Rich chocolate and cool mint mingle to create an explosion of flavor in these grasshopper brownies.  This recipe utilizes brownie mix and canned frosting to make an easy and delicious quick treat.  The combination of mint and chocolate is by no means new to the scene.   York has been making their famous peppermint patty, children have been dunking peppermint sticks in to cocoa, and the Girl Scouts have been peddling Thin Mints for years.

I am not really sure why this minty dessert was ever named the grasshopper other than for its color, I mean there are no actual insects in any recipe I have ever found.  There is a famous cocktail named the grasshopper made with creme de menthe and white cream de cacao which has been around since the early 1950’s, about the same time that grasshopper pie started showing up.  There is no way to know which came first, but luckily someone had the mind to throw these flavors together.

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Grasshopper Brownies

Rich chocolate and cool mint mingle to create an explosion of flavor in these grasshopper brownies. This recipe utilizes brownie mix and canned frosting to make an easy and delicious quick treat.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 16 2 x 2 Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 box brownie mix prepare as directed on box
• ½ cup Andes mint baking chips
• 1 can cream cheese frosting
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons Creme de Menthe or 1 teaspoon mint extract
• 2 - 3 drops drops green soft gel food coloring
• ¾ cup dark chocolate baking chips
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Kahlua optional

Instructions

• Add mint chips to brownie mix and bake in an 8″ x 8″ pan following the instructions on the box. Allow to completely cool.
• Place frosting in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
• Add powdered sugar, creme de menthe (or extract), and color. Mix until thoroughly combined.
• Spread frosting evenly over cooled brownies. Place in fridge to set frosting.
• Place chocolate chips is a small mixing bowl.
• Heat cream in the microwave until hot (not boiling).
• Pour hot cream over chips and allow to stand for about three minutes. Stir to combine.
• Chocolate will thicken as it cools.  Add Kahlua to ganache if desired.
• When chocolate reaches room temperature pour over the top of mint layer.
• Level with a spatula if necessary.
• Place brownies in the fridge for about thirty minutes to set ganache.

Notes

I used a box mix and canned frosting for this quick and easy treat, if you prefer to make everything from scratch, knock yourself out.

Moist and dense is the best way to describe this traditional Irish Potato Bread.  The ingredients are somewhat similar to that of Boxty, incorporating both mashed and raw potatoes, as well as green onion.  Reminiscent of a large biscuit, this baking powder skillet bread uses a combination of white and whole wheat flour for an added depth of flavor.

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Irish Potato Bread

Moist and dense is the best way to describe this traditional Irish Potato Bread. Reminiscent of a large biscuit, this baking powder skillet bread uses a combination of white and whole wheat flour for an added depth of flavor.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Irish

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 8 Slices

Ingredients

• ¾ cup mashed potatoes room temp
• ¾ cup grated raw potato
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons green onion thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon caraway seed
• 3 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Position rack in the center of the oven and heat to 375º F.
• Grease the inside of an 8″ cast iron skillet or baking dish and set aside.
• Mix together the mashed and grated potatoes.
• Add in egg and egg white, oil, and milk until well combined.
• In another mixing bowl stir together, green onion, caraway seed, flours, and salt.
• Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well (dough will be shaggy and a bit sticky).
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead 7 to 8 times until a soft ball forms.
• Place dough in the center of the prepared pan and gently pat to cover the entire pan evenly.
• Using a sharp knife cut an “X” into the top about ½” deep.
• Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until top is nicely browned and bread sounds hollow when tapped.
• Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before removing bread from the pan.
• Place bread on a wire rack to cool.
• Allow bread to rest for an hour before slicing to avoid crumbling.

Notes

This recipe is a great use of left-over mashed potatoes. Allow the bread to rest for an hour after removing from the oven before slicing to avoid crumbling.

Mashed potatoes mixed together with sautéed cabbage and onions create this traditional Irish dish know simply as Colcannon. With an amazing depth of flavor and textures, these potatoes are remarkable light, fluffy, and delicious.  There are many versions of these potatoes, some using kale in place of cabbage, while others call for leek, garlic, or scallion. Customarily eaten in the fall when cabbage and kale are in season, I believe Colcannon would make an outstanding and interesting addition to the Thanksgiving table. I have also added this to my list of signature side dishes, along with my Blue Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Onion should I ever open a steak house.

