Dublin Coddle

Hey Everyone Alyssa JoJo here! I hope you all had a good St Patties day weekend. I know I did! Saturday we went to go visit some family for my Irish Great grandma’s birthday. We watched an old slide show of pictures from when my great grandma was younger all the way til when Mama Lanette was younger. (Nice perm Mom!) We also got to eat some very delicious mini four leaf clover cakes made by my cousin Claire Bare. These things were AMAZING! We had a cupcake that was very similar to what she made from a local cupcake shop which couldn’t even compare to these things.





Sunday we didn’t go out or anything, but instead BBB (Big Burley Bruce) and I stayed in and I made a traditional Irish meal out of a cook book that I got handed down to my by my Great Grandma. I have no idea how old this book is, but I had to do some Google research to covert the measurements and also to get a clearer look at how exactly to make it. Now I did make some small changes, which I will mention in the recipe. I don’t feel like I did anything that would change this from being a good ol’ traditional recipe, and let me tell you, this recipe doesn’t need much changing. It was DELICIOUS! Good enough where BBB went up for a big bowl of seconds. And if you really want to call out the Irish in you I suggest you sop up what’s left in your bowl with a nice piece of soda bread.


Ingredients:
8 pork sausages (We used hot Italian sausages for some heat)
1 pound of bacon (We used double smoked bacon that Mama Lanette brought us)
2-4 pounds of potatoes
2 large onions
2 cups of beef broth or water
¼ cup of parsley
Salt and pepper to taste



 First what we are going to do is cup up the bacon and sausage into bite size pieces. I did 1 inch by one inch for the bacon and did the sausage in a little larger of chunks. You’re going to want to make sure that these are easy to eat – this meal shouldn’t need a knife!









 Now take the onions and cut them into chunky pieces. We aren’t going to finely dice these like we would in most recipes. What I did was I quartered the onions and then just cut some half inch wide strips.






 If you look up the old recipe online you’ll see that they will have you boil your meats as a start, but I went a different rout. In a pot I fried up the onions, bacon, and sausage together dry. Now your bacon will look different during this process with the way this recipe goes. Normally we get some what crispy bacon that becomes a brown/red. Don’t be worried if your bacon holds its pink color through out this process.




As your meat is cooking peel your potatoes and chop them into bigger chunks. Something bite sized. I did them a little bigger than what I cut the meat. Put the potatoes off to the side, we won’t be cooking these ahead of time. Make sure to check your meat often during this process. We don’t want anything to burn.







Take your parsley and finely chop it. I normally use my kitchen scissors when doing this because I find it to be easier and cleaner than using a knife.  Again, keep checking your meal and stirring it around.







Once the meat is cooked to your liking add in potatoes, parsley, two cups of beef broth, and salt and pepper to your tasting. You’re then going to cover the pot on the stove and let it simmer for about an hour. Make sure to check it through out the meal. We want to make sure that while the potatoes become soft you don’t want them to become mushy. To test see if you can easily push a fork through the potatoes with out breaking the potato apart.



 Now just put in a bowl and enjoy! Seriously, this meal is fantastic! So tasty. You might end up going for seconds… or even thirds.

JoJo's Lasagna

Hello everyone! This week we are making lasagna and let me say – mine turned out to be a fail. Not taste wise, it was very tasty, but all together structure wise it didn’t turn out. I’m still posting it though, if only to show that you can always work with the food that turns out in a way that you completely didn’t want. First I’m going to start with the recipe for the lasagna alone. I tried doing something that I’ve been seeing online a lot, where you replace the noodles with zucchini. Here we go!

Ingredients:

1lb lean ground beef (Can use turkey if you’d like)

45 oz jar of spaghetti sauce

2 cloves of garlic, minced

32 oz of cottage cheese

4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 eggs

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons dried parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 medium to large zucchinis

 

First we will start with the zucchini! Now if you have a tool like a mandolin this is where your job gets easy. I personally don’t have one so I used a simple knife to cut it up into decent sized slices. You might have to come back and do this – I at first only cut up two and found that I needed to use four for mine.

 

Next we will put the ground beef into a decent sized pot and brown it. I added a little bit of salt and pepper in when I did this part. Once it’s fully cooked drain all the grease and put back into pot.

Now add the spaghetti sauce and the minced garlic in with the ground beef. Mix the ingredients well while bringing to a slight boil. Once it hits the boil bring down to a simmer and let cook for five minutes.

