For the past couple weeks we have been making some test batches of various Irish foods. From soda bread, corned beef, cheesecake, etc., it has been very green around the kitchen.

Before I start, I will pop open the laptop and find some good Irish music streaming over on XM radio. They usually have a channel that will play seasonal music and when it gets around St. Patty’s day, you can hear lots of good Irish tunes. I forward this via blue tooth to my stereo and within seconds the house is full of music from the green isle.

I find that when I am cooking, I like to hear music that is somehow related to what I am whipping up. If I am making an Italian sauce, then some Italian music should be playing. It helps me connect better to the recipes roots.

Music stimulates another sense and helps your creative juices flow. Irish soda bread just seems to feel and taste more Irish when I am hearing oh danny boy in the background.

When I cook food with a creole or Cajun flavor, I usually play one of the blues or jazz channels. It brings back some of my personal memories of sitting at the Alpine on Rue Chartres, enjoying some barbecued shrimp, while a trumpet cries out from the corner.

So spice it up, we don’t cook just to eat, but to enjoy life! – (More…)

First, let me say I have seen models GSH25JSTA and GSH25JST and they are identical. I am not sure what the A stands for. If the refrigerator is stainless steel, they add an SS at the end, example: GSH25JSTASS.

We purchased the stainless steel version about 2 months ago and have been trying it out. Keep in mind that the old fridge was one that came with our place and was extremely small. So any upgrade in size, especially 25ft was going to blow our minds. For this reason I figured I would wait a while before writing up a review; let me get used to it. 🙂

First, how about some pics?

Here is the front view with the doors closed:

And now with the refrigerator door open:

And let us not forget the all important energy guide sticker:

As you can see, it is a beautiful looking refrigerator! When I first saw it, I knew this was the one I wanted. I was looking at ones with the freezer on the bottom, but I just don’t like the idea of having one basket to put EVERYTHING you want to freeze in. This one has many shelves in the freezer for segregating your foods.

The unit has a digital control panel on the front that allows you to adjust the temperature of both the freezer and – (More…)

Since the news came out recently about the danger of cooking with teflon coated cookware, I have been slowly replacing much of mine with either stainless steel or cast iron. I love the flavor cast iron gives to the food you cook. One of the main health benefits when using cast iron cookware is that all the food you cook in it gets a healthy dose of iron.

I will be writing more reviews of some of the cast iron cookware we are receiving as time goes by as we have ordered quite a bit lately.

We were in need of a new griddle and those small single burner ones just were not big enough to feed a family of four in a timely manner. I try to save as much space in my kitchen as possible so I didn’t want another appliance, buying an electric griddle was pretty much out of the question.

Having purchased some cast iron products from Lodge before and being very satisfied, I decided to see what they had for griddles. Now if you have never bought a Lodge product, then you should know that all their cast iron cookware comes pre-seasoned, meaning you do not have to cure it with oil. So basically it is naturally non-stick when you receive it.

After reading the reviews of their griddle, I decided to give it a go. The one I purchased was the – (More…)

What would corned beef and cabbage be without Irish soda bread?  You need something to soak up all those juices from the brisket.   The perfect dunking bread for Irish stew is, you guessed it, Irish soda bread!

There are quite a few recipes out there but basically they are pretty much the same.  The main differences will be between the ones that use a combination of wheat flour and white flour as opposed to the ones that just use one or the other.  Also I have found half the recipes include raisins, and the other half do not.  For me, it MUST have raisins!

I have also noticed that some versions use caraway, but I found it a bit conflicting to the rest of the tastes.  If you disagree, you can always add caraway to the following recipe.

2 cups each white and whole wheat flour (4 total).
1/2 cup sugar.
2 teaspoons baking powder.
1 teaspoon salt.
1/2 stick of cold butter (4 tablespoons) cut into pieces.
1 cup raisins.
1 1/2 cups buttermilk.

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix together well.

Using your hands, add the butter and squeeze into dough until the butter is well incorporated.  It should be the size of small marbles in the dough.  DO NOT use a blender during any part of this recipe.

Stir in the buttermilk and raisins and mix well with a spoon or spatula.

Turn out on to a floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes.  – (More…)

As said in some of my recent articles, it is all about Irish food these last 2-3 weeks. A friend once made a statement about me which still draws agreeing giggles from my family and friends. She said “Little kids have Christmas, and Jeff has St. Patty’s day.”

I suppose she is right because I look forward to it every year more than I do any other holiday. Spring is my favorite season and St. Patty’s day to me is just a celebration that winter is finally gone and better times are ahead. Of course, there is also the beer and food. 🙂

I began looking through my recipes and doing research on traditional authentic Irish foods. I find that there really are not many century old staples as one would think there would be from a country so ancient and steeped in history. Ireland cuisine seems to be very flexible and changes almost from century to century. What someones great grandmother used to cook in Dublin was much different compared to that same persons great great grandmother. Even today you find that current Irish food is changing almost decade to decade.

In preparation for our annual SPD party, I usually try to make up foods that can sit in a warmer or Crockpot for a few hours since the party is casual, and lasts most of the day. This unfortunately is not compatible – (More…)

Gearing up for our yearly St. Patty’s day party, I usually cook up quite a bit of corned beef.  I thought this year I would not only cook my normal recipe but also try a few that I have been testing and reworking.

