Colcannon Soup

From St. Patrick's Day Leftovers:



Colcannon Soup

1/2 lb. potatoes, diced

1/2 cup sauteed cabbage

1/2 cup sauteed leeks

3 cups chicken stock

1 cup milk

Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot.

Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.

Cook for 30 minutes.

Corned Beef & Cabbage Pot Pie

From Saint Patrick's Day Leftovers:



Corned Beef & Cabbage Pot Pie

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 white onion, diced
2 cups beef stock
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups chopped corned beef
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage
2 red potatoes, chopped
1 cup carrots, diced
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 package puff pastry



In a large pot, combine butter and flour over medium heat to make a roux.

Add beef stock and water and stir until thickened.

Add beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions and seasoning.  Bring to boil and reduce to simmer.  Cook on stovetop covered for 30 minutes.  Uncover and cook an additional 15-20 minutes.

Preheat oven 350F.

Pour mixture into a 9x13 pan.  Cover with puff pastry.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Reuben Soup

From Saint Patrick's Day Leftovers:


Reuben Soup

1/2 white onion, diced
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup sauerkraut
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup corned beef
2 cups beef stock
1 cup half & half
1/4 cup Thousand Islands Dressing



In a large pot, saute onions in olive oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

Add sauerkraut and corned beef.

Add beef stock and half & half.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in swiss cheese and dressing until homogenous.

Serve with toasted rye bread croutons.

Reuben Dip

From Saint Patrick's Day Leftovers:



Reuben Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Thousand Islands Dressing
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
3/4 cup sauerkraut
3/4 cup chopped corned beef
1 loaf rye or pumpernickel bread


Preheat oven 350F.

Combine all ingredients except bread into a greased baking dish.  Bake 20 minutes.

Hollow out the middle of a bread loaf.  Cut the spare piece of bread into 1" cubes.

Stir the dip once more to combine and pour into the bread loaf.

Serve with bread cubes.

Irish Nachos

From Saint Patrick's Day Leftovers:


Irish Nachos

3 cups 1/4" thick potato slices

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup chopped corned beef, like this Orange Marmalade Slow Cooker version

1/2 cup Sauteed Cabbage

1/4 cup diced green onions

Sour Cream 


Preheat oven 425F.

Place potato slices on cookie sheet and bake under broiler for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Place on a serving plate.  Top with cheddar cheese, corned beef, cabbage, onions and a dollop of sour cream.  

Reuben Melt Sandwich

... and other assorted leftovers.

If you're Irish, or a fan of Irish food at least once a year, you may be like me and have an overabundance of leftovers.

Corned beef.

Cabbage.

Colcannon.

The Guinness is gone though.  Surprise, surprise...

Anyway,  here are a few recipes I thought I would share that are perfect for leftovers.  Some are old, some are new, but all are easy and delicious.

Not only that, they are also great meals to serve your non-Irish friends.  They are just Americanized enough to satisfy any set of taste buds!





Reuben Melt Sandwich

4 slices rye or pumpernickel bread

1 cup corned beef

2 slices swiss cheese

1/3 cup drained sauerkraut or cabbage

1/4 cup Thousand Islands dressing

2 tbsp butter

Coat the inside of each slice with TI Dressing.

On the bottom slice, layer sauerkraut, corned beef and cheese.  Finish with top slice.

Fry in a pan in butter over medium heat until cheese has completely melted and the bread is crispy.

More Leftovers:

Reuben Dip

Reuben Soup

Corned Beef & Cabbage Pot Pie

Corned Beef & Cabbage Pizza

Corned Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls

Corned Beef Hash

Twice Baked Colcannon

Colcannon Potato Skins

Colcannon Pierogies

Colcannon Soup

Irish Nachos

Lemon Poppy Seed French Toast

I'm loving lemon and poppy seeds right now.

It's becoming a huge staple in my diet, which had been previously unheard of in my previous twenty-some-odd years.  It's to the point that if those old stories are true, I need to avoid getting drug tested any time soon...

A few months ago, Denny's restaurant was offering a special related to the new installment of the Lord of the Rings movies, and they had a Lemon Poppy french toast on the menu.  While I have absolutely no clue what that has to do with Hobbits, I do know that it was pretty tasty.

However, cloyingly sweet.

Seriously, to the point where I felt like the sugar granules has sanded off the top layer of my tongue.  I like my lemon poppy concoctions to offer a subtle sweet and a slight, but still noticeable sour tang from the lemon.