 

While the beef mixture cooks preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Grab cottage cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, both eggs, half of the parmesan cheese, the parsley, and the salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside until the beef mixture is done.

Take enough of the beef mixture to have a thin layer covering fully a 9X13 pan. Then layer some of the sliced zucchini to cover the bottom as best as you can.

 

 

Now layer some of the cottage cheese mixture and then some of the beef mixture. To figure out how much you should use figure out how many layers you want. I did two layers so I did half and half. You will then put on another zucchini layer and continue until you run out of both mixtures. Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Now look at that finished product… yup it pretty much looks like soup. The BBB (aka Big Burley Boy aka the bf) and his pop still ate it up. Seconds and all – but it just was NOT right. It bugged me so I plotted how to fix it and after much thought I figured out how to. I boiled a pot of macaroni noodles that I had left over from the mac n cheese night. As those were boiling I pulled all the zucchini slices from the lasagna and chopped them up to smaller chunks. I put them, the lasagna mixture, added about a tablespoon of chili powder, some garlic powder, salt and pepper, and heated it up. By the time the noodles were done the lasagna soup was fully heated up. Mixed it all together and voila! We ate that with a side of ghetto cheesy garlic bread and it was an amazing dinner.

So, keep in mind, Freaks....every meal is not going to be a win-win situation.  There will always be instances in which a new recipe just FAILS for some reason or another.  It is the truly adaptable cook who can take a fail and turn it into a WIN.  Sometimes the conversion becomes a new family favorite, so go for it...you never know what is awaiting you!  

Mandarin Orange Salad

One of the Thanksgiving side dish mainstays in Mama Lanette’s family of freaks is a Mandarin orange salad.  It is a yearly request, nay, demand by both Alyssa JoJo and Grandma JoyJoy.  I am NOT allowed to experiment with anything new…ever.  Alyssa JoJo would not touch this when she was growing up, and one year she decided to “try it” (as she said with her freckled nose all scrunched up).  Her post-taste thoughts?  “I’m only mad that I went so many years NOT eating this!”  While the combination of fruit mixed with vegetables sounds odd to many people, it seems to be much more common on restaurant menus now than in the past (spinach and strawberry salad is my personal fave, but arugula with cherries and pistachios is a pretty close runner up).  Almost everybody who tries this salad loves it, and because of the “tiny oranges”, children are more apt to give it a shot.  I’ve altered this a bit from the original; using red onion and flavored vinegar rather than green onions and plain vinegar, but the end result, no matter which version is made, is delicious.  Oh, and I also use green leaf rather than iceberg lettuce (see lettuce rant below).

Lettuce Rant!  I cannot post this in good faith without including a small rant regarding iceberg lettuce.  Iceberg lettuce has zero nutritional value, as well as zero taste.  It is nothing but water and turns rusty brown within minutes of chopping.  It serves no purpose whatsoever as far as I am concerned.  Stop buying that crap, freaks!!!  Get yourself some green leaf or romaine.  Buy a bag of mixed baby lettuces.  Anything, anything other than iceberg lettuce!  When I go to a restaurant and order a salad and they bring it to me with iceberg, I literally want to throw it at the server.  These days, before ordering, I ask what kind of lettuce they use.  Yes, it results in some odd looks, but I just don’t care anymore.   The SOB would be more than a little irked if he had to pick Mama Lanette up at the po-po station because of a lettuce-induced public fiasco.  Also, seriously people?  Stop being a salad racist!  In the words of the wise and hysterical Margaret Cho, “This is not the salad of my people.”  Just because it has Mandarin oranges on it does NOT mean you can call it an Asian salad.  Do we call a hunk of tasteless iceberg lettuce drowned in Ranch dressing and Bac-O’s a Caucasian salad?  I think not.  Leave the salads out of the compartmentalizing process that seems to be the norm, and just eat them.  They are delicious and good for you…enough said.

Mandarin Orange Salad Ingredients

Sugared Almonds

½ cup sliced almonds

3 tablespoons white sugar

Salad Base

½ head green leaf lettuce

½ head romaine

1 cup celery, chopped

½ small red onion, very thinly sliced into half rings

1 11 ounce can mandarin oranges, drained (If I know a lot of kids will be around, I put two cans of mandarin oranges in.  It keeps them from picking all the oranges out, leaving none for the serious salad eaters.)

