Corned Beef

So I must say, this is a dish that is always served. Thanksgiving gives us turkey, for me St. Patrick’s Day, gives us corned beef. My favorite way to make corned beef is to coat it with Dijon mustard and brown sugar and bake it in the oven.
Baked Corned Beef

While it may be too late this year to make your own corned beef from scratch, yes, you actually brine the meat yourself, this is a great way to use a brisket that is on sale. I have made these before from scratch, they won’t be as pink as what you find in the store, but they are good none the less.
Corned Beef – How to Cure

My friend and fellow blogger Fran from Frantasticfood.com has a wonderful way to use up your left over corned beef. Why not try it Tex-Mex Style. She is even kind enough to shoot a video around this, to make it nice and easy to see.
Serving Up Corned Beef – Tex Mex Style

Side Dishes

Colcannon – Irish Mashed Potatoes
Colcannon has to be one of the least well known side dishes, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. Colcannon was a dish I discovered through one of my best friends, the first time I had this was at Feast in Houston, Texas. Colcannon is creamy mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage inside of them. The cabbage has a wonderful flavor, and it helps make your mashed potatoes to be green.
Colcannon – Irish Mashed Potatoes
Irish Soda Bread
Thankfully this is a bread that not only tastes really well, it also is easy to make, and doesn’t require time to rise like other bread does. This is a crusty and slightly sweet bread that everyone is sure to love. I have made this bread a few times. If you start your bread, before you start your vegetables when cooking dinner, you will have hot bread when your meal is ready to be served.
Irish Soda Bread
Authentic Irish Soda Bread
Raglan Road Guinness Dipping Sauce
This goes well with Irish soda bread. Guinness is combined with sugar, and reduced slowly, you are left with a delicious syrup that tastes so good when you dip your bread into this sauce.
Raglan Road Guinness Dipping Sauce

Dessert

Simon and Seafort’s Irish Coffee
So one more thing we have, is Irish Coffee. This is a sweetened coffee with whiskey and a dollop of whipped cream?
Simon and Seafort’s Irish Coffee
We have lots of recipe suggestions here. I am going to be starting my corned beef today, and tomorrow I am going to enjoy some corned beef, cabbage, and wearing a bit of green.

What are you doing for St. Patrick’s Day? Are you staying in? Are you going out?

Ginger Snap Cookies
3 1/2 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
4 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon (Ceylon Cinnamon varieties are my favorite)
2 1/2 sticks butter
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 C. Molasses
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets before use. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a large bowl and mix until very fluffy. In a different bowl cream together butter and sugar until well combined. Add to the butter and sugar mixture the eggs, molasses, lemon extract. Stir in the flour mixture until blended. Form the dough into 3/4 inch balls and arrange about 1 1/2 inches apart. These cookies do not spread much when baking. Bake 1 sheet at a time for about 12 minutes. The cookies will flatten and develop a crinkled surface as they bake. Let stand briefly and remove to a rack to cool.

Sharon’s Pumpkin Dip
1 14 oz can pumpkin
8 oz. soft cream cheese
1 C. confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Use a wire whisk to mix together a 14 oz. can of pumpkin, 8 ounces of really soft cream cheese, a cup of confectioners sugar, and a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice.

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice in your pantry, substitute 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp each of ground nutmeg, ground ginger and ground clove.

1     lb.       Oreos, crushed
8     oz.       cream cheese, cubed
1     lb.        white dipping chocolate, also known as almond bark

Crush the Oreo’s  into the bowl of your electric mixer; add cream cheese that has been cubed.  Run mixer for a little bit; it will all come together and be rather mushy, tacky.  Chill for one hour.  Then take spoonfuls (or a small cookie scoop) and make small balls, then dip into the melted almond bark (almond bark can be melted in the microwave).  Place on waxed paper and let set up.  There are good cold or room temperature.  They also freeze well.

Here are a few of the things that we will be serving up.

Ina Garten’s Pan Fried Onion Dip – This is a rich, and flavorful onion dip, I promise once you make this recipe just once, you won’t by buying this at the grocery store again.
Chihuahuas Port Sangria – If you have never tried Sangria you have been missing a real treat. Sangria is typically a full bodied red wine with other types of liquors, fruit, fruit juice and much more. These are wonderful because you can pour this over ice, and enjoy a cool and refreshing drink.
Chart House Spinach Salad – Salads are so nice and refreshing, we like this salad because it has enough bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and more to make it filling. Since this salad is made with spinich it won’t wilt as quickly as other salads may.

In addition to these items, I will be serving up olives, fruit salad, some other salty snacks.  We hope that you and your family will enjoy a safe weekend.

Better than KFC Cole Slaw – we love this recipe, you can make it a day or two ahead of time and enjoy it when you like.  You can use pre-packaged shredded cabbage to help save time, or you can buy fresh cabbage and chop it up yourself.

Kenny Rogers BBQ Sauce – this goes well on either chicken or beef.  Best of all you can make this recipe ahead of time, and use it when you are ready.

Jell-O Poke Cake – This can be made as a double layer cake or you can make this as a 13 x 9 rectangular cake.  We suggest that if you are feeling festive you can use a red and blue Jell-O for patriotic colors. 

We had recently spent a long weekend in New Jersey with several trips into NYC.  I had the pleasure of taking one of my dearest friends there, and meeting with my favorite Russian family.  I was fortunate enough to get one of their Gefilte fish recipe, so be looking for a recipe for gefilte fish soon.  I have a couple of pot luck dinners coming up, so I know what I am serving up.  We also did manage to have some cheesecake at Junior’s, of which we have a recipe for here.  It was excellent to have a New York Style Cheesecake in New York City.  We also had hot dogs at Nathan’s.  It certainly feels like we ate our way across Manhattan.  We look forward to sharing more of our visit up there with you in the future.

Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Weekend!

The CopyKat Crew

2 Tablespoons Cocoa
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cup Rum
2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
2 1/2 Cup crushed Vanilla Wafers
1 Cup chopped Pecans or Walnuts
2 Cup Powdered Sugar (to roll balls in)

Mix Cocoa and Powdered Sugar.

Combine and stir Rum with Light Corn Syrup.

Add and mix Vanilla Wafers and chopped Nuts.

Mix ingredients roll into balls.

Roll each ball into powdered sugar

*Store in Air Tight Container.

I use Plastic Freezer Zip Bags (remove excess air)to crush Vanilla Wafers and to (add air to bag) to roll the balls in Powdered Sugar.

Thanks to tlczoo for sharing this recipe.

2 1/2 C. chopped celery
8 C. cornbread (baked with 4 eggs –my family uses the recipe on the White Lilly self-rising cornmeal)
2 C. breadcrumbs (or biscuits, French bread, etc.)
2 1/2 C. chopped onion
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 or 2 cans cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 oz.)
1 can cream of celery soup (10 3/4 oz.)
3-4 cups chicken broth
chicken bouillon (about 2-3 Tbsp.
black pepper & salt to taste
*onion powder*

1) Cook celery and onion in butter and 3 cups of chicken broth until tender.

2) In a large bowl crumble cornbread. Pour cooked celery and onion mixture over this and mix.

3) Add bread crumbs, celery soup,1 can chicken soup, eggs, remaining broth, and about 1 1/2 Tbsp bouillon (or to taste). Mix these ingredients together.

4)SEE NOTES

Bake 350 degrees in a very large casserole for about 45 min. to an hour.

Helpful Notes– The consistency should be soft (a little bit soupy), NOT stiff. If the consistency is too stiff, add more soup. Also, taste to make sure you have enough onion, pepper, etc. You may need to add some *onion powder*, more bouillon, or black pepper.

Thanks to KellyK for submitting this recipe.

1 package whole, fresh cranberries
2 large oranges
zest from 1 orange
2 medium apples
2 cups sugar
5 to 6 drops food coloring

Using your food processor, dump cranberries in container with a puree blade. Slice and cube apple, removing seeds, but leaving peel on. Add into processor. Wash thoroughly one orange and scrape zest. Peel both oranges, section and add to mixture. Add sugar and food coloring. Puree until all is blended. Refrigerate overnight for best results.

Thanks to Pam Hite for sharing this recipe.  She suggests that the above is Luby’s original recipe, however I also add one small can crushed pineapples, one small bag coconut and 1 cup chopped pecans. It’s a must have on our Holliday dinner table.

Graham Cracker Crust
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 22 sheets, finely crushed with a rolling pin)
3 Tbsp sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
Cheesecake
CHEESECAKE FILLING
3 package cream cheese – (8 oz ea)
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar – (firmly packed)
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour plus
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1 cup sour cream plus
2 Tbsp sour cream
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree

To Make the Crust: Put the graham cracker crumbs in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until they have a uniformly fine texture. Add the sugar and pulse to combine. With the machine running, pour the melted butter through the feed tube and continue processing just until the mixture forms a soft mass. Remove from the processor and firmly press the mixture into the base of a 9-inch spring form pan, spreading it evenly.

To Make the Cheesecake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment, beat the cream cheese until soft, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the brown sugar and continue beating until thoroughly incorporated and creamy.

In a separate small bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the cream cheese mixture and beat until thoroughly combined, stopping occasionally to scrape down the bowl. In the same way, beat in the sour cream and then, one at a time, the eggs, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and pumpkin and beat until thoroughly combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared spring form pan and place on the center rack of the oven. Bake for 1 hour, test for doneness by gently moving the pan to see if the center of the cheesecake has firmed up – a sign of doneness – or is still slightly fluid (alternatively, check the cheesecake’s internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer, which should register 180 degrees). The cheesecake may require up to 20 minutes more baking time.

When it is done, let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate it overnight before removing the side of the pan. Cut the cheesecake into wedges with a sharp knife.

6 C. crumbled cornbread
4 C. crumbled light bread
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 C. bell pepper
1/2 C. chopped onion
3 hard-cooked eggs, chipped
2 to 2 1/2 C. chicken or turkey broth

Saute onion, bell pepper, and celery in 2 Tbsp. butter while preparing the ingredients. Them mix all ingredients and pour broth of chicken or turkey giblets and add cooked meat pieces that have been boiled. Stuff turkey or place in a greased roaster pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.

Salad

1 C. seedless green grapes
1 C. diced banana
1 C. diced pineapples
1 C. pitted Bing cherries
1 C. diced orange
1 C. cantaloupe (optional)
2 plums diced
2 C. miniature marshmallows
Combine fruits and marshmallow. Fold in creamy dressing; spoon carefully into serving bowl. Chill 24 hours to allow fruits and dressing flavors to blend fully. Garnish with fruits and sprigs of mint if desired.

Mix first 3 ingredients with hand until mixture is creamy. Shape into small balls and chill. Melt chocolate chips and add paraffin over boiling water. Dip balls in chocolate mixture, using a toothpick. Place on waxed paper.

Pumpkin Pie
1 15 oz Can Pumpkin
1 14 oz Can Sweetened Condensed Milk (not evaporated milk)
1 Egg
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 9″ Pie Shell (unbaked deep dish)
Streusel Topping
1/4 C. Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
2 Tbs. Flour
2 Tbs. Cold Butter
3/4 C. Walnuts (chopped medium fine)
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon