AM~Erica Took in a Wee Bit o'the Irish

So anyway...

Yesterday was one of the biggest international holidays. It's a religious holiday that has become quite secular. And it's a holiday that comes out of the Emerald Isle...but has been turned into an insane spectacle in the United States. This shouldn't be a shock.

Only if you live in a cave would you probably have no idea that yesterday was, in fact, St. Patrick's Day.

Parades breaking out everywhere, folks dressing like leprechauns & crazy people in all green, downing corned beef & cabbage with a green beer...

Ugh.

Oh! And it's a day when everyone seems to find Irish heritage in them, whether it's there or not.

I do come from some Irish decent. This honestly shouldn't surprise anyone.

And I am quite proud of the Irish that runs in my veins.

Also, I do try to always tweak what foods we consume & how to dress as part of a more authentic celebration. I have yet to take in a parade. I try to catch the big KC one when it's aired on TV, but haven't been able to work going.
(Hey, Dad...maybe we should consider being in it for the Shanahans? Just a thought.)
Part of how the parades started was when Irish immigrants used the day, in New York, as a political statement. They were looked down upon & they wanted to show their pride in their people...and to show that they were people, too.

I have been having several conversations with people who have been going thru some of my struggles (reminder HERE), as well as those who have loved ones they have lost or who are struggling. Not sure what's in the air, but it seems to be a lot...or...more people are willing to step out to discuss it. Between that being a little overwhelming (in a good way), and then reminiscing my Irish heritage thru my grandmother...I had a great wave of emotion come over me. It's been really difficult for me to do regular running lately, and I'm behind. But I just needed to run. So much on mind, it needed my mind cleared. I was not fully prepared or fueled properly, but I needed the run. So, to lift my spirits a bit more, of course I needed to put together an Irish-inspired cosTUTUme that I had planned to wear for an Irish race...that I never got to run due to schedules.

Yeah...I did a short run around the neighborhood like this. And, it did help. I did feel better. Good thing, I had food to prepare!

Now then, you know I had to go as all out as possible while I celebrate...even if it's by myself.

I did begin the day, of course, with coffee. I even saved enough to enjoy an Irish Coffee:

Isn't it beautiful? I have a confession about it, though: it contains no whiskey. It was early in the day & I needed it to actually help me function! So there's brown sugar, coffee, Irish Creme creamer, and some whipped topping with a sprinkling of cocoa bean/coffee bean/sugar ground together on top along with a pinch of green sugar. And I have about 8 of these Irish Coffee glass mugs that I found at the dollar store!

Originally, I had planned to enjoy some Irish oatmeal for breakfast, but I found St. Paddy's Day specific Lucky Charms!!

Uh...yeah. In original AND chocolate! So I mixed the two together for some fun to start the day with. Never hurts to have a bit of craic.

As I got ready, I know that green is the typical color...but...blue was actually the color of St. Patrick! Most Irish won't wear green...it's actually more of an American thing. Go figure. (So is the pinching thing, too.) I have several Irish sweaters & hoped it would actually cool back off enough to wear one of them. With it being around 70 & 80 degrees lately, I was a bit concerned. It did, however, cool off to be in the 50's...so an Irish-style sweater it was!

A navy fisherman's sweater with an old green broomstick skirt seemed to be perfect! Topped off with my Irish-like shawl/wrap & pinned with my grandmother's tiger eye brooch made for a pretty fitting Irish outfit. I may have to wear it when I go to Ireland! Well...someday...

I did fix some lunch that worked in the Irish oatmeal & some Barry's Irish Breakfast tea!

The oatmeal included some buttermilk, honey & a bit o' brown sugar; the tea had milk & honey added to it. It was delicious!

As I had the KC parade tuned it on the television, I decided to start prepping some of the dinner I had planned.

First, I want to keep getting the lesson out there that corned beef & cabbage is NOT Irish!!
You could say it's Irish-American. See, a staple meal for the Irish was bacon & cabbage (Irish bacon is more like Canadian bacon, not the strips we tend to fry up)...but when the immigrants came over, they found they couldn't afford their bacon & had to go with a more affordable option (at that time) of corned beef...which they bought from Jewish markets. They didn't want corned beef...they had to make do. And right now, beef is at an all-time high. So having the corned beef & cabbage...or even a Reuben...is not accurate. There's even an article from History.com that says that corned beef & cabbage is as Irish as spaghetti & meatballs, and as American as apple pie. BOOM.

