhile wash okra and remove fuzz if using fresh and cut into pieces. Add the okra and simmer until okra is done, about 20 more minutes (less if using frozen okra.)

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-lady-and-sons-okra-and-tomatoes-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

There was just so much talk of peaches in the book that I had to make a peach cobbler.  I made one from a mix from Louisiana Fish Fry.  This is a family owned Louisiana company.  My husband and daughter loved it, and it is so easy that it can be a week night desert.  I followed the recipe and used one can of peaches, but I will try two or even three next time, because I like it more juicy and fruity than cakey. We used one of the packages of fish fry from this company for the catfish, and it was very good, too.  It was the classic cornmeal type of fish fry perfect for catfish.  I think I will try it on chicken in the oven this week.  Find out more about their products at the site here.

When Southern desserts come to mind, right after Key Lime Pie is Coconut Cake.  I found an easy refrigerator recipe online.

For the coconut cream, I used a can of coconut milk from the Asian foods section at the local grocer-- the kind that says it separates and to shake well, no water added.

Coconut Cream Cake 

 

Ingredients:

 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

3 eggs

 1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

1 (14 ounce) can coconut cream

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 cup flaked coconut

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil, water and coconut flavoring. Beat for 2 minutes and pour into 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
3. In a medium bowl, combine coconut cream with sweetened condensed milk and stir until smooth. When cake comes out of the oven, poke holes into it in even rows using a large fork or chopsticks. Pour milk mixture over, allowing it to soak into the cake. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
4. In a large bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue whipping until stiff. Spread over cooled cake. Sprinkle top with flaked coconut.

 Finally, I've been having Peachtree Schnapps with orange juice or cranberry juice to go with the Gatlin Peach theme.  And another very good drink with Southern flair is Sweet Tea flavored vodka and lemonade.  Of course, a good 'ol American Bud Light will do, too.


 Well, I'm definitely going to make more okra this week.  And maybe a Key Lime Pie. . .

Beautiful Creatures - Book vs. Movie

Beautiful Creatures is the first book in a widely popular young adult paranormal romance series written by authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. 

And it is now a major motion picture from Warner Brothers.  Richard LaGravenese directed the film and adapted the book to the screenplay.   Admittedly, this is a very long and complex story to adapt to film, but so many changes were made that the film falls far short of the book.

Frankly, I have been trying to not to read more YA, but when the film came out I decided to read the book.  I was not yet all the way through the book when I saw the film.  Since the film was so much different than the movie, it really didn't matter much whether I had finished the book or not.

So how do you make a bad movie with Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons?   I suppose that decisions had to be made to streamline the story for film, but here is what bothered me the most.

***Spoiler Alert*** from here on out---

The dark and tragic background of Ethan is completely left out, and he is turned into a simple southern, country boy who is looking to escape his small town roots.  But Ethan is so much more than that.  Both of his parents are university professors, and they have diligently worked to remove any southern accent from his speech.  So the constant "stupid hick" sound of Ethan, small town southern boy, in the movie is not the basis or voice of the book at all.   His mother is recently deceased and his father has completely lost it due to her death, so he is being raised by a defacto grandmother of no actual relation.

The movie seems to mash together the characters of Amma and Marian into some completely different person.  I find this particularly disturbing.  Amma is a voodoo practicing, classic older Southern woman.  Marian is an exotic, formally educated liberal transplant to Gatlin.  What the film ended up with is just some nondescript person of color character without any of the distinct eccentricities of either character from the book, which definitely adds texture to the story.  These characters really emphasize diverse aspects of Southern culture that make the story setting so cool, and without them all the characters could be in a small town anywhere in America.  We are left merely with accents as signifiers of place and local.

Ridley is completely different.  She is blond and pink hair modern urban super-sexy-- Avril Lavigne style among others-- and sucking on a lollipop to make mortals do her bidding.

And what happened to Macon?  Jeremy Irons was a great casting choice.  Too bad he didn't have the real character to work with.  He become a sinister 2-dimensional bad guy, not the dream-sucking vampire trying to look out for Lena's best interests.

It would have been cool to see Ravenwood change interiors like it does in the book.  But maybe that was prohibitively expensive.  Though in that way Ravenwood itself becomes a character in the book, reflecting moods and foreshadowing events.

And where's that magical, mystical connection between Ethan and Lena?  It was supposed to be more than sexual chemistry.  All the connecting dreams and kelting?

Oh, no!  Not the ending!  It changed so much that I don't know where to start.  It doesn't even seem like the same story.  It certainly didn't end the same.

 Jean Trinh talks about the changes that bothered her in The Daily Beast. 

Jean Trinh

Jean Trinh

It's hard to say if I would have enjoyed the movie more without the foreknowledge of the book.  Some of the same characters are still there, in name anyway.  And there is a witch.  And (a slightly older) boy who falls in love with her.  In the Southern United States.  I'm just not sure if that's enough to make it the same story or not.

Tea Time with Susie Sad Eyes

Welcome!  We are all just getting here. . .

"Hi!"  "Hi!"

Time for socializing. . .

"I hope the tea is raspberry."

"I like camomile best."

Isn't tea time fun!  We're all wearing our new sweater and skirt outfits.

"We love scones!"

 . . .waiting for spring with tea to keep us warm.

Linzer Tarts for Valentine's Day!

