AM~Erica Went a Wee Bit Irish

So anyway...

T'was a day I'd been looking forward to...St. Patrick's Day! A day when many claim to be Irish...whether they are or not.

Yesterday also happened to be Sunday. I was very frustrated with the events in the KC area...but there's many other things going on like there was not even a holiday going on.

With it being on a Sunday...church still happens, y'all. So when the main parade is beginning DURING most church service times...that wasn't smart. It couldn't wait just a couple of hours to start? Just wondering...
Especially with it being a religious holiday (it really is people...commemorating St Patrick's death, to be exact), why have one of the country's largest St. Paddy's parades during typical church hours? *face palm*

Any-hoo...the rest of that rant is for another time...and there is 6 years to fix that issue.

In the meantime, I found other ways to bring out the Irish.

As you may well know...I WAS ALREADY PREPPING. And I really WANTED TO DO IT RIGHT!

If you had corned beef & cabbage...that's fine. But if you ate because it's "Irish"...take one of your hands, place it behind your head, and then "Gibbs" yourself (al a NCIS).

That's right...smack yourself in the back of the head! Cuz it ain't Irish, y'all.

Now, repeat after me:

"Corned Beef is NOT Irish!" 

I'll wait...do it...DO IT!!!!
Good...now repeat it 24 more times...

Better now? Are we clear?

*ahem*

I wanted something more authentic for the family to enjoy, so I found Dublin Coddle. It's Irish sausage, bacon, potatoes & onion all in a broth. I did mine in the lazy cooker & a couple of adaptations...but here's what I used:

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DUBLIN CODDLE 

(in the lazy cooker)

Ingredients:
1 lb. (Irish) Sausage* - thickly cut
1 lb. Bacon*+ - thickly sliced
1 lb. potatoes, diced/quartered (I used quartered baby potatoes in gold, red & purple)
1-2 onion(s), thickly sliced (I used 1 medium yellow onion)
4 C water or broth/stock (ham, chicken, beef)
2 bouillon cubes (chicken or beef if using water)
1/4 C chopped parsley
1 T salt (I used fine sea salt)
1 T black pepper

* Because we have a non-pork eater in the house, I used turkey bacon & turkey smoked sausage. I added minced garlic, dried thyme, dried rosemary & some marjoram to mimic Irish sausage.

+ I used the American version of bacon since Ireland views cured pork loin as  bacon. Since we have a non-pork eater, I stuck with the turkey bacon. I also baked the turkey bacon at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, but should have done 20. Set on cooling racks resting in foil-lined baking sheets/jelly roll pans to catch the grease.

Directions:

After spraying the inside of the lazy cooker with cooking spray, place liquid in the insert. Place sausage, bacon, potato pieces & onion slices into the pot, along with bouillon cubes (if using water for your liquid). Add in all of the seasonings.

~~ I had some leftover chopped greens from another dish, so I added it to the Coddle. This could be kale, collard greens, mustard greens, etc. But the original recipe does NOT call for this!

Place the lid on the lazy cooker, make sure it's plugged in & turned onto low for 4-6 hours. (I placed on high for 1 hour, and then low for the rest of the time...and it came out great.)

Stir & serve.

You could probably add in some stout beer, like Guinness, to the pot, too!

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If anyone else tried the Dublin Coddle, as I challenged any of you to do, or if you had something Irish that was NOT corned beef related...then please share with the class! All I know is that the Dublin Coddle turned out to be amazing comfort food for a chilly day! I so want to do it again!

I served it with Mustard Dill slaw. It didn't turn out as great. Still too much bite for us. So we may end up scrapping the mustard & dill part. I think sticking with our favorite KFC-style cole slaw will work out just fine! Plus, I served a loaf of Old Style Potato bread. Meh. Since the holiday falls on a Monday next year, I hope to have time to make Traditional Irish Soda Bread again. But the plate sure was pretty!

But that wasn't all! I wanted to find an Irish dessert, too. Getting  mint anything just wasn't cutting it! So...I researched... I came across an idea for apple cake. But I didn't have much chance to actually go get the ingredients. However...I discovered that I could cheat making one with a spice cake mix & apple pie filling! Guess what! I had both!! Woo Hoo! So I found a recipe involving both ingredients & adapted a more authentic-like, Irish-inspired apple spice cake!

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APPLE IRISH CREAM CAKE

(cheater cake using cake mix & pie filling)

1 box spice cake mix
1 can apple pie filling
6 T butter + 2 extra, softened
2/3 C sour cream
1/2 C Irish cream creamer (I used Bailey's non-alcoholic coffee creamer)
3 T buttermilk + 1 tsp extra
3 eggs
1 apple, cored & thinly sliced (I used Granny Smith with it's tartness)
1/4 C brown sugar
2 T apple pie spice
1 tsp honey or agave
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Empty contents of the spice cake mix, apple pie filling, 6 T butter, sour cream, Irish cream coffee creamer, buttermilk, and eggs into a medium size bowl. Hand mix until all contents are well blended & is completely moistened.

In a small bowl, put in the leftover butter, buttermilk, plus the vanilla & almond extracts (if using), brown sugar, apple pie spice, honey or agave, and the lemon juice. Mix well together & then add in the thin apple slices & coat. Take your rings off & use your hands to work the apples throughout the mixture.

Grease or spray bundt cake pan (I sprayed mine with Baker's Joy). Use about half of the apple slices & arrange them in a circle at the bottom of the pan. This will end up being the top, so think about how the top of your cake will look when arranging the apple slices. Once the slices are arranged how you would like them, spoon in the cake batter evenly around the pan. Now that the batter is in the pan, covering the arranged apple slices, use the other half of the apple slices to arrange for the underside of the cake by carefully setting the slices on top of the batter (like in the picture, above).

Once the cake pan & batter are both fully prepared, place in the oven. It will need to bake about an hour, depending on the oven. Check it at 45-50 minutes; it could take up to about an hour & 15 minutes. Keep doing the knife or toothpick test to make sure it's done.

When it is time to pull the cake out of the oven, let cake set in the pan for about 5-10 minutes. After that time, and some cooling has taken place, carefully turn the cake out onto a cake plate or cooling rack.

This cake is best served warm...and should be very, very moist! Slice & enjoy!

I'm sure you could add in actual Bailey's, too. Still would be yummy!

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My family has fallen in love with this apple cake!! I will be making it again, along with the Dublin Coddle. And I will be making both of these beyond just St. Patrick's Day! They also loved how "Irish" it seemed to smell in the house! *big grins*

I, also, had to dress appropriately. No crazy-bright green craziness for me! Again...I researched what typical Irish-lass attire should be. After getting inspired, I came up with this ensemble:

I still wore green, but a more earthy green. And I had to sport my cable knit sweater from Old Navy. The scarf I got incredibly excited about! It was on sale & the only one left at our Target! It was perfect!! I held it on with an actual antique tiger's eye brooch from my grandmother.  It was very cold out on St. Paddy's Day, here...so the layers worked out beautifully & certainly kept this girl toasty warm!

Next year, I've got plans...I hope! St. Patrick's Day will fall on a Monday. I hope to take in the main parade, or one close by, get to sport an outfit actually inspired by Ireland's attire, serve up Dublin Coddle & Apple Irish Cream Cake (or something else authentic), actually get to watch a couple of Irish movies (we usually watch "The Quiet Man" & would love to add "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" to the mix), plus catch some Irish music. We had too much happening this year & things were jumbled...but I should have time to bake bread next year, too.

And then...we can get Irish-jiggy wit it!

What did you do to take in the commemoration of St. Patrick's death? Hmmmm...???

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica