A St. Patrick's Day Meal For the Irish at Heart

Today's the day when most Americans dig through ancestry records to find their excuse to drink like an Irishman. I'm pretty sure all those girls wearing the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts are not, in fact, Irish. Whether you're two percent or 92 percent Irish, use today as an excuse to celebrate like I would - with a delicious meal!

If you can't get to the Old Storehouse in Dublin for a true taste of Irish fare, try making your own "traditionally irish" meal of corned beef casserole and Irish champ at home. If you have 20 minutes and want to see me chop a bunch of vegetables, I can show you how in the video I hosted/produced for the University of South Carolina's student television station, SGTV, in March 2013.

But if you don't, here are the recipes I followed.

Adapted from BBC's recipe for Corned Beef Casserole:

Ingredients:

• Packaged puff pastry (found in the frozen section), at room temp
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, 1/2 inch pieces
• 5 potatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 can corned beef
• Stick of butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 egg
• Olive Oil

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375. 
• Melt 1 oz. butter and a little olive oil in large saucepan. Pour in chopped celery, carrots, potatoes and onion. Cook over low heat, stirring, around 15 minutes.
• Stir in ketchup to cover vegetables, then stir in corned beef. Mix well and remove from heat for about 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and lay out puff pastry. Line the bottom and sides of your casserole dish. 
• In a prep bowl, whisk egg. Brush pastry with whisked egg.
• Spoon in filling mixture, pack down and lay the second pastry sheet over the top, sealing the dish.
• Brush remaining egg on the top of the pastry. 
• Use a knife to cut an "x" on the top of the pastry. 
• Bake for 40 minutes. 

AllRecipes' Irish Champ recipe and this super easy Food.com Shamrock shake recipe.

And, of course, wash it all down with a Guinness, Harp or Irish whiskey.

Kiss the cook? Or, kiss me I'm (cooking like the) Irish? Let me know if you like what you eat!

Meredith's Menu: Mother's Day Brunch 2013

I was lucky to yet again, spend another Mother's Day with my very own. This time I made it a long weekend and headed back home to Lake Norman for the first time in months.

When my mother and I get together...we feast. I'm notorious for planning every meal and making sure we're treating ourselves to mouth-watering food all weekend. We kicked off the weekend with a tunatini at Eez Fushion and Sushi.

This appetizer is something I crave quite often. Sushi grade tuna and chunks of avocado, covered in an orange ginger dressing and, of course, served in a martini glass for diva flair (also, for the name - tuna mug didn't have the same ring to it). We followed that by splitting a few rolls of sushi, as always.

But, as a lover of holidays and any reason for a celebration, making Mother's Day brunch was my favorite of the weekend.

If you want to really win Mom over, meet her in bed with a mimosa like I did. We sipped on champagne and orange juice and chatted over the Today Show. We eventually rolled out of bed and brewed some fresh coffee (see below for picture of my rockstar Mom) before I began cooking.

Vintage 'Mother' mug and fake vintage Van Halen sweatshirt.

I found this Asparagus scrambled egg recipe on The Daily Meal and it was such a simple way to liven up boring scrambled eggs.

After washing the asparagus, cutting off the tough ends and snapping into one-inch pieces, heat some butter in the pan (around 2 tbsp, but there's no such thing as too much!) and start cooking the asparagus.  I opted to leave out the garlic this time, but added some salt/pepper as I stirred it with my spatula. When the pieces look tender, take them out of the pan and into a bowl off to the side. In the same pan, start cooking scrambled eggs as normal.

Before they 'set,' (meaning, they're not completely solid) fold in the asparagus. Continuing cooking and folding until the eggs have reached your desired consistency.

We served the eggs with fresh fruit, toast and fingerling potatoes. The potatoes were actually leftovers from a previous dinner, and can be bought in the frozen section. All you have to do is steam them in the bag and you have an impressive (and delish!) side dish.

Dinner is whole other story and menu. My brother and I made eggplant parmesan with homemade tomato sauce and hand-grated parmesan cheese, a strawberry/goat cheese salad and cheesecake with blackberry reduction.

We also snacked on a cheese plate as we cooked. (Plus, marinated artichokes, prosciutto-wrapped melons and olives.

Much love to my super-cheesy family. 

Why not repurpose this brunch for Father's Day? If Dad likes to eat, he'll love this meal just as much. Let me know what you think: @meredithalmond!