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St. Patrick's Day is just a week away - do you know what you'll serve for the festivities? Check out some of the Food Community's classic Irish recipes for ideas!

Sour Milk Bread = Irish Soda Bread
from SADIE DELL

1½ C white all-purpose flour
1½ C whole wheat flour or white, your preference
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 T butter
1½ C sour milk (add a good spoonful of vinegar to regular milk)

Mix well until it's a soft and not-too-wet dough, then put into a greased loaf tin (making a trough down the middle so it will rise evenly) or put it in a round heap on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour.

Corned Beef & Cabbage
from FanofPern

1 3/4 lbs onions
2 1/2 lbs carrots
6 lb corned beef brisket or round, spiced or unspiced
1 C malt vinegar
6 oz Irish stout
1 T mustard seed
1 T coriander seed
1/2 T black peppercorns
1/2 T dill seed
1/2 T whole allspice
2 bay leaves
3 lb cabbage, rinsed
2 1/2 lb small red potatoes
1/2 C coarse grain mustard
1/2 C dijon mustard

To serve 12, use a 14 to 20 quart pan.

Coarsely chop enough onions and carrots to make 1 cup each.

In pan, place onions and carrots, corned beef with any liquid, vinegar, stout, mustard seed, coriander, peppercorns, dill, allspice and bay leaves. Add water to barely cover beef. Cover pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer until meat is tender when pierced, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Meanwhile, cut remaining onions into wedges. Cut remaining carrots into 2-inch lengths; halve them lengthwise if large. Cut cabbages in half through cores, then into wedges. Scrub potatoes. Add onions, carrots and potatoes to tender corned beef, place cabbage on top. Cover and return to simmering over high heat; reduce heat and simmer until cabbage is tender when pierced, 15 to 20 minutes.

With a slotted spoon scoop out vegetables onto warm serving dishes. Using tongs and a slotted spoon, remove beef to a cutting board; cut off and discard fat, slice meat across the grain and place on warm platters. Serve meat and vegetables with coarse-grain and dijon mustards.

Two Fat Ladies' Bubble & Squeak
From RPrice1333

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From CarldeCook (www.carldecook.com)

I asked Kay what she'd like for Valentine's Day Dinner and she said Creamy Chicken Bake, asparagus or Orange Carrots, an Autum Salad and for desert, Cherry Berries on a Cloud. I think I'll make up some Blue Olives  the Sunday before Valentine's Day (they need time to marinate) to have with dinner.

Creamy Chicken Bake is a nice smooth flavorful dish that is as good to eat as it is easy to prepare. We just love Kay's asparagus recipe. It, too, is fast and easy. We have it with a little mayo or lemon juice, or mayo with a little lemon juice mixed in. Orange Carrots is a dish we have a couple times a month. The butter orange sauce on the steamed carrotsis a real treat. 

Autum Salad is also a big favorite. I am always amazed at how good that simple dressing is and I always toast the walnuts. And then there's Cherry Berries on a Cloud. A great choice and a desert we haven't had for a few years. We are seeing a lot of very large strawberries in the stores so it's just the right time to have this again. 

The combination of the roca blue cheese with the Italian dressing in the Blue Olives is a wonderful combination of flavors and a treat that should not be missed.

Now to make up a shopping list, download it to my Palm and I'll be ready to go shopping.

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all,
Carl and Kay

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From Carldecook (www.carldecook.com)  

I was humming 'Baby It's Cold Outside' and 'Stormy Weather' when it suddenly dawned on me -- it is winter after all! Time for soups, chowders and stews.   Lucky I have a lot of Kay's southwest stew and chili in the freezer. But what about pea soup and clam chowder? And, Kay's vegetable beef soup?  

So yesterday I made a double batch of split pea soup -- great on a cold winter evening -- and today I'm making some clam chowder for dinner. I'll also be making a double batch of vegetable beef soup and freezing small packages.  

The soups and stews will freeze OK but the clam chowder is so easy I just keep a few cans of clams on hand for when Kay says, "How about some clam chowder tonight?"  