OK, now that I've had to put that out there AGAIN, and since our non-pork eater would not be with us, we could have a much more authentic meal! Typical meats for the Irish are pork & lamb. Lamb is not as easy to get a hold of around here, but pork can be found in abundance! So...I roasted up some pork loin with Irish herbs & served it up with Colcannon, Irish Soda Bread (which I added a little thyme to for the meal...but will definitely stick to the most simple from now on), cider glazed roasted carrots & onions, plus some potato cakes for the boys.

It was SO good, people!! I still haven't had time to make my Irish Creme Apple Cake. So there was no dessert...but we were so full, it didn't even matter! But I'm still planning on making it.

The day was hard to plan. My hubby had a day full of meetings, even having to travel to a meeting; Teen Boy had to stay after school for a bit; Lil Guy was staying late at school for chess club. We didn't even know if my hubby would make it home for dinner. But we had dinner late as I was trying to work around schedules as a chauffeur for the boys while trying to make dinner late enough in case hubby was home for it. Turns out hubby made it home & we got to enjoy the feast together.

We didn't get to take in an Irish movie again. I'm always going to be optimistic about future celebrations, though.

Now, it's time to plan for St. Joseph's Feast tomorrow...and then cardigans & sneakers to honor Mr. Rodger's birthday on Friday.

Busy, busy with celebrations!! March is full of 'em!

Hope you had a great St. Paddy's Day! And next year, I will try to start getting some of these lessons of St. Patrick's Day out sooner.

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

The Celebration AM~Erica is Recovering From

So anyway...

I. Am. Ex. Hausted.

I have quite a St. Paddy's Day hangover, and not for the reason you probably think! I had nothing hard to drink. I'm recovering for a much different reason: the Irish dinner preparation.

I'm serious.

This was another one of those days when I spent all day preparing for 1 big part...and then I crashed...hard.

Yesterday...my blog post (HERE ...which includes dancing Irishmen if you haven't read it yet) talked of what was ahead for the day, gave food for thought, and hoped to get you thinking about your St. Patrick's Day celebration(s)...if not yesterday, then maybe from here on out!

Now then...as I try to do...I want to try to get a fairly authentic meal to enjoy for whatever holiday we are partaking in. Of course, yesterday was no different.

We did have Lucky Charms for breakfast. Just a fun way to kick off the day...
And I did enjoy my morning coffee as several cups of Tingling Leprechaun:

Green coffee cup waiting to be filled with coffee, milk, Bailey's Irish Cream creamer
& Coffee-mate peppermint mocha creamer

Then I made some Irish Porridge for lunch. It was only OK. I know how I would adapt it for doing it again in the future.

However...as all of that was being done & put together...I had quite the dinner menu planned! The plan was this:

Irish Pub-Style Orange Glazed Beef with Carrots & Onion

Colcannon

Cole Slaw (sweet KFC copycat)

Mustard, Dill & Vinegar Slaw

Irish Soda Bread

Apple Irish Cream Cake

Irish Cream Erin's Lush Pie

Irish Oatmeal Cookies

As I got the cooking & preparing going, a dessert & side dish had to be scrapped due to an "incident" that took time away from making the other. We had to do without the oatmeal cookies & the soda bread. I was SO disappointed!! I was trying the oatmeal cookies to get them baked & out of the way...but something in the recipe just wasn't right. Not sure what it was. And I followed it to the tee! Even though the batter was good & thick, something didn't adhere just right...and...there were cookies melting all over the cookie sheet & dripping to the bottom of the oven. GRRRR!!!

I had to stop all cooking/baking operations to turn off the oven, wait for it to cool, and then clean it the best I could so I could start the cooking/baking back up. We had some family coming over, so we were on a schedule to get this food going! Since the beef was to take a VERY long time in the oven, something had to be scrapped. Sadly...it was the soda bread. And I was SO looking forward to finally making it again this year! Bummer.