They are the classic.  I found a great recipe online here.  I have made this recipe several times, and it always comes out great.  We used Bob's Red Mill ground almonds.  It really makes the cookies rich, and tender.  And the all-time fav Smucker's Seedless Raspberry Jam is the filling.  Such a treat!  But, boy, are they a lot of effort for a very few cookies.  I guess that's why they are the Valentine"s Day treat!

Linzer Tarts

from Allrecipes.con

Original recipe makes 1 dozen

    1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened

    2/3 cup white sugar

    2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

    1 3/4 cups ground almonds

    1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    5 tablespoons raspberry jam

    1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions

    Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, the almonds and cinnamon, and continue beating until the mixture becomes a slightly stiff dough.

    Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about one hour.

    Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

    On a lightly floured surface, roll the 1/2 of the dough into a sheet 1/8 inch thick. With a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut as many circles from the sheet as you can. Knead the leftover scraps of dough into a ball and roll it out again into a 1/8 inch sheet. Cut out more circles. You should now have about 12 circles.

    Arrange them on an ungreased baking sheet leaving about and inch of space between them.

    Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the other half of the dough, but before placing the second batch on the baking sheet, cut out the center of each circle with a 1/2 inch cookie cutter. Bake both batches for 10 - 15 minutes or until light brown. Cool on cake rake for 20 minutes.

    Spread tops of the solid circles with a thin coating of jam, lay a cutout cookie on top of each, pressing the two together so they make a sandwich. Spoon a dab of jam into the opening of each tart and sprinkle the tops with confectioners' sugar before serving.

    NOTE: Keep dough as cold as possible for easier handling. You may have to chill it after rolling it out so that it will be easier to cut.

Happy Valentine's Day!

New books - Lithia Trilogy & The Wings Series

Both of these series are young adult or teen fiction.  I say that upfront, because for some of us older folks that may be a deal breaker.  Often these books are more plot driven and sometimes with fresh ideas or perspectives, so I turn to these as sources of fun, new stories.  And let's face, they are much more eye-catching in the bookstore new releases areas.

The Lithia Trilogy

published Oct 2011

published Oct 2012

This series by Blair Richmond is set in the fictional town of Lithia, which is the actual town of Ashland, Oregon.  The setting of this story is as much or more a part of this series as the characters.  I particularly enjoy stories with unique settings, so this was a very cool aspect for me.  For those who don't know, Ashland is a small town in Oregon and is the site of the American Shakespeare Festival.  This area is surrounded by majestic Pacific Redwoods, and there is an active preservation movement and strong local environmentalist ethic.  This story draws on the eery solitude of forests at dusk and night to enhance and inform the story.  All the main characters are vegan, too.  This adds an unusual perspective to the modern vampire genre.  And (without giving away too many spoilers) the vampires are uniquely a part of this environment, as well.  Of course, theatre and Shakespeare (another of my nerdy addictions) figure into the stories, too.  What can I say but that this sereis seems tailored for me.  I'm sure there are more of you out there who will feel the same.

Most of the story can be fairly quickly ascertained by the strong foreshadowing and basic deduction from readers.  But these are fun, fast reads.  They are short, so there is no major commitment is involved.  I got Out of Breath as an ereader download from my local library and went on to immediately purchase the sequel.  I guess the series close is coming this year, since it is subtitled as a trilogy.  You can read more about the author here. 

The Wings Series

book #1

book #3

book #2

book #4

These books are fae stories by Aprilynne Pike.  I am currently on book three, Illusions. This series follows the events of a young girl, Laurel.  This series is set among high school students, so it really is a stretch for me to maintain interest.  It is a credit to the story and the characters that I have continued to follow it this far.  Though finding a good series on the fae is harder than in the vampire genre.  In these books, the fae have been given a "fresh perspective."  While it is unique and interesting, I do think I prefer the traditional Celtic lore, and stories that are written within those perimeters.  Again, these stories are fast, easy reads without major commitment, which for me means a good read while on workout equipment.  I think that these books are well suited to a young high school audience, but the story action and mystery evolve fast enough to maintain an adult audience.   Aprilynne's blog is here.

I guess that I am still looking for the next great adult fae series.  I enjoyed Moning's new offering Iced, but like other's I failed to connect with it in retrospect.  I really like the Fever world, but Dani is just too young to be the lead in a series.  I mean, how is Moning going to age her fast enough?  I guess, we'll have to stay tuned for the answers.  And I'll read each new entry if only for the Fever World fix.

What are your favorite fae books?

Tonner Dolls and Beyond

I've been playing with my new dolls.  There was a sale table at the luncheon.  Almost everything was on sale for 15% below the website prices.  And no shipping, of course! 

 Here some more shots of Liz in her most excellent sailor outfit---

With my sweet Ellowyne: Feeling Drained, too.

And the big surprise was Maudlynne Macabre.  I bought her as a show gift for my daughter at a friend's suggestion.  When we opened her, she was so awesomely cool!  Her body is fairly articulated and posable.  With those cute eyes, very reminiscent of Susie Sade Eyes.  And there are even patterns already out on the market for her.  I hope Robert expands this line.

The shoes are great little rubbery mary janes.

Awwwww, those eyebrows. . .

I also got my first Evangeline at the show.  Fittingly, I opened the box and took her first pictures in a popular local graveyard.

We'll take more at the graveyard soon.

While I have been trying to switch to collecting more small dolls (to go in our small house), I caught or renewed this big doll virus at the Luncheon, and I came home with all tall dolls.  No Amelia Thimbles, not one. 

There was a table with a large display of American Models, and oooooooohhhhhhh. . .

(more on that later)

Another parting shot of Ell