Going Irish

It's been a while since I posted.  I've been a little busy. Will post about that later but wanted to let you know what we had for New Food Night this week.

Yes, we did have New Food Night every week. I just didn't get any posts made about them. I'm sorry. You missed out on some good stuff -- Chicken Fried Steak being one.  Oh well, your loss. That was kinda rude but perhaps this weeks food will make up for it.

Last Tuesday I was in Arizona eating Corned Beef and Cabbage prepared by my daughter. Gary was here in Tulsa eating Chicken Cacciatore  prepared by Miss Annette. It occurred to them that they didn't plan their week in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day. So they decided that this week should be Irish.

Here's all the ingredients Gary needs for his contribution, Shepherd's Pie.  I think my across the street daughter may be starting to worry about us.  We had to borrow vodka from her for one dish a while back  and then I called for a corkscrew for this meal.  She may be thinking it's intervention time.

Gary browned up the hamburger, added some carrots and onions to the mixture. Some flour for thickening, chicken stock, red wine, worcestershire sauce and thyme. It didn't call for it but he added some garlic salt too.  Now typically Shepherd's Pie also has peas in it but Gary did these separately as he doesn't like peas.  This mixture was put in casserole dish. (That new birthday present Gary got is sure getting a lot of usage.)

Here's a little interesting piece of information for you. The recipe calls for a 'glass of wine'. How much is this?  I thought 8 ounces but I was wrong (guess this proves I'm not a wine drinker  LOL). A glass of wine is 3.5 ounces.  Now you know.

I boiled up some potatoes and mashed them up with butter and milk and piped these on top of the beef mixture. This was then covered with an egg wash. I used a pastry brush for the egg wash which kind of smashed the pretty tops of the potatoes I had piped on. I'm thinking if I did this again and wanted to pipe the potatoes on instead of just spreading, I might try putting the egg wash in a spray bottle and spraying on.

Gary made some creamed peas to go with the meal. These could be eaten by themselves or added to the Shepherd's pie for those of us who wanted the 'real' thing.  I love peas!

Miss Annette made some traditional Irish Soda Bread.  This is not made with yeast so it is a denser bread. We all agreed that we really liked it.  She also brought some Soda Bread that she bought at Reasor's. This had raisins in it and was a sweeter bread. Both were good but for the Shepherd's Pie I think you would want the traditional Soda Bread. The store-bought bread with raisins would be good toasted for breakfast.

Now just because I thought we should have some type of dessert, I made Chocolate No  Bake Cookies.  I forgot to get a picture of them. These are extremely rich and I personally can not eat them but they are Gary's favorite.

There you have it, our meal for the week.  Wait until you hear about next week's meal. It is going to be a little bit different as a challenge has been given. Can't tell you any more than that, you will just have to wait and see.