Wearing 'o the Green (envy, that is)

This is Butchers, Braggers, and Candlestickmakers, right? If so, then I believe I'm at the right place.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I threw a little party last night and decided to cook an Irish-themed meal. Which turned out to be two dishes that both contained Guinness. For the nondrinkers in the family, Guinness is an Irish stout that's very creamy, rich, and dark in color. It's pretty mild, as beers go, but has a slightly smoky and sweet flavor.

The main dish was a Guinness pie that cooked nearly all afternoon in the oven and made the apartment smell delicious. Seriously, I was chewing on the walls and the sofa after a few hours. Though they could have used a little salt.

This is the pie filling, which was mostly mushrooms, stew beef, onions, and Guinness. The skillet was full to the brim when I started, and it cooked down for about 3 hours until it turned into the smooth, savory, rich stew you see above.

And then I placed a pastry top on there and baked it for a little longer.

Which resulted in this. The pastry was flaky but substantial, and the stew filling beneath was savory and delicious. The perfect dish to start breaking in a new cast iron skillet.


And then for dessert, I tried my hand at a Guinness cake. Lisa had made one and I heard about it (and also how Dad wolfed down the four or fives pieces that Lisa brought over for both he and Mom to share), and so I have her to thank for the inspiration here.

The cake was really easy to make, and I could almost eat it without the frosting. It's dense, moist, not terribly sweet, and has a really heavy texture. But then you also get some cream cheese frosting for good measure.


I used up all my creative energy on those two things, but by the time dinner rolled around I wished I'd also made some colcannon (inspiration from Steve and Rachel on that one). It's probably not too early to start planning for St. Patrick's Day 2016, right?

Superbowl Soft Sourdough Pretzels

We made these soft sourdough pretzels for a superbowl party last month.  Though we didn't watch the superbowl, we did have a tailgate party food theme - except we stayed warm and ate inside.  

These pretzels are the second time I've attempted pretzels with the sourdough.  My first try was more experimental and I was trying to make hard pretzels.  I think I can safely say we all enjoyed the soft pretzels more.  These are good with a little mustard.

Birthday Burger

I just came across this photo of Rachel's birthday burger from last October.  It's too good not to post, so here you go.

We grilled olive burgers (our version uses green olives and cream cheese) and served them on those fancy pretzel buns.  Home made french fries, fresh from the garden carrot planks, dill pickles and apple cider rounded out the meal.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Shrimp on the Smoker

Back in July, we smoked up a special batch of shrimp.  Now that it's winter, and cold, I'm going to post it to remind us of warmer days.  Plus, I'm hoping to make Ben hungry.

We had gotten some ocean run coonstripe shrimp from the Rowes and I wasn't quite sure how to cook it, never having cooked shrimp before.  Besides that, Rachel doesn't prefer seafood so I was putting it off.  But since we already had the smoker fired up for some chicken and red peppers, I decided we might as well add some shrimp.

I used a spicy garlic brine based loosely on one that claimed to be useful for seafood.  This also helped the shrimp complete its final thaw.  I'm not sure that shrimp would thaw today, even in the house (with a low of -8 degrees F tonight).  They looked pretty tasty even before I put them on the smoker.

 It didn't take long to smoke/cook these on the charcoal smoker.  With a little applewood smoke and the heat of the charcoal, they were done in about ten minutes.  We ended up eating these cold at Philip's first birthday party and I thought they were excellent.  I don't recall if Philip liked them but Peter had a particular affinity for the shrimp.  Rachel even said they were ok.  I did also try them warm and they were good that way - they seemed buttery, even though we never put butter on them.  The smokiness was just right. 

Here's some of the chicken that we did at the same time.  The chicken was smoked with apple and honeysuckle.  It took about 5 hours, but it was also well worth it.

Happy 3rd Birthday to this Buttercup Squash Soup

Sometime in the past (I'm not exactly sure when, so it's safe to say that it's at least a year or more in the past), I received some frozen pureed pumpkin and squash from Steve and Rachel. Now, at last, it has become time to use them.

I found a bag of buttercup squash in my freezer and decided to make a soup with it. Now that it's feeling all fall-y outside, my mind turns to squash soups and roasted vegetables and crock pot pork shoulders, which, coincidentally, is what I happened to have for dinner the other night.

The soup is the only thing I took a picture of, though. And here it is in all it's glory, dressed up with some slivers of red bell pepper and a couple dollops of goat cheese.

I used the recipe here, and it was just about the simplest soup I've ever thrown together. Having a bag of pureed squash (instead of raw chunks) helped a lot.

So, thanks to Steve and Rachel for the squash, and thanks to the squash for a delicious soup.

Ever wished your coffee cake was a little more...caffeinated? If not, it's only because you were never lucky enough to think of it.

It's unclear whether the extra caffeine or the smooth coffee flavor won her over, but Hazel is a fan.

Also, here is a map. Of Sorth America. That is not a typo.

Coffee cake recipe credit goes to mom, who clipped it from a USA Today some time ago and has been keeping it in her purse for several months so she could pull it out and drool over it. 

Adventures in Smoking

Just a teaser - more to come.