Eating Dinner With My Family

Well it is St. Patrick's day and to make it a bit of a celebration, I opted for an Irish dish.  I wanted to try making colcannon but I figured this would be better received by the family.  While I have never made colcannon, I did love these Blarney Cakes, so colcannon sounded delightful.  Most of my crew still is a bit leery of greens, so instead this Martha Stewart recipe.   I halved the recipe and I threw the large bones in while the stew was cooking, but those are the only changes I made.  The boys loved it!  I thought it tasted pretty good but it was a bit greasy for me Irish Stew   3 Lb small Yukon gold potatoes peeled 2 medium onions (about 1 pound), halved lengthwise and c 2 1/2 Lb lamb shoulder cut into 1-inch cubes 2 1/2 Tsp coarse salt Freshly ground pepper 2 Tsp coarsely chopped fresh thyme 3 Cup homemade lamb stock or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock 2 Tbl finely chopped fresh curly- or flat leaf parsley 1...

Another good one!  It was quick (except for the hour of simmering) and easy.  My biggest issue with this recipe is that the point of these meals is that they are inexpensive, and they are, but many of the ingredients come in much bigger packages, and what isn't used will go to waste unless there is some planning.  For example, the kale comes in a 10 cup bag, but the recipe only needs 2 cups.  I cooked off the rest and am making a kale and chorizo fritatta next week.  The kielbasa comes in 14 ounce portions but I only needed 8 for the recipe.  These are parts of the ingredients that had to have money spent on, but they have no use in the week and they are not figured in to the cost.  If they go to waste, then the cost of the meals goes up.  I suppose there are markets out there that you can by a different size, but not my grocery store and I think it's a fairly good one. Ok enough complaining.  My darling and wonderful friend who recommended t...

This was a fairly easy recipe.  There was the prep work which involved chopping a lot of veggies, but it wasn't too bad.  The cooking time is like three hours, but largely unattended so that it nice.  We all weren't sure what we would think of it.  My husband and I were pleasantly surprised, my son was not a fan.  The liquid part he was ok with but the rest... He even didn't like the cheese toast.  Most likely he didn't like the soggy bottom nor the Swiss; I happened to love it.  It makes a huge portion; next time I will be halving the recipe. I had a large bit of ham on hand so I used it rather than go out and buy the ham hocks.  As a result, I think the broth was a little watery tasting, so I put a spoonful of ham bouillon in the stew at the beginning of the third hour. I think this dish would lend itself to using up all kinds of leftovers. White Bean and Ham Stew   4    meaty smoked ham hocks (about 3 1/2 pound...

I was excited to be able to bust out my ras el hanout.  I happen to have liked this dish better than my family. My husband thought it too sweet.  I don't think that it was sweet so much as the cinnamon made you think of sweet.  I pureed the veggies for my husband, and halved the fish because there were only three of us eating the dinner and I didn't want the fish to go to waste.  The recipe says it's for six, but it was really more for 8.  The couscous alone could have fed 6.  I am not deleting the recipe but most likely wont make it except for an occasion that it might fit. (like a belly dance evening) I may even delete it. North African Fish Stew 1/4 c  extra-virgin olive oil 2    medium red onions,thinly sliced 2 T  golden raisins 1/4 c  salted roasted cashews 1    red bell pepper,thinly sliced 1    yellow bell pepper,thinly sliced 4    medium tomatoes—peeled seeded...