Menu Blackboard
Appetizer: Strawberries and Irish Cheese
Starter: Bacon- Irish Blue Cheese -Zucchini Soup,
Salad: Spinach-walnut-cranberry-pear Salad
Entree: Shephed’s Pie-#1) Steak in a red wine with carrots.
#2) Turkey, peas, and mushrooms in a white wine.
Both topped with masher and finished with an Irish cheese.
Dessert: Irish Whiskey Bread Pudding
Next Wednesday, Global dinner #11 is the day before St. Patties day and I thought what better than an Irish dinner! Sadly Liam will be out of town but I will be making his Shepherd’s Pie for dinner. I will start off with a Bacon- Irish Blue Cheese -Zucchini Soup, a Spinach-walnut-cranberry-pear Salad, followed by 2 types of Shepherd’s Pie, and finishing off with a Irish Whiskey Bread Pudding that my darling made before he left on his business trip. I have only done Irish once before so this will be interesting like always-:)!
I will have to figure out how I will decorate the table for shamrock and we will see how it turns out!!!!
So, I am back from looking around the house for things to decorate with and I am so excited because I found all these things that I had from last year and that I had bought for this year’s St patties 5k. The hats are brand new since we ended up not doing the race because on this diet there is not enough energy for anything like that.
The table is now set with gold chargers, white china, green top hats, the middle on upside down and filled with gold chocolate coins. The hats surrounded with a green boa and shamrock confetti. It is amazing how when you don’t have money for flowers, you can always find things around the house.
Tomorrow I will go ahead and make the soup and filling for the Shepherd’s pie so that I will not be soooo rushed on Wednesday.I think I will do two of them.
I will do the turkey-mushroom-white wine reduction one that is Liam’s recipe, and I will also make this sirloin chucks-red wine-tomato paste one as well. It might be a bite more work but I need enough for 8 people and I want to have variety.
Now it is the day after-It was a shamrock of a success! Although time slipped away on Tuesday going to family things, I did manage to get everything ready in time for dinner.
Kristin was the first to show up, she had just gotten her hair done and it looked amazing! Kathleen was the next to arrive with the most gorgeous pot of herbs-it smelled delicious! Can't wait till the next dinner so I can cook with them! Then Julie came and brought a printer, Dina-a bottle of wine and a package of Starbucks coffee, Fay-a good bottle of French wine and her camera and awesome skills. Now we were ready for the evening to begin!
First came the soup, followed by the salad and to finish, the two shepherds pie. I filled everyone's plates up with both kinds of pie and everyone eat up. I asked which they looked more but they couldn't decide....they said they both were good but had very distinct flavors....I agree but I think the Turkey-mushroom-white wine reduction was the best.
Now came time to make the sauce for the bread pudding. I melted some sugar, put in some butter and cream, and simmered it a while. When finished, I topped it off with a mini of Jamison Irish Whiskey. Julie was so sweet-I kept saying how it didn't look quite right and she was like with that stuff you can't go wrong-:) We poured it over the pudding and all eat up....even Fay who unfavorable remembers bread pudding from her English school days, ended up really liking it!
Now it was time to tear the table apart! Off came the green boa, the 'kiss me I'm Irish' beads, the sparklers and the leprechaun hats......there was much laughter and goodness and filled with good cheer!
It was another great night-the best St. Patty's day I have ever had and that is what makes these Wednesday what we had wanted them to be!
