Beef Stew

 We tried this stew recipe tonight and it was really good. I've never made stew before, so I was so happy it turned out good. One change I might make next time is that it calls for 3 Tbl soy sauce, and I thought that was a bit much. There is a note on the original recipe that you can also replace half of the soy sauce with Worcestershire instead (so 1 1/2 Tbl of each), which I think I will do next time. So, I am going to put that option in the ingredient list so I remember. Here is the link to the original recipe:

https://www.melskitchencafe.com/perfect-instant-pot-beef-stew/

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• ½ cup chopped yellow or white onions
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 3 cups low-sodium beef broth
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce (or use half soy sauce and half Worcestershire)
• 2 tablespoons instant/minute granulated tapioca
• 2 bay leaves
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper, I use coarsely ground
• 2-3 pounds stew meat, or a chuck or arm roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 to 2 ½ cups chopped carrots, about 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 to 2 ½ cups peeled and chopped potatoes, any variety, about 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 cups frozen peas

Directions:

1. Select the Saute function on the Instant Pot (use the + or – button to adjust the heat to the normal setting). Add the oil and onions, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until the onions start to turn translucent. Add the tomato paste, stirring it into the onions, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add the beef broth, soy sauce, tapioca, bay leaves and black pepper. Whisk or stir to combine.
3. Add the stew meat and give a quick stir. Secure and lock the lid with the vent in the closed position. Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes (select “manual” or “pressure cook” and dial up or down to get to the right number, the IP will start on its own).
4. When finished cooking, let the pressure release naturally for about 10 minutes and then quick release the remaining pressure. Add the carrots and potatoes. Wipe the seal and inside of the lid dry and make sure the ring is pressed down all the way (if the ring is out of place or too wet, the IP may not come back up to pressure). Secure and lock the lid with the vent in the closed position. Cook on high pressure again for 3 minutes.
5. Quick release the pressure (or naturally release for 10 minutes and then quick release the rest). Take out the bay leaves. Stir in the frozen peas to heat through, and add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed. The stew will thicken a bit as it cools.

Fudgy Mint Squares

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Fudgy Mint Squares

Ingredients:

• 10 Tbs. butter, divided
• 3 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 3 eggs, divided
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 Tbl cornstarch
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 4 drops green food coloring
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 8 Tbs. butter and unsweetened chocolate; cool slightly.  
2. In a small mixing bowl, beat 2 eggs, sugar and vanilla.   Add the chocolate mixture; mix until blended.  
3. Gradually beat in flour.  
4. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan.  
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until top is set.  
6. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and remaining butter.  
7. Add cornstarch; beat until smooth.  
8. Gradually beat in milk and remaining egg.  
9. Add extract and food coloring if desired.  Pour over crust.  
10. Bake for 20 minutes or until center is almost set.  Cool on a wire rack.  
11. In a heavy saucepan, combine chocolate chips and cream.  Cook and stir over medium heat until chips are melted.  
12. Cool for 30 minutes or until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.  Pour over cream cheese layer.  
13. Chill for 2 hours until set before cutting.

Asphalt Pie

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Asphalt Pie

Ingredients:

• Ready-made Oreo cookie piecrust
• Mint chocolate chip ice cream
• Whipped topping
• chocolate sauce
• caramel sauce

Directions:

1. Let the ice cream soften, and the scoop into pie crust until crust is full.  
2. Place in freezer for about 4 hours, covered, or until ice cream is set back up.  
3. Top with whipped topping, chocolate and caramel if desired.  You can also use Cookies’n’Mint ice cream instead of the chip ice cream.

Marsha's Notes:

This is like Wingers’ Asphalt Pie.  

The Kitchen McCabe's Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Here is the last recipe I tried for St. Patrick's Day; Irish Apple Cake. Don't her pictures just make it look divine?!

You can find the original recipe here:

http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/03/07/irish-apple-cake-with-custard-sauce/

This cake, while yummy, is also not really packed full of flavor. I think I would describe it as delicate. You have to be very careful with the eggs when making the custard sauce, so I recommend a double-boiler. We found that the cake was super yummy topped with caramel sauce, whipped cream, and just a light dusting of cinnamon sugar. I also thought about adding some kind of Irish cream flavor to the whipped cream.

Fresh out of the oven, it had this wonderful crunchy top, which both Scott and I LOVED! But even after an hour or so cooling, the cake hadn't completely cooled off before bedtime when I put the cover over it. The resulting steam completely softened the crust of the cake. While still tasty, was just not as nice as those first slices has been, so be warned!

Also, because the cake was so delicate, I am tempted to use a more sour apple than the golden delicious suggested in the recipe (perhaps the Granny Smith also suggested) and maybe add some more spices like cinnamon. Just ideas for next time that I want to document. I also used decorative sugar crystals instead of just regular sugar on the top and I LOVED that. They are bigger, chunkier and crunchier like what you see on muffin tops sometimes.

Here you go!

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 3 C. Flour
• 2 t. Baking Powder
• ⅛ t. Salt
• ¼ t. Cloves, ground
• ¼ t. Nutmeg, ground
• 6 oz. Butter, (cold is fine)
• ¾ C. Sugar
• 4 large Granny Smith apples(I used golden delicious to great effect)
• 2 Eggs
• ¾ C. Milk
• 2 T. Sugar(for sprinkling on top of cake)

For the Custard:

• 6 large Egg Yolks
• 6 T. Sugar
• 1½ C. Whole Milk
• 1½ t. Vanilla

Directions:

For the Cake:

1. Grease and flour an 8" or 9" round springform pan. Using an 8" pan will give you a taller cake.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cloves and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Make sure the bowl is very large to allow room for the apples to be folded in. No joke here!
4. Cut the butter into the flour using your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
5. Add the ¾ C. sugar to the flour mixture and mix in.
6. Peel the apples and slice them into uniform pieces. This cake works best and gets that 'chunky apple look' if the slices are about ¼" wide and then cut into 3 pieces.
7. Toss the apples into the flour mixture and combine them thoroughly.
8. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add to the apples and flour and mix in with a large spatula until just combined. Batter will be thick and dough-like.
9. Transfer the dough into the prepared cake pan and flatten the top surface using the back of your spatula.
10. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cake.
11. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Test the center for doneness. The top of the cake should be golden brown. Serve slices with custard sauce.