However, through an exhausting timing process, and a little help from Teen Girl & Hubby, the menu went more like this:

Irish Pub-Style Orange Glazed Beef with Carrots & Onion

Colcannon

Cole Slaw (sweet KFC copycat)

Mustard, Dill & Vinegar Slaw

Apple Irish Cream Cake

Irish Cream Erin's Lush Pie

Trust me...there was still plenty of food for 8 of us!

In my efforts to stay as authentic as possible, it is difficult to do much of the authentic Irish fare in our house. See, we have a non-pork eater. It goes back to a slight traumatic experience caused by a science teacher. That's a story for another time. However, it does effect how we approach dinners much of the time. For the most part, meat is usually of pork or lamb in Ireland. Beef is a rare commodity in the Emerald Isle... We still went the direction of beef this time. We will get to eat pork again, eventually. There are plenty of Irish pork recipes out there. But I was so glad I came across this  beef one! And it is NOT corned beef. Just to keep that out there...

I got to use my grandmother's roasting pan during the 3 & a half hours worth of making this dish. But it was WORTH IT!! Hubby sliced it up for me. I'm a weenie when it comes to electric knives. After it getting it cooked, sliced & arranged...it was so, so tasty! And there was not even enough meat to consider leftovers...so the dog got celebrate St. Paddy's Day, too!

Then there was the slaws. These should have been done up even earlier (like, maybe, the day before)...but that's how it goes.

The slaw in the green bowl is a sweet cole slaw. It's actually a KFC copycat recipe that we have used several times. I have handed the reins of this recipe over to Teen Girl, and she is usually the one to make it now. She does a great job!

In the casserole pottery dish (this dish has a family story attached to it...which is a story for another time) is a more authentic-like mustard, dill & vinegar slaw. It is not sweet, but instead, has a good bite to it. So, there were cabbage slaws to appease the whole crowd!

Then, we had to have potatoes! No good Irish meal is complete without potatoes. Amm-i-rite? And I finally got around to making colcannon!

Due to timing of things, I boiled the potatoes & then put the boiled potatoes pieces and the rest of the ingredients into the lazy cooker to finish the deed. The cabbage I used was from a slaw mix, so there was some carrot in there, too. I also added some kale. This was a HIT! So good. I was so happy with how it turned out!

Of course we needed dessert! I wanted to have a little variety. So, since the cookies didn't work out, I made my apple Irish cream cake along with an adapted & speedy-quick version of Erin's Lush.

The cake was put in the oven right after I pulled the beef out of it. Since our family members were already here, so it baked while we were eating. And then we enjoyed the cake while it was still very warm. It's a perfect way to enjoy a cake like this!

On the contrary, I served a cold pie. It's also known as Pistachio Pudding Dessert, but my mom always called it Erin's Lush & made it for St. Patrick's Day. There would be NO time for me to make the crust for this dessert, so I cheated by getting a pre-made graham pie crust. I then made the pistachio pudding with Irish cream creamer & used crushed pistachios & sliced almonds. It turned out so well, too!

Plated meal...I already devoured the mustard, dill & vinegar slaw
before thinking to take a pic of everything plated

Mmmmm...cake AND pie for dessert!

Most of the big kids (the ones 21 & over) also enjoyed some ale.

I did not partake in this since I am not a beer drinker. But the packing is really awesome...

Now then...part of St. Paddy's Day is about how you dress! Typically, the only real "rule" is that you need to have something green on or get pinched. Not sure how much the pinching actually happens except thru juvenile behavior (take that as you will). But there tends to be a process into what people wear. Here's what we did:

The boys all had green & blue on. Hubby did have orange under his green pullover, too!
Teen Boy is in a green t-shirt...hard to see in this pic.
Lil Guy is sporting neon green...his shoes (not shown, of course) are the same color.

Here I am at the end of the evening. See how tired I look?
I was exhausted!
But I still wore my Irish-like green & blue wrap,
a blue waffle top with butterfly print,
a headscarf I inherited from my grandmother with green & orange Irish-like pattern,
gray tights, deep red mod Mary Jane shoes, and a blue & green tartan wool mini skirt

The up-close tartan print on the skirt

On top of all of this, I discovered a fantastic Irish Aran Crafts fisherman's sweater at a thrift store! Someone overlooked it when they set out their St. Patrick's display. All it took was some extra looking...and I found this for $6.98! When I did research into these sweaters later, I found them for anywhere from $75 to almost $300! Crazy!

