I don't know how you celebrate St. Patty's Day, but at this point in my life, my celebration didn't include any green beer or any cute shamrock embellished outfits. My girls chose to sport temporary Irish themed tattoos.
I did fix a dinner with faintly Irish undertones. Just in case you are interested, here is what I made.
It doesn't look very festive, does it? Well, it did include green broccoli (which my girls won't touch) and Irish Soda Bread although I had to leave out the raisins and caraway seeds or they wouldn't eat it either.
Here is how I fixed the pasta and broccoli:
I cooked a box of penne pasta in salted water for about 7 minutes. After 7 minutes, I added in about 4 cups of broccoli florets (not quite 2 bunches). I let it boil for about 6 more minutes. Drain the pasta and broccoli. I threw it all into a big bowl and tossed it with about 4 Tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. When I plated it, I grated plenty of Parmesean cheese over it. This was even good the next day when eaten as a pasta salad, cold, for lunch.
Now for the Irish Soda Bread. This is adapted from a recipe taken from an old issue of Everyday Food Magazine.
3 tablespoons of butter, melted
4 cups of flour, plus extra for kneading
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
2 eggs
Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a baking sheet. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Stir the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture. You will have a wet dough.
Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth, about 5 minutes. You will have to keep adding more flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. I have a very large bowl, so I was able to knead mine in the bowl, instead of a counter or board. You need to form the dough into a big bowl and put it in the middle of your baking sheet. Use the remaining 1 tablespoon of melted butter to brush over the top of the dough. Using a sharp knife, make a big X on the top of the loaf.
Bake until the loaf is golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes.
I just cut this in big wedges, like a piece of pie. This keeps well, in a plastic bag, for at least 2 days.
Now for dessert. My family is not a big fan of strong mint flavoring but we still wanted a green dessert. We came up with our version of a Grasshopper Fudge Cake.
1 box of Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
1 1/4 cups of water
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
3 egg whites
green food color
2 jars (16 oz.) of hot fudge topping - I used Hershey's
1 8 oz. container of Cool Whip
1 box of Andes mint chocolates - unwrapped and chopped up
Preheat your oven to 350. Spray the bottom only of a 9 x 13 glass pan with baking spray containing flour.
Mix the cake as directed on the box using oil and egg whites. Reserve 1 cup of the batter. Stir 3 drops of green food color into the reserved batter, set aside. Pour the white batter into the pan.
Using the green batter, drop spoonfuls of it onto the batter in the pan. Using a knife, draw a "S" shape through the green batter in one continuous motion to swirl it.
Bake 28-33 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake and let it cool completely.
Carefully spread both jars of fudge topping over the cooled cake.
Add green food color to the Cool Whip until it is the shade of green that you like. Spread the Cool Whip over the fudge layer of the cake.
Garnish with the Andes Mints and store the cake, covered, in the refrigerator.
Enjoy! I hope you have a great weekend, Patience.
