Now that we have our main courses all set to go for St. Patty’s day, we needed a dessert. After searching through many recipes I didn’t find anything as far as authentic Irish desserts that I wanted for our party. I needed something familiar to the crowd but with an Irish twist. So I started looking up cheesecakes.

Now I have never been a big cheesecake eater or cooker so I had to make up some test batches with quite a few recipes and really I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally I took a bit from this recipe and that recipe and just added my own ideas into it and came out with some of the best cheesecake I ever had.

I always noticed that cheesecake many times can be dry, or heavy or both. This recipe makes a light, smooth textured cake that any cheese lover will devour.

Crust:

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (just crush some graham crackers finely).
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted.
3 tablespoons of sugar.

Cake:

32 ounces of warm (softened) cream cheese (4 8 ounce packages).
1 cup of sugar.
3 tablespoons flour.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
4 eggs.
3/4 cup sour cream.
4 tablespoons strawberry preserves.

Topping:

1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.
1/8 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

Stir together the crust ingredients and press down on a greased spring-form pan. Make sure the crust is even – (More…)

What would corned beef and cabbage be without Irish soda bread?  You need something to soak up all those juices from the brisket.   The perfect dunking bread for Irish stew is, you guessed it, Irish soda bread!

There are quite a few recipes out there but basically they are pretty much the same.  The main differences will be between the ones that use a combination of wheat flour and white flour as opposed to the ones that just use one or the other.  Also I have found half the recipes include raisins, and the other half do not.  For me, it MUST have raisins!

I have also noticed that some versions use caraway, but I found it a bit conflicting to the rest of the tastes.  If you disagree, you can always add caraway to the following recipe.

2 cups each white and whole wheat flour (4 total).
1/2 cup sugar.
2 teaspoons baking powder.
1 teaspoon salt.
1/2 stick of cold butter (4 tablespoons) cut into pieces.
1 cup raisins.
1 1/2 cups buttermilk.

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix together well.

Using your hands, add the butter and squeeze into dough until the butter is well incorporated.  It should be the size of small marbles in the dough.  DO NOT use a blender during any part of this recipe.

Stir in the buttermilk and raisins and mix well with a spoon or spatula.

Turn out on to a floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes.  – (More…)

The week comes to an end at the house.  For the last 5 days, the kids have gotten up at 7:30 a.m. and off to school by 8:15.  Returning home around 4 p.m., there is yet another two hours of homework to do (assigned by the school, and then by me).  Next it is off to their room to get it cleaned up.  Beds made, clothes put away, etc..  Dinner comes next followed immediately by a shower then an hour of T.V. or other such entertainment.  Finally it is bed time only to start it over again in a few hours.

Even for the young this can be a busy week when all is said and done.  Fortunately we give some relief by giving kids the weekends off.  This time of year, that means unless it is seriously below zero, we wrap them in coats and sweaters and push them out the door.  “Go play” has another meaning around here, it means, please get out of the house and do something.

You can’t help but feel for the little guys when you see them out there with their cheeks getting red after a couple hours.  This is the time when one of the simplest past times can really heal the drudgery of the week.  Hot chocolate.

I remember when I was a kid there was nothing like coming in from the bitter cold after playing all day and having a hot mug of – (More…)