Stout Stew, Colcannon Potatoes, & Soda Bread - Our Favorite St Patricks Day Dinner

 
Irish Recipes From  A Pennsylvania Dutch  Farm Wife 

Who Almost Never Follows A Recipe

I 've read that the food most eaten in Ireland on St Patrick's day is "sausage and chips [fries]".    Because it's a festival day, and many families will eat out rather than cook.  So while I'm making Irish Stout Stew, Colcannon Potatoes, Soda Bread, and an "Irish" potato candy that was first made in Philadelphia...  those in Ireland are most likely eating sausage and french fries.

Owl Paper Bag - A Kids Craft With Cricut (Free svg)

 

My nearly 3 year old grandson loves to craft with Grandma, and paper bag puppets are currently one of his favorite things to make.  I haven't been able to find many free svgs for them, so I have been creating some of my own.  

Easter Explosion Basket

This Easter Basket Opens in Layers, each layer having another selection of candy.

There's a free svg for making this, but I found that it's easier, and faster, to cut the majority of this by hand.  All of my accessories were cut with cricut, and the handle, which is part of the svg, I also cut with cricut.

 

An Easter Candy Explosion Basket

On my desk this morning... the Easter Candy Explosion Box From Minor DIY . Trust me, it's easier than it looks to make this! Once you make one, it will be really quick to make more.

The explosion box svg is from:

https://www.minordiy.com/easter-candy-explosion-box/

It's made from Dollar Tree Posterboard, which cuts well on the medium cardstock, more pressure setting.

(I tried the posterboard setting and it did not work nearly as well)

For the rectangle cuts, I cut them by hand with an exacto knife. You have to cut the posterboard down to make it fit on a mat anyway, so since I was already cutting, I figured I might as well just cut to size.

I think it was a LOT faster than feeding all those mats into the machine.

I did cut all of the lids and the handles with the cricut. I changed everything to white, since I was using all white posterboard, and changed the mat size to 12x24. Then I cut posterboard down to 12x24 to fit on my 12x24 mats.

My machine made a weird extra cut in the handle. Just random - it doesn't appear in the svg. I have a strong love hate relationship with my new maker, it does a lot of odd things like this.

So I covered it with a flower that I had made when I was trying out a variety of free daisy svgs

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2021/06/making-3d-paper-daisies-with-cricut.html

All of the elements I added were things I had premade, near my craft desk. I was in a rush - so it was what I saw and could grab quickly. 🙂

The bunny card on top of the box was a limited time free svg - the card is no longer free, but the basic bunny is:

http://bit.ly/3IwEtdx

The Bunny Head free svg is from the slider card tutorial here - 

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2020/03/easter-bunny-slider-card.html

The mandala bunny is a free svg from:

https://specialheartstudio.com/layered-easter-bunny-and-egg-cut-file/

The Flower on the smallest box is from the free flower card svg here:

https://www.ilovedoingallthingscrafty.com/2012/03/flower-pot-card-freebie.html

(I make this card a LOT - it's one of my favorites!)

I only used the extra insert support panels on the outside layer. I think it will depend on the candy you use, but that worked for me.

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NOT FREE

Dreaming Tree has a different version, here:

https://shrsl.com/4ez9n

Easter Pie (Pizza Gaina)

Years ago a friend brought us an "Easter Pie" 

Her recipe, from her grandmother, uses  Ricotta, Romano, Pepperoni, Salami, Hard boiled eggs, Acini di pepe (a pasta), and salt and pepper.  (That is not what is shown here)

An Italian dish, this is also known as Pizza Rustica. There are dozens of variations of the recipe, and I make it a little differently every time.   They are most commonly filled  with ham, salami, prosciutto, ricotta, mozzarella, and romano cheeses.. Hard boiled eggs are frequently  used as well.

Some recipes layer the meats, others chop them and mix everything together.

Some  even add spinach, or artichokes.   Much like a quiche, you can make endless variations.

Note - many traditional recipes use "basket cheese".  Basket cheese is very similar to fresh homemade mozzarella, but many recipes offer ricotta as a substitute.  Either works.

 I rarely use a an actual recipe for much of anything, much to my daughter in laws dismay.  In recent years I've made more of an attempt to write down basic recipes that are the "starting point" at least.  This is the "starting point" recipe for my Easter Pie in 2020.  I'm going to try to remember to come back each year and add the different variations as I try them, but it took me until 2023 to finish this 2020 post... so we'll see how that goes.  :-)

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Basic Pizza Rustica - No Pasta Nor Ricotta

Ingredients:
1/4 lb slicing peperoni (sliced at the deli)
1/4 lb mortadella (bologna)
1/4 lb capicola or ham
1/4 lb genoa salami
1/4 lb prosciutto
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 lb provolone (sharp or mild to your preference)
1 lb mozzarella cheese, fresh or regular or basket cheese if available
10 eggs, beaten
2 pk Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (or make your own!)
THIS MAKES TWO PIES

Prebake the bottom crust.  Layer the ingredients:

Pepperoni
Beaten Egg
Bologna
1/4 of the mozzarella
capicola
beaten eggs
provolone
sliced hard boiled eggs
prosciutto
beaten eggs
1/4 mozzarella
salami
rest of the beaten eggs
press down gently, top with pie crust

Brush the top of the crust with a beaten egg.

Some like to make this deeper, in a springform pan. 

 I like a deep pie dish for mine.

Cut vents into your top crust.  

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, then either brush with more egg, or cover with foil, and bake for another 45 minutes.

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Free Fonts With Lots Of Swirls - No Character Map Needed

Free Fonts With Lots Of Swirls

No Character Map Needed

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