Isn't it beautiful? But I was so sad that it wouldn't fit me, so I had Teen Girl wear it.

She wore it SO well! She has a great faded olive button-up shirt to wear under the sweater, a skirt she made from one of hubby's old button-up olive shirts (which she won 2nd place for recycled styling for it), leggings, Ropers & a very trendy braided hair style with a bow. So perfectly Irish! She worked it!

OK...along with the amazing sweater find, I also found these amazing decorations, plates & cups for a killer price, too!

The sign, each stone, a package of 16 cups, package of 18 wedding/anniversary plates, and a package of 24 napkins were all $1 each at the Dollar Tree! SCORE!!

I went to the Kansas City Irish Museum this weekend. Not a very big place...but full of really cool stuff! However, their gift area has these same signs for $4. Just putting that out there. However...they do have some pretty incredible pricing for several of their gifts! Just FYI if you get the chance to stop by there...

I have also been feeling a bit sentimental lately. There is a draw to butterflies that I have anyway...but I discovered that the Irish see butterflies as souls of loved ones passed. And they have a butterfly blessing for it, too:

Beautiful, right? I'm getting choked up thinking about it...

But it's also a day of fun toasts, too! You can find all kinds of other Irish blessings, prayers, toasts, proverbs, limericks & even curses. Pleasant, right? And if you search...you can find them in a lot of places. But I thought I'd come up with a couple of Irish toasts of my own:

This was all I could come up with in the little extra time I could sort of find thru the day...

Anyhoo...I got to hear some Irish music, I watched part of the KC St. Patrick's Day parade on TV (I did record it so I could sit & enjoy it), but after this day & several days full of celebrating...I'm WIPED!

My hubby even asked if I was going to try to rest today. Apparently I looked like I was "floating" last night. (refer to the pic of me further up...).

So...now some downtime. Cuz this girl NEEDS it!

I hope our family's celebrating has inspired you to try some authentic stuff in the future. It's all about researching & celebrating.

And, by the way, save the Rubens & the corned beef & cabbage for Oktoberfest.

OK...I'm sure there's more celebrating coming...but not today. I need a break now...

               zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica is Taking in the Craic

So anyway...

What's the craic, me lads & lasses?

Today is it! It's St. Patrick's Day!! A day when everyone's Irish makes an appearance...whether you have Irish ancestry or not...
Never fear...I do have ancestry...no need to be shocked by this tidbit.

So I am ready to do some celebrating, myself.

I cannot get to the KC St. Patrick's Day Parade again this year...but I will be watching it live on TV while I do some dinner prep!

Then, I will turn on some Irish music for the rest of the day...as I continue to do dinner prep!

Breakfast consists of Lucky Charms & some Irish oatmeal. The coffee has some non-alcoholic Irish cream coffee creamer (from Bailey's) in it (and maybe some mint & chocolate for a Tingling Leprechaun)...then a motly-authentic dinner for tonight! And some semi-authentic...but we will certainly enjoy some Irish fare!

If you remember, I talked about corned beef & cabbage HERE. Remember that? Well...there have been a few articles I came across, just in this past week, to bring up the same point:

Link: www.europeancuisines.com

Link: Yahoo! Food

Link: ** Huffington Post

** A couple of things about the Huffington Post link info:

1. I've been saying this about corned beef & cabbage for quite some time. Amm-i-rite?

2. The color of green is worn since the day commemorates the death of a saint...which is Catholic. The green side of the Irish flag is symbolic for the Catholics, orange for the Protestants, white for the division between the two sides. So...wear blue AND green...and you can throw in some orange, too...It's all about coming together & unity at this point. Amm-i-rite?

3. It is believed the snakes being referred to were the demons & pagan ways as he converted Ireland to Christianity. The snakes are a metaphor. That's why there were no actual snakes to chase out...Amm-i-rite?