I just added one of our Split Pea Soup recipes to the web site and our favorite easy Clam Chowder -- take a look at www.CarlDeCook.com. Go to "recipes" and then click on recipes.  

If you try them and change them to your own taste let me know the changes so I can try them too!  

Clam Chowder
8 soda crackers, crushed
2 slices of bacon, diced and sauteed 1 onion, chopped
2 C potatoes, diced
1.5 t salt
Dash pepper
2-3 cans clams, chopped
2 C milk
2 T butter
1.5 C water

Saute bacon and add onions. Just as the onions are browning, add water, potatoes, salt and pepper. Cook 10 minutes. Add clams, milk, butter and mix well. Add crushed crackers to thicken.

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If you have a great recipe for sweet holiday treats you'd like to share, send it to Carl and he'll include it in his year-end wrap-up!

Email Carl@CarlDeCook.com

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For the month of November, CarldeCook will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes for Thanksgiving preparation so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful day.

From www.carldecook.com

Dessert at Thanksgiving can be a problem, because it seems everyone wants something different. Cakes? Pies? Both? Whichever we choose, we'll have some ice cream to go with it (them).

I'll be baking, but most of my morning coffee buddies will be getting their pies and cakes from Concord's (Calif.) Alpine Pastry.

For cakes, we could have Aunt Annabelle's Wine Cake -- because we love it so -- or my favorite, Mincemeat Cake. I've been making this for 25 years and it never gets old.

I am still looking for a great pumpkin pie recipe -- send me yours and I'll try to include it in here.  Niki Brooker sent me her recipe for Family Pleasin' Pumpkin Cheescake -- I love pumpkin pie and I love cheescake. Thanks, Niki. 

Then there is Teresa's Pumpkin Dessert that we like, and Kay also has a great recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie. Of course I can't forget Kay's Apple Pie!

When dessert is over, I'm so full I can hardly see straight. By the time the dishes are washed and put away and the food has been packaged, I'll be thinking about the next day's turkey sandwich. Thanksgiving is not a time to be thinking about getting a shorter belt!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. I hope some of these recipes and ideas are helpful. And thanks to AOL for helping me share them with you.
   

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For the month of November, CarldeCook will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes for Thanksgiving preparation so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful day.

From www.carldecook.com

I would LOVE to be able to share the "best turkey roasting instructions" with you, but there aren't any. Around the country it seems like there are as many different ways to do a turkey as there are ways to do ribs or chocolate chip cookies.

Kay’s Betty Crocker cookbook has a nice set of instructions as does the Good Housekeeping cookbook. Cuisine at Home magazine had an awesome roast turkey section in their December 2004 issue. 

I was looking through the Holiday 2005 catalog of seasonings from Penzeys Spices (see note below) and they have what looks like a very good set of instructions. And they have some great spices to go along with it.

You can also go to AOL Cooks, click on Search (at the top), type in Roast Turkey, and it will take you to an AOL page with lots of information from people sharing recipes.

As for me, I'm going to get a nice bird from the local store and make sure it has one of those little pop-up timers in it and that's it. Kay wants to start it  upside down to get juices to flow down to the breast and then turn it over about two thirds of the way through. When it’s right side up, I'll baste it a few times. But that’s about it.

A good rule of thumb seems to be about 15 minutes a pound at 325 degrees. But ovens vary and 325 isn't always exactly 325. Almost all the recipes and instructions tell us to let the bird rest 15 to 30 minutes after being removed from the oven, so that’s good to remember.

Last year our son, Marc, deep fried the turkey and it was wonderful. Evidently deep frying has been around a while and has just become more popular over the past few years. If you haven't tried it you might think seriously about it, and here are two sites to help. It looks like fun -- it is -- and the flavor is amazing.

BBQ 4 U
Scroll down to Deep Frying and then look for tips and instructions.  I like 'How to Fry Turkey' with pictures.

Cash and Carry Warehouse       
Scroll down to and click on deep fried turkey. You'll see Larry, in all his glory, frying away.