 

Dressing

½ teaspoon salt

Dash of black pepper

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar, for this post, I used Raspberry blush vinegar, but red wine, balsamic, pomegranate, apple cider, virtually any kind of vinegar will work…just use what you have or what you like, and you will not be disappointed.

Dash of hot sauce (such as Tabasco), or not.  I’ve found it really doesn’t make a difference in the flavor of the dressing.

In a small pan over medium heat, cook almonds and sugar, stirring constantly until almonds are coated and sugar dissolved.  Watch carefully, as they WILL burn easily.   Listen up, freaks, I know this from personal experience and am trying to spare you the frustration of a failed sugared almond experience.  You can stand there and stir and stir and stir, it will look like it is doing nothing, and as soon as you turn your back to throw back a slug of Riesling, bam…burnt nuts!  If this part of the recipe seems like too much work for you, you can purchase honeyed almonds, or just use plain sliced almonds.  No shame included…I’ve done it myself upon occasion.  Cool and store nuts in an airtight container. 

Mix all dressing ingredients and chill.  For me, the easiest way to blend dressing is to place all ingredients in a jar or plastic storage container that has a screw top lid.  Once all ingredients are added, shake, shake, shake, shake it like a Polaroid picture, hey ya!  (I really miss Outkast, what happened to them?) It will separate, as oil and vinegar naturally will, but you know what?  Shake that bitch up again!  That is the beauty of the process, no whisk or special emulsifier needed…just an old jelly jar or screw top plastic storage container (the Ziploc brand are rather spectacular for preventing leaks, I must say).

Mix lettuces, celery and onions in a large salad bowl.  Now, regarding the lettuce…if you want to use only romaine, then do so.  If you want to use only green leaf, then do so.  Use any lettuce and any combination of lettuce that is easiest for you…except for iceberg.  Please don’t make me come over and go Reservoir Dogs on your ass.

Just before serving, top with oranges and almonds.  Toss with dressing.  Sit back and watch the wondrous splendor that flits over your guest’s faces after they have chewed and tasted their very first bite.  As an aside, if you serve this salad to a large group of peeps, some of whom have had it before, and some of whom have never had it before, let the never hadders get their servings first.  I’ve found that once it is set out for eating, the Mandarin orange salad lovers swoop over it like birds of prey over roadkill, leaving nothing but a lone shred of lettuce and perhaps an onion slice in the bowl. 

Stay tuned over the weekend and early next week, fellow freaks!  Alyssa JoJo and I have a plethora of last minute ideas for you!  <3  Mama Lanette

Spaghetti Brain (Braided Spaghetti)

Now if you're like me you are addicted to Pinterest... and that is exactly where I got this idea. There are plenty of things you can do with this to make it fun for Halloween. Like coloring the dough red or anything along those lines. Now this recipe isn't as picture heavy as our normal ones just for the fact that I was baking so many things at the time that I totally forgot to take some of the pictures. But this is something that is totally worth making. Everyone loved it and it was way easier than I thought it was going to be.

Ingredients:
1 loaf of frozen bread dough. (I used Rhodes)
6 ounces of spaghetti, cooked
1 cup of thick spaghetti sauce
8 ounces of mozzerlla cheese
Parmesan cheese
Parsley flakes

First thaw out your loaf of bread. Place some flour on a table and slowly roll out the dough until it's about the same size as a cookie sheet. This may take some time since the frozen loaf already has it's shape - but if you take your time with it, it will soon flatten out.

Once your dough is flattened out, lay it on a cookie sheet, and with a pair of kitchen scissors cut some slices on the edge; making sure they are about 1 inch thick tabs. We will be using these to make the braided look once the bread is full. Lay about half of the cheese down, then the cooked noodles, then the spaghetti sauce, and end with the remaining cheese.

Once everything is layered in on each end take your end tabs and lay them straight down over the spaghetti. Then take the remaining tabs on the side and slowly layer them over each other to make them look braided. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley flakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for around 30-35 minutes. (Until the bread is a nice golden brown) Cool slightly and then cut into 6 pieces for serving.







Now, like I said there are many things you can do to this recipe to make it yours. Add pepperoni and do it pizza style. You could do chicken, broccoli, and cheese to veer from the Italian mood completely. No matter what this is something that will always be delicious, and the people you feed it to will believe that you spent a lot of time making them dinner! It's a win win situation.