For the Custard Sauce:

*note that this sauce is not a thick, pudding like sauce. It should have a pour-able, just thickened consistency when done.

1. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale yellow, 2-3 minutes. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and bring just to a boil. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens, about 4 minutes. Custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Mix in the vanilla. Transfer to bowl or serving saucer.
2. Serve warm or cold over apple cake.

Allrecipes.com Irresistible Irish Soda Bread

*This bread is recommended to sit over night before serving.

Here is my next St. Patrick's Day recipe that I tried. It was this delicious Irish soda bread that was super tender and almost cake-like in consistency. It comes together like a banana bread, in that you don't add yeast and knead the dough, let it raise, blah, blah, blah. You just whip up the batter, pour it into the pan, and away you go. Because of that, if you start thinking "banana bread" then you need to know that this is more of a savory bread that I felt went really well with the Irish potato soup recipe (although, not for dunking in the soup because it was to tender for that). It also has a savory taste because it uses buttermilk.

Really yummy and super good paired with the soup. I think we will be making this next Saint Patrick's Day! Again, I am not sure what makes this bread "Irish", but it was delicious!

Here is the link to the original recipe, but I am going to post it below too:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irresistible-irish-soda-bread/detail.aspx

They also have a video to show you how to make it here:

http://allrecipes.com/video/1066/irresistible-irish-soda-bread/detail.aspx?prop24=RD_VideoTipsTricks

Irresistible Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbl. baking powder
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups butter milk (1 pint + 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cups butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened. Stir in butter. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.

Marsha's Notes:

I tried to put the batter in one of my glass loaf pans the first time and I could see that it was going to raise and spill over the pan, making a mess in my oven. So I switched to my larger dark loaf pans and it worked out perfectly! I also bought a pint of buttermilk at the store, thinking it looked like 2 cups worth, but in the end it was 1/4 cup short. I just added 1/4 cup regular milk to the buttermilk to make up the difference and it turned out just great.

Marsha's Irish Loaded Potato Soup

I was looking around for some recipes for St. Patrick's Day because I got invited to a pot luck party. I ended up trying three new things that I saw on Pinterest and they all turned out great! I have actually made this soup twice now because it was so good... but I did change the original recipe just a touch. If you want to see the original recipe, click on the link below, but be warned that the instructions (as of this post) are rather poor. It appears that some parts were copy-and-pasted multiple times, making things confusing:

http://www.examiner.com/article/meatless-irish-potato-soup-can-be-enjoyed-during-lent-or-st-patrick-s-day

I have no idea what makes this soup "Irish" other than its base is potatoes. Either way, it is a delicious treat. You could add other veggies that you like, such as corn or diced onion instead of onion powder.

Marsha's Irish Loaded Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 cups peeled, diced potatoes (tiny bite-sized)
• 1 celery rib thinly sliced
• salt and pepper to taste
• Onion powder (to taste, 1/2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot
• 1/4 cup pre-cooked crumbled bacon (1/2-1 pkg precooked bacon)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 3-4 ish cups milk
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Garlic salt to taste
• 2 cups freshly shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot, add butter, potatoes and celery. Cover and cook over medium heat until potatoes and celery are tender. While cooking, season with salt, pepper and onion powder. 
2. When you think your potatoes and celery are a couple minutes from being done, add your carrot, bacon, and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes. 
3. Add flour. Stir to coat veggies in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes to reduce the raw flour taste. (The flour will probably soak up any liquid in the pot.) 
4. Add bouillon, 3 cups milk and parsley. 
5. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened almost to your perfect consistency. (Remember that you will add cheese later and it will continue to thicken some.) If the soup tightens up too quickly, add enough additional milk to loosen things up before adding your cheese. 
6. Right before you add your cheese, you will want to taste-test the soup. At this stage, I often find the soup lacking and a light sprinkling of garlic powder over the entire pot adds so much great flavor. Stir and test again. Once you are happy with the soup, remove the pot from heat and stir in the cheese. Once cheese is melted and incorporated, serve.

Marsha's Notes:
Be careful with the salt at first because you will be adding cheese later that can up the salt flavor, plus the garlic salt at the end. Dice your potatoes and celery small, thinking that you will be eating this with a spoon. If you like it chunkier, use bigger pieces. The first time I made it, I did larger pieces. It was kind of hard to eat, so I tried smaller the second time. I liked it smaller better so I could fit several pieces on my spoon at once and the soup cooked a lot faster with the small pieces.

If your carrot is shredded, it should cook up really fast and only need to be added at the last minute with the bacon and garlic. If you use bigger chunks of carrot, then you will need to add them at the beginning with the potatoes and celery. I used shredded carrot because I could shred it really fast with my Salad Shooter.

I am lazy, so I keep a jar of minced garlic in oil in my fridge, and it is great for recipes like this.

Do not continue to boil the soup after the cheese has been added or the soup will go grainy because you cooked the protein in the cheese. For the creamiest soup, use freshly grated cheese and do not add it until you take the soup off the heat.