If you are within 30 or 40 miles of Concord, Calif., try to come over to the demonstration on Nov. 12th. It'll make a believer out of you and you can buy everything you need right there at the Cash and Carry Warehouse Store. You'll enjoy meeting Larry and watching him cook.

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For the month of November, CarldeCook will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes for Thanksgiving preparation so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful day.

From www.carldecook.com

I'll be preparing a lot of the side dish items in advance -- especially the gravy. We love this gravy, and although it is a little more work than what my Mom used to do, the work is well worth the result. And I love the compliments!

As soon as I see packages of turkey necks in the store, I'll get them and whip up John's Gravy. When done, it will go into little freezer baggies and wait quietly until we're ready. When gravy time comes, I'll put the sealed baggies in hot water for a while to defrost them slowly and then put the contents into a Dutch oven or other oven-safe pot to heat it up without burning. (I almost always burn something when I heat it on the stove…)

We will not stuff the bird but dressing will also be in the freezer in baggies, larger ones than the gravy. We found that dressing leftover from Thanksgiving was good a few months later. This past summer I made up some gravy, dressing and relish, and the leftovers were still good last month. So the dressing will also be put together as soon as I see the croutons in the store.

Kay’s mom’s Cranberry Relish is almost exactly like my mom's, and Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be the same without it. The sight of it and the flavor bring back memories of good times and a great table with all the families and grandparents gathered ‘round.

I'll make the Cranberry Relish up on the Saturday or (more likely) the Sunday before T-Day. It needs at least two days -- but three or four are better -- to getall its flavors together and give you a mouth full of joy when you take your first bite.

Kay's Green Beans will be easy. Throughout the year I get onions and saute and freeze them so they are always available. We used to have a case or two of sweet Wall Wall Onions sent to us from Mantilla, Oregon, when we were on our way home from Hope, Idaho. But now we'll get some from Costco or a local store or use regular onions. If you don't have any onions in your freezer, get some and prepare them anytime.

I also buy 4 to 8 pounds of bacon at a time and fry it all up in a morning when it's cool. I take the electric grill outside and put it on the BBQ and do the frying outside so it doesn't smell up the house. Then we have bacon anytime we want it, and it's ready in just moments. 

The day before T-Day I'll put the dish together and have it in the outside refrigerator. On Thanksgiving morning I'll take it out, bring it in to come up to room temperature and then put it into an oven to heat for dinner.

There is so much to eat we usually don't have a large leafy saladd but we do like a bite of something different and this year it will be a Bavarian Jell-O Salad. Don't know what flavor yet, but probably a berry. I'll put it together on Tuesday. It will keep a few days just fine.

Other snacks for the table will be little finger-size sweet and dill pickles and both green and black olives. We haven't put up pickles or cured olives for years, so these will all be store-bought. Not ever as good, but that’s the way things change. In Carmichael we lived on about three acres of an old olive orchard and it had a little stream running through it. We'd cure the olives. Boy, would I love to have some good home-cured olives and homemade pickles again. Maybe a good project for next summer.

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For the next moth, CarldeCook will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes for Thanksgiving preparation so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful day.

From www.carldecook.com

Most of the food for this year's Thanksgiving will be prepared in advance -- and some can be made right now.

Blue Olives , Caramel Crunch , Tijuana Tidbits  and Spiced Nuts as well as the BBQ sauce for the Little BBQ Franks can all be made up a week or more in advance and kept in the fridge (olives and sauce) or an airtight container. The downside on that is you'll want to snack on them for the weeks before T-Day and might have to prepare a second batch!

Artichoke Bread can be made a few days in advance of Thanksgiving and kept in the fridge. Whip up Renee's Antipasto on Tuesday or Wednesday, but it will be easy because you surely bought all the ingredients and have them on hand. 

The Hot Crabmeat Dip can be prepared a day or so in advance and kept in the fridge until Thursday.

Kay just mentioned toasted walnuts and almonds -- good idea! We get bags of both at Costco and toast them in the oven. You'll have to watch them constantly, but it's well worth the time and effort. The walnuts can look like they are starting to burn, but they'll be OK. Take the almonds out as soon as they start to brown. The flavor toasting brings out is amazing.