This one was given to me a while back and I have removed many ingredients and added some others so much that it really doesn’t resemble the original anymore.  My wife who isn’t much of a corned beef fan really loves this dish.  It takes a while, but all good corned beef does.

1 3-4 lbs. corned beef brisket.
3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine.
2 medium yellow onions quartered.
2 bottles of beer.
1/2 cup Jameson whiskey.
1 tablespoon caraway seeds.
1 tablespoon and a half of dill.
1 small bag of baby red potatoes (about 20-24).
About 20 – 24 baby carrots.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Place the beef in a roasting pan FAT SIDE DOWN.  Add the garlic, onions, caraway seeds and the contents of the little spice packet that comes with most corned beef.  If this packet is not included, then use about two tablespoons of pickling spice.

Pour the beer over the brisket and then the whiskey.

Cover the roasting pan and cook in the oven for 1 hour.

Turn the beef so the fat side is now up.  Cover and cook an additional 2 hours.

Add the carrots, potatoes, and dill around the beef.   Cover and cook for another 2 hours.

Remove from the – (More…)

Yesterday I was looking out my picture window as the rain began to eat away at the awful white stuff on the ground.  Walking outside you could faintly smell it: Spring is a-comin.  I am more than ready to get out of the malaise of winter and back into the swing of summer.

My favorite part of the spring and summer is the fact that I do not have to rely on all those old herbs and spices I have in my pantry and can start using my fresh herbs.  Now I normally keep a few pots of the hardier herbs such as basil, cilantro, and parsley growing in pots inside by the window during the winter.  These herbs although still better than what you get in the store, are nowhere near as fresh as the ones grown outdoors.

Fresh herbs can take your great recipes and turn them into spectacular dishes.  Although there is a time and a place for dried herbs, you will get nowhere near the flavor you get with fresh.

So off I went to my local agricultural store and picked up some new seeds such as rosemary, mint, sage, thyme, etc..  I got them all planted and started with the hopes that in a couple weeks most will have germinated in their pots.

I try to use smaller plastic planters that will be large enough to hold the herbs through the season.  The lighter the pots the better because – (More…)

A lot of people ask me what my favorite cookbooks are, and after some time thinking about it, I came to the conclusion it is my notebook computer.  This little piece of technological mastery has helped me more finding and developing recipes than any other reference I have ever come across.

While I still keep my cookbooks handy, for just about all of my needs, all I have to do is open up my notebook, connect to the Internet, and do a quick search via Google on any topic or recipe I need to research.  Once I find information that I am looking for, I can bookmark it for a later date.  In fact, my largest recipe compilation is one of my favorites folders called Recipes.

I use my notebook to put many of my recipes right here on this site.  When I cook a dish for someone and they ask for the recipe, I can just turn the laptop on, and shoot them the link.  I remember the days it involved finding the recipe in a dog eared stack, re-writing it and then trying to explain each step that may not be in the documentation.

Not only are there good recipes online, there are many videos online that will show you tips and tricks.  Visitors to these sites can also add comments furthering your knowledge on the topic.  This just cannot be done in a static – (More…)

Let me preface this by saying that I am using Tivo in the general sense of the term.  Any decent DVR will work providing it works in concert with your cable/satellite providers channel guide.

For those of you in the dark about what Tivo is, here is a quick, non-technical overview.  Basically it is just a very smart VCR.  Instead of using tape, it has a built in hard drive (just like your PC) and records all your programs digitally (DVR = digital video recorder).  You can set it up to record shows for an entire season with just one click on your remote.  You can also browse through a guide that will show you upcoming shows on any channel you want.  While browsing, you can tell it to record this show, or that show.  You can read a short description on each show before you decide.

Some cable companies have their own DVR.  Tivo is a brand name and that company hands down, beats every other DVR because it is so intuitive and easy to use.  If your cable provider supports it, go with Tivo every time.

So how does this help when it comes to cooking?  Well, if you haven’t found out yet, there are many cooking shows out there being broad-casted every day.  There is even a channel dedicated to cooking (The Food Network).  You can get many great ideas by watching these cooks whip up their recipes right in – (More…)

Part of the cooking world is preparation.  A big part of that is going to the supermarket(s) and shopping for items you are going to need not only in day to day living, but even for those new recipes your working with.

Since I primarily work from the home office, I usually get stuck with this duty.  Heck, I do most of the cooking I kind of enjoy it since I know what I need to get the job done.

Almost every other time I go to the grocery store, I end up behind a certain type of woman.  I haven’t seen a man act like this, so just using my experience, I will concentrate on the guilty women! 🙂

What kind of woman am I talking about?  The one in line, in front of you, who has a shopping cart full of stuff. As her little items zoom by on the belt; they arrive to the cashier who “beeps” them along and they begin to pile up at the end of the counter.  Standing there with the look of disgust on her face like she just stepped barefoot into the dogs business, she waits until her last item is processed.  She pays for her groceries and just stands there watching the cashier bag all of her stuff.

Meanwhile, you, and now a growing line of others, are staring at this woman with only one wish.  “God, please don’t send me to Hell if – (More…)