Colcannon

For those of you that have had colcannon before, you may notice that I took a little liberty with my version. First of all I decided to add bacon, because well I like bacon. Next, if the scrumptious crispy bacon wasn’t enough, I decided to sauté the onions, garlic and cabbage in the left over pan drippings before stirring them into the creamy mashed potatoes. Serves 4.

    * 6 slices bacon, diced into 1 inch pieces

    * 5 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced

    * 1/4 cup butter, plus 1 tablespoon for serving

    * 1/2 cup milk

    * 1/2 medium onion, diced

    * 1 clove garlic

    * 1 small head cabbage, cored and chopped small

    * 3 green onions, chopped

   1. Brown bacon in a large skillet. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Remove pan from heat and reserve 1 tablespoon of pan drippings.

   2. Meanwhile, place potatoes in a pot with the water just barely covering the top. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender. Drain. Return to pan and add 1/4 cup butter and milk. Mash with a potato masher. Turn burner to low and cover to keep warm while you prepare the cabbage.

   3. Return bacon pan to stove and heat over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and cabbage to reserved bacon drippings. Stir to combine. Cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until cabbage is soft.

   4. Stir cabbage mixture into warmed potatoes. Stir in reserved bacon pieces and green onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl, top with remaining tablespoon of butter.  

Caesar Salad Croutons

2 slices of Seedless Rye Bread frozen

          2 slices of Pumpernickel Bread frozen

          2 slices of white bread frozen

          1/2 stick of butter

          1 tsp Onion Powder

          1 tsp Garlic Powder

          1 tsp Kosher Salt

          1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper

          1 tsp Italian Spices

Preheat the oven to 250°

Cube all of the bread into postage stamp sizes and place them into individual piles. Add 1/4 of the butter to a pan and melt it over moderate heat. Toss in equal amounts of bread from each pile into the pan. Dust the tops with Onion and Garlic Powder

Take a deep breath and a sip of wine. Using your finger and a fork turn each crouton over (This exercise will increase your tolerance to pain and you will