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Colcannon

Mashed potatoes mixed together with sautéed cabbage and onions create this traditional Irish dish know simply as Colcannon. With an amazing depth of flavor and textures, these potatoes are remarkable light, fluffy, and delicious.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Irish

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 12

Author Christoph

Ingredients

• 3 - 4 large russet potatoes peeled, cubed, and boiled
• 3 Tablespoon butter
• 2 Tablespoon milk or half-n-half
• 4 - 5 strips bacon crisped and crumbled (optional)
• 1/2 small head of cabbage cored and thinly sliced
• 1/2 onion thinly sliced
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic finely diced
• 3 Tablespoons fresh parsley rough chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Peel, cube, and cook potatoes in a pot of boiling water until fork tender.
• Crisp bacon in a large skillet. When cooked remove and place on a paper towel. Crumble bacon when cool enough to handle.
• Reserve fat in the skillet.
• Add cabbage and onion to the skillet with the bacon fat and sauté over medium heat until onions become translucent.
• Add garlic and cook for another minute. Remove from heat.
• Drain potatoes and rice them into a large mixing bowl. Add butter and milk, whip potatoes until smooth (add milk only as needed for consistency).
• Fold in cabbage and onion mixture, two-thirds of the bacon, and parsley.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Transfer Colcannon into a serving dish and top with some butter, and the remaining bacon. Garnish with some fresh ground black pepper, and parsley.

Notes

As mentioned there are many versions of this dish, this is my just my spin. Spinach or Kale makes an excellent ingredient for a variation. Colcannon however should be light and fluffy. I use my potato ricer for best results.

Well here we are, the Friday before one of the most famous party holidays of the year. You might be surprised to know that while St. Patrick’s day is often thought to be one of the biggest drinking days of the year, it actually appears down the list a ways, with Thanksgiving eve ranking #1 among the hoisting holidays.

Because St Patrick’s day falls on a Sunday this year, you can expect that happy hour today will most likely kick off a three-day brawl for many. Bars and pubs will be shoulder to shoulder full of patrons dressed in green, speaking in tongues, and probably spilling about half as much of some green drink as they consume.  Sounds like a party I hate to miss, but since I have a fear of bag pipes…….. I guess I will be content to stay home.  But there is no reason I can not celebrate in my own fashion, with a Dublintini, that way if I get a wee bit flathered or knackered, I won’t have far to be a going.

December 15, 2018 – A little update to our post.  We are very excited to have had our drink included by USA TODAY in their Thanksgiving & CO. America’s Home for the Holidays drink guide.

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Dublintini

An Irish spin on the martini. This one will definitely get you in the mood for the wearin’ of the green.

Course Cocktails

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Ingredients

• 2 oz Irish Whiskey
• 1 oz sour apple schnapps
• 2 oz white cranberry juice

Instructions

• Place all ingredients in a shaker.
• Add ice and shake vigorously until your hands are frozen.
• Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a slice of fresh green apple.

And if you are going out, here are a few toasts that might come in handy:

May your home always be too small to hold your friends.

May you never forget what is worth remembering or remember what is best forgotten.

May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

Here’s to you and yours and to mine and ours. And if mine and ours ever come across to you and yours, I hope you and yours will do as much for mine and ours as mine and ours would do for you and yours!

Here’s to a long life and a merry one.  A quick death and an easy one.  A pretty girl and an honest one.  A cold beer – and another one!

May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, but never catch up.

May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.

I hope every one enjoys a safe and fun weekend!  Sláinte!

The post TGIF with a Dublintini first appeared on James & Everett.]]> https://jamesandeverett.com/2013/03/15/tgif-with-a-dublintini/feed/ 0 2065 https://jamesandeverett.com/2012/06/11/boxty/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=boxty https://jamesandeverett.com/2012/06/11/boxty/#respond Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:30:00 +0000 https://jamesandeverett.com/?p=1019 Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan. If you don’t get boxty, you’ll never get a man, or so the saying goes. Boxty, or bacstaí, is the quintessentially Irish potato cake. There are many different way to make these soft and delicious pancakes, with recipes being …

Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan. If you don’t get boxty, you’ll never get a man, or so the saying goes. Boxty, or bacstaí, is the quintessentially Irish potato cake. There are many different way to make these soft and delicious pancakes, with recipes being handed down from generation to generation, from mother to son.