4. One thing NOT pointed out is that St. Patrick was a male. Right? By referring to him as "St. Patty" means we are calling him the effeminate form of Patrick as St. Patricia. The masculine shortening of Patrick is "Paddy". Quit referring to him as woman. It's kinda weird, yo. So please say "Happy St. PaDDy's Day". Amm-i-rite?
(UPDATE: Just came across this very fitting & timely article HERE! Found AFTER I did this blog post!)

Just know what your celebrating & how you dress thru research...

OK...back to our regularly scheduled programing...

So, instead, I decided to try something that I'm hoping the family will enjoy. The Dublin Coddle, last year, was not enjoyed by everyone as much as hoped. So, I came across this recipe for Pub-Style Irish Orange-Glazed Beef (HERE)! Gonna be adding some cole slaw, colcannon & Irish Soda Bread! Gonna top it off with some desserts: Irish oatmeal cookies, Irish Cream Erin's Lush pie & some Apple Irish Cream Cake! There is some Irish ale that has been also purchased by my hubby. I'm not a beer-drinking girl...so I'll pass on it.

However...you know lookin' the part is all part of the craic in the day!

Not sure if we'll get to work in "The Quiet Man" or not. We shall see how the evening goes...considering it's a school night & stuffs! And we will have some peeps over to share our dinner with.

Plus...it would be entertaining to try to stay up to catch Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'Brien & Stephen Colbert! They are Irish...and those would be some seriously fun shows tonight!

So now that you might be rethinking some of your celebrating plans...what's the plan for you now?

I still say some craic (which is Irish for fun & pronounced like "crack"...but with a great Irish accent) & shenanigans would still be in order! And maybe a wee bit of toasts & blessings should be shared...

But first...a lot of kitchen time today! Gotta get that Irish meal going!

Erin Go Braugh!

Stay tuned...you know the celebration will be shared...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica So Enjoys March

So anyway...

I know I've been on my major celebrating kick lately...but, hey! It's March!

March has some seriously awesome & totally fun things to celebrate &/or commemorate, yo!



We have Dr. Seuss' Birthday. (read about it HERE)








We can have Mardi Gras, like this year. (read about it HERE)

Those are now checked off of the list for 2014...and now looking to plan for a crazy run of close-together holidays:

Pi Day is coming...and so is the Ides of March! (read about them HERE)

Then, even though it's not a weird holiday, per se, it does need to have it's celebrating looked at. St. Patrick's Day comes right after Pi Day (3/14) & the Ides of March (3/15). So, we gotta plan ahead to get it all in!

I already know that Pi Day will consist of eat of pie. Yes...it should be about math & other nerdicle things, but math really does hurt my head. So it will consist of at least pizza. Maybe some kind of pie for dessert. Other than that...not sure. But it would be awesome to host a Nerd Party on 3/14/15...so let's all think about this next year! Epicness might happen. Until then...the plan is pizza on Pi Day Friday (my hubby came up with that rhyme).

For the Ides of March, it will be Caesar Salad & a large Italian feast. And no visiting of government buildings with friends. Oh...and togas! Or something Roman-inspired to wear for the day.

Those are usually pretty well in place. But I like to keep thinking thru & then thinking thru some more about St. Patrick's Day.

If you remember...corned beef & cabbage is NOT an Irish dish! I'm not a fan of corned beef anyway...so that works for me! Last year, I made an adapted Dublin Coddle. (read about it HERE) I like it! Hubby is OK with it...the kiddos are still whiny! So...the search continues for an authentic meal we ALL will try & hopefully enjoy. Oh...and no pork since we have a non-pork eater. I have found a flavorful beef dish to try...a potato side, a cabbage side & will hope to go back to try tradition Irish soda bread. A couple of Irish-inspired desserts are being planned, too. Hoping to take in the KC parade & catch an Irish movie. We usually do "The Quiet Man" since it's my hubby's fave movie, anyway...but would like to work in "Darby O'Gill & the Little People" as a change. We shall see...

OK...off to some more planning & prep for the upcoming holidays. I've turned on some Irish music to get me focused!

Have I mentioned I love this time of year? Cuz I do...I really, Really, REALLY do!

Are you gonna join in? Let's do this!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

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:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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