The whole menu and recipes are in the Thanksgiving Dinner section of Recipes at www.CarlDeCook.com.

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We're having Thanksgiving at our new house this year and I'll admit, I'm a little nervous. Cooking for 13 is going to be, well, interesting. Luckily, we splurged for the double oven!

I am, however, taking cues from my cooking hero, Carl -- he's doing tons of preparation ahead to ease the rush of the day itself. For the next moth, Carl will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes with us so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving.

From www.carldecook.com

This year, cooking for Thanksgiving will be a lot easier because I'm going to do a lot of the snacks, appetizers, side dishes and deserts ahead of time. Some way ahead of time (big talk from a lazy old man...). 

Things like snacks and appetizers, gravy, cranberry sauce and dressing will all be done weeks ahead of time.  Yes, I said dressing. Come on, you know dressing is always better the next day and for the few days after Thanksgiving. Well, make it ahead of time and on 'The Day' (it's so much easier than typing out Thanksgiving every time...) it will have that same better flavor and the cook isn't as tired. 

Pies and cakes a few days before 'The Day'.

Here's the menu:

Snacks and Appetizers

Blue Olives
Renee's Antipasto
Caramel Crunch
Hot Crabmeat Dip
Tijuana Tidbits
Spiced Nuts
Artichoke Bread
Little BBQ Franks
  
Sides

Cranberry Relish
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes (if you need instructions, e-mail me), 
Kay's Green Beans
Bavarian Jell-O Salad
Dressing

along with olives (black and green) and little finger-size sweet and dill pickles.

The Bird

As for the turkey, we'll do it in the oven (more later) but take a look at deep fried turkey. It is well worth the time and effort. 

Pies and Cakes (along with ice cream):

Wine Cake
Mincemeat Cake

Individual recipes are at www.CarlDeCook.com in the Thanksgiving dinner section as well as throughout the site. 


   

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I'm always on the lookout for that perfect chili recipe. I think my best friend and I stumbled upon a pretty good one that cold November afternoon when we combined her favorite and mine!

Here's how I make it -- without beans! This is probably the only recipe I don't use exact measurements for, but it still tastes awesome every time!

1 lb. ground beef
1 jar Heinz chili sauce
1 can chili-style diced tomatoes
1 package dry chili seasoning -- mild

Brown the beef, drain the fat and add the chili seasonings. Then add the following to taste:

Diced onion
Diced green pepper
Dry mustard
Apple cider vinegar
Garlic powder
Brown sugar
Dark chocolate
 
Let simmer for 30-45 minutes and serve topped with cheddar cheese and a thick slice of beer bread.

For something a little more precise, Carldecook shares his best below.

1½ lb. hamburger
1½ lb. stew meat, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
7 stalks celery, diced
1 can kidney beans, drained (13-15 oz.? A little larger than a soup can)
1 can chili or pinto beans, drained  (same size can)
46 oz. tomato juice
1 can diced or chopped tomatoes (14-15 oz.)
1 can tomato paste (8 oz.)
1 T chili powder
1 T sugar
½ t cumin
½ t garlic salt
 
Preheat oven to 350º.
 
Brown meat with a few dashes of salt and pepper in the bottom of the Dutch oven, over med/high heat on top of the stove. As meat browns, reduce heat to medium, add onion, bell pepper and celery, and saute until onion is soft.

Add remaining ingredients, stir thoroughly and place in oven.  Let simmer for an hour and taste. Add more salt, pepper or chili powder as you think necessary.

Let simmer in the oven for a few hours, and let it reduce to the consistency you like. Like so many things, we think it’s better the next day, so make it up a day or so before you need it.
 
To prevent anything burning on the bottom of the pot, I use a Dutch oven and cook the chili in the oven. (I also make my pasta sauce in a Dutch oven in the oven and simmer it for a few hours). A slow cooker can also be used, but then a skillet is needed for browning and sauteing.
 
For more cold-weather recipes, be sure to visit www.carldecook.com.
                

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