23 March 2011

Chunky Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.

Say that ten times fast! This was adapted from my Nestle Toll House Cookie cookbook. I didn't use Nestle products in the recipe and I added oatmeal for texture. With the peanut butter and butter, these cookies were pretty slippery, the oatmeal gave them balance. I also left out the chopped peanuts. 



21 March 2011

St. Patrick's Potluck

So I hosted a little dinner party in my apartment on Saturday. As Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, we had a clear and delicious theme for the potluck spread. Being the hostess, I went overboard.

I started with my now-famous Guinness corned beef. There are two bottles of Guinness Extra Stout poured in the crock pot over this along with a can of beef broth. It's cooked on low for eight hours and falls apart under the fork.I also made simmered cabbage. Most people aren't impressed with cabbage but I think it's because people cook it lazily. I like to cook mine in beef broth with butter, olive oil, and white cooking wine. It adds a lot of extra flavor.
I cooked a little of the cabbage in butter first and combined it with Thursday's potatoes and corned beef, some shredded cheddar, and wrapped the mixture up in egg roll wrappers, deep frying them to a delicious golden brown. Voila, Irish egg rolls!
And to cap it off, I made black and tan chocolate mousse. The dark portion is a Guinness and bittersweet chocolate mousse and it's topped with a mixture of white chocolate (or, as my Aunt Joan insists, "almond bark, there's no such thing as white chocolate!") and whipped cream. The prep uses so many dishes that my husband will now have to clean but they're so rich and so worth it.
One couple brought champ, a fantastic buttery mix of mashed potatoes and scallions served with extra butter. Nothing makes me happier than extra butter. The other couple brought a great Irish soda bread, Scottish shortbread (made with dark brown sugar, giving the cookies a molasses-y flavor), and Irish cream chocolate cheesecake. One friend brought some green beans with almonds and kale instead of her boyfriend. I love nights with good food and good company.

17 March 2011

Irish Soda Bread

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made soda bread to go with dinner tonight (a delicious pot roast with roots vegetables and homemade gravy).

This is a super easy recipe and comes together quickly.  I used 3 1/2 c. of flour, 1 tsp. of baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 1/2 c. of buttermilk. Shape the dough into a 6-7 inch diameter circle of dough, cut a cross in the top and bake for 35 minutes @ 425 degrees and done!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!







12 March 2011

Baby shower cupcakes!

I had a cupcake order this morning. Three dozen cup cakes for a baby shower. I made one dozen lemon filled with lemon cured and iced with Swiss meringue butter cream, one dozen chocolate filled with raspberry and iced with chocolate butter cream and once dozen vanilla butter iced with butter cream. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I found really cute cupcake wrappers at Fancy Flours that perfectly matched the mom-to-be's nursery colors. I purchased a cupcake stand from Cupcake Tree and trimmed it with ribbon to match the colors. My husband sampled the extra cupcakes I had and said they were delicious. I'm partial to the lemon ones, but then again, Swiss meringue is my favorite icing. With two and a half pounds of butter, you can't go wrong. Delicious!

Chocolate and lemon, followed by vanilla.
Aren't the wrappers darling?

We'll be off to Ireland in just five weeks for our honeymoon. I'm planning to bake something to celebrate St. Patrick's Day next week and will hopefully have time to make a couple more new things before we depart. 

Enjoy!