This pancake is made by combining leftover mashed potatoes with shredded raw ones. Many recipes are based primarily on the mashed potatoes, while others use more of the shredded raw potatoes instead. But for the best results, and the smoothest of textures, for a dish that does not fall apart in the pan, the recommendation is to use an equal mixture of raw and cooked potato.

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Boxty

A traditional Irish dish using mashed and shredded raw potatoes to create a tender pancake.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Irish

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Christoph

Ingredients

• 1 cup mashed potato, leftovers work great
• 1 cup shredded raw potato
• ½ cup slice scallion
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Toss the flour and baking powder with the shredded raw potatoes and scallion. Mix in the mashed potatoes.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the egg and milk. Add to the potato mixture and combine.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Heat ¼ cup of vegetable in a large skillet over medium high heat.
• Drop in enough of the potatoes to form a 2″ - 3″ pancake when flattened with the back of the spoon.
• Fry on both sides for 3 to 4 minutes or until slightly golden brown.
• Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. And serve warm.

Notes

Leftover boxty is also used sometimes instead of bread for a sandwich or burger. Now just how good with that be?

What’s Cooking is proud to participate in the Meatless Monday Campaign.

The post Boxty first appeared on James & Everett.]]>

St Patrick’s Day, the one and only day of the year that everyone who isn’t Irish, pretends to be. But why? I don’t think that the Irish are a protected class and somehow have better lives than the rest of us, or that the “Luck of the Irish” is really extra lucky. So why is it we suddenly start to speak with a thick brogue, and feel compelled to eat corned beef and drink green beer? I guess maybe it’s simply because St.Patrick’s day is associated with fun, probably more fun than most any other special day, and maybe that turns all of us a bit “green”with envy.

Corned beef is actually not an Irish National dish, and it’s connection to St. Patrick’s day is specifically part of the Irish-American culture. Irish corned beef was considered primarily a trade item. During both the Irish Famine, and the Great Potato Famine, raising cattle for production of corned beef to sustain trade crowded out land that would have otherwise been used to raise crops to feed the local population.

The salted or corned brisket was widely used by British naval fleets and North American armies due to its non-perishable quality. Coastal cities in Ireland such as Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, created vast beef curing and packing industries to support the trade. The product was also desired by the French for use in Caribbean sugar plantations as sustenance for the colonist, the slave labor, and for the control of slave population.

There are many methods of cooking corned beef and cabbage. One way is to boil the meat in a pot with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots, however I find the end result to be a tough piece of meat with little flavor.

I prefer to purchase the brisket over the point cut. Adding no liquid, I place the meat in the crock pot on top of a bed of roughly chopped onions and cook covered on low for six to eight hours, depending on the size of the brisket. The combination of the water in the onion and the drippings from the beef create enough moisture to produce a tender piece of meat. Corned beef is very high in sodium so resist the temptation to add more salt. The fibers of the brisket tend to be long. Cutting the meat across the grain is important for best results.

Roasted potatoes and carrots add a nice flavor and texture to this meal. Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish and then turn the vegetables in the oil to evenly coat using your hands. Place the vegetables in a hot oven, 400º F for about an hour, stirring halfway through the cooking time to ensure even roasting. Sprinkle the potatoes and carrots with sea salt and pepper as they come out of the oven. Do not add salt before roasting, it will result in dry food! Salt forces the liquids out of meats and vegetables. Quarter and core the cabbage. Steam the cabbage in a colander placed over a pot of boiling water and covered with a lid.

I like to finish this dish with a parsley and white wine sauce. I make a thin béchamel sauce replacing half of the milk with white wine, and adding chopped parsley, and a squeeze of lemon. This sauce brings a light fresh contrast to the salty taste of the corned beef.

So get your green on and get out there, cause the pipes…… the pipes are calling.

Sláinte!