I thought the idea of frying up a slice of pound cake french-toast-style was pretty intriguing though, so in the time since then, I've been experimenting with my own cake recipe as well as my own adapted french toast recipe.

This is the result.

This dessert-style breakfast -slash- breakfast-style dessert has a healthy dose of sweetness with a hint of tart lemon.  Even the glaze is mildly sweet, and therefore, enjoyable in much larger doses.

Because portion size plays a huge role in my life.

Not.





Lemon Poppy Seed French Toast

4-6 thick slices of Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp sugar

Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze:
1/2 cup Confectioner's sugar
1/2 brick cream cheese
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp lemon extract



Heat griddle to medium heat.

Combine eggs, milk and sugar in a shallow pan.

Submerge pound cake slices in egg mixture, coating each side evenly.  Place on griddle and fry for 3-5 minutes per side.

Combine ingredients for glaze in a large mixing bowl.  Adjust the amount of milk to your desired thickness.  It should be thick, but pourable.  Drizzle over french toast.

Garnish with lemon zest if desired.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

As a self-proclaimed muffin and cupcake aficionado, I feel like I can just about make or consume any kind of individually portioned carb-laden concoction.

However, lemon poppy seed flavored goods were never my thing.  Not because I didn't like them, but because I didn't care to try them.  I'd convinced myself I wasn't going to like them anyway, so why bother?  Plus, I remember in college when the hipsters at the coffee shop refused poppy seed anything because of its supposedly adverse effects on a drug test.  I don't know if that's true or not, but as a closet nerd, I was definitely not going to risk the career of my dreams because a poppy seed bagel had turned me into a raging heroin addict.

You can tell how grounded in reason and logic I can be.

In my adventure to try and cook all new sorts of things, I decided on a whim a few weeks back to get a lemon poppy seed muffin from the local supermarket bakery.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

I had once been denied the right to lemon-poppy seed love by my own stubborn brain.  But, I'm sure glad I rebelled against myself because it was super tasty.  So much so, in fact, that on my next trip to Denny's, I ordered up a special that included lemon poppy seed cake fried in an eggy batter and served with tangy, cloyingly sweet lemon cream cheese.

Turns out the word cake beats muffin any day.

So, I went home and set to work creating my own.  After searching through a bunch of recipes with boxed cake mix and boxed pudding mix, I finally found one that seemed to be as natural as humanly possible.  The lemon syrup helps keep this pound cake as moist as boxed mixes would and the lemony tang is potent but not overbearingly sour.

And, just wait and see what I do with this pound cake next....





Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake
(adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Lemon Syrup:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup Confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp lemon extract


Preheat oven 350F.

In a large bowl, combine all of the cake ingredients.  You may need to use a folding motion toward the end of mixing to distribute the poppy seeds as evenly as possible.

Pour mixture evenly between two greased and floured loaf pans.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Prepare syrup by mixing ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until sugar has completely dissolved and mixture thickens slightly.  Poke holes in the top of the cake with a skewer (while still warm) and pour the syrup over the cake, letting it absorb.

Combine the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl until you get a thick glaze consistency.  You may need to adjust the amount of milk for a thinner/thicker glaze.  Drizzle over the top of a completely cooled pound cake.

Pina Colada Trifle

I need summer.

Flip flops.  Sleeveless shirts (on women, not on men).  Beach hair.  Sunglasses.

Frozen drinks.

I'm over hot cocoa.  And coffee.  Even with Bailey's.  I need a stiff dacquiri ASAP.

Usually, I'm a big fan of winter.  I might even be a fan again tomorrow, but right now, I'm over it.  I'm over bundling up my body in the middle of the night to take the puppy out.  I'm over having to go outside TWICE in one morning, once to start my car and once again ten minutes later to drive it.  And, I'm especially over that disgusting sensation when you step into a too-deep pile of snow and feel it invading the top of your boot, chilling your poor feet more and more with every step.

Since the Native Americans utilized the rain dance in days of drought, I decided to make a Pina Colada Trifle to beckon summertime.

If it works, we will need to turn this into a ritual.  I'm betting not, but it's fun to make and eat nonetheless!




Pina Colada Trifle

1 tub frozen whipped topping
1/2 cup pina colada drink mix
1/4 cup Confectioner's sugar
1 pineapple
2 jars cherries
2 cups shaved coconut


Combine whipped topping, drink mix and sugar in a large bowl.

Line the bottom of a trifle dish with 1/3 of the whipped cream.

Top with 1/3 of the pineapple, cherries and coconut.

Repeat two more times.