Tortellini Soup

This creation is what my mom would call a "mustgo" dinner when I was growing up. Say it with all the flair that you like, insert a fake accent, or add a consonant that isn't there...it still means the same thing.
All this stuff must go out of the fridge!
It's amazing what you can create out of fear (of going to the supermarket at prime time) and loathing (of going to the supermarket at prime time). Look at this happenstance as a great opportunity to bring out your inner TOP CHEF. This is your dinner challenge and you're the only competitor. You're only obstacle is to carefully select your ingredients that will grace your creation and what will grace the inside of your garbage can. Being frugal should never land you in the E.R.
For my Saturday night mustgo, I prepared a tortellini soup all out of leftovers:

Leftover cheese stuffed tortellini from the freezer (already cooked)
Cabbage from St. Patrick's Day (shredded)
Pepperoni from I don't know where
Frozen tomato juice (that I saved from cans of tomatoes)
French Green Beans
Carrots
Celery
Onion
Parsley (fresh)
Chicken Broth (1 quart)

Preparation:
In a stock pot, melt butter and add onions, celery, carrots, and cabbage. Once that mixture is glassy pour in tomato juice and bring that to a boil. Once that is rolling, add chicken broth and parsley. Bring to boil again. Then it's time to add your tortellini and bring back to a boil. You can turn the temperature down so it's simmering at a fast pace and cook for about 30 minutes. The last 10 minutes of cooking, add the sliced pepperoni and green beans.
I added a tablespoon of pesto, some freshly cracked pepper, and sea salt to taste at the end. Garnish with some fresh Parmesan cheese!

The morale of the story here is, you don't have to have really fancy ingredients to make a very hearty and delicious meal. As long as you have some broth in your cupboard, and your basic carrots, onions, and celery you can create just about anything!

A Soda Bread Story

My grandmother loved to cook and made fabulous creations. She also loved to travel. She and grandpa made there way around a good part of this globe boasting the fact that they had never been on an airplane. They were able to boast that fact their entire years on this earth (which was 91 for her). One of their travels brought them to the emerald isle and on that trip my grandmother met a wonderful woman on a train (where else, except a boat...not too many options here) who gave her family's special recipe for soda bread to my grandmother.
I wish this was that recipe.
I love that story. It's so cool! But that soda bread recipe literally tastes like bonded dirt and doesn't look that much better.
This one, well, it is still a handed down recipe from my aunt who got it from her teaching friend in Georgia who was Irish. But it's not your "traditional" soda bread. This tastes good. It's practically like cake. In fact it makes a great accompaniment to tea, but makes even better french toast (with a little whiskey maple syrup).
Erin Go Bragh.
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The Tale of the Black Velvet and the Jackalope

Ingredients:
Guinness
Champagne

Fill half a champagne glass with champagne and wait to settle. Then slowly pour stout on top, and again, let it breathe a bit. That's it!


Once upon a time, my good friend Kari and I were introduced to the most luscious treat that ever existed and we were princesses (for exactly 24 hours).

Our tale begins with a very long day. It had been an even longer night that preceded this fine long day. Said night before did not end until 3am thanks to the fabulous pints and music at Gogarty's in Dublin. Three precious hours of sleep were granted to us before we had to scamper down a very narrow flight of stairs (try scampering down a Georgian staircase with 80 kilos of crap), and survive a very hairy cab ride to the train station where we dragged ourselves aboard and claimed a whole car for ourselves for the ride to County Clare.

Needless to say these two fair maidens were spent and looked it. A couple of hours later on the train and a bus ride later we were dropped off at the gate of Dromoland Castle. The kind bus driver had told us that the walk up the drive wasn't that long (famous last words). OK. We can do this. Not so bad, right? WRONG! All of a sudden a black Range Rover slicked by us, followed by an equally shiny and black Mercedes. Crap. This is not just the front gate...this is the main drive to the castle. Our humble plan of arriving in a thrifty and efficient manner now had us nearly blocking beautifully shiny and expensive traffic. Great. We must look like complete urchins. We concluded that the only reason no one had stopped and truly stared at us was that they assumed that we were the hired help and would be cleaning the toilets in this place. This thought also rendered us completely silly and soon the laughter was out of control, so not only did we look like mere peasants trespassing, but we also must have appeared slightly crazy as well. A stunning combo.

Thankfully, a good Samaritan appeared with a big golf cart and kindly asked if we were guests. Oh, she must have been blind. We didn't look like guests. Those ducks taking a crap on the green looked more like guests than we did! Bless her heart. She swiftly got us inside and checked in and after taking a zillion pictures of our room and sipping sherry we sprinted (carefully and regally) down to the bar/tea room where they were still serving lunch (thankfully). It was here in the midst of velvet drapes, priceless oil paintings, and fine linen that we were introduced to the Black Velvet. Obviously we were both eager for some hair of the dog and here it appeared on the menu like a mythical Unicorn here to save us from ourselves. This completed our transitions from mere urchins to true princesses in about 60 seconds. Ahhh (we sipped)...castle life! It was then that I glanced above the beautiful bar and spotted the mascot of the room (and who seemed to be carefully ignored by the well mannered guests surrounding us). Right above a piece that Christie's would kill for was a full scale JACKALOPE. Complete with a certificate of authenticity. I truly knew we were in the right place after that. Somebody has a sense of humor at the castle.

Who says fairytales don't exist? The glass slipper has fricking Black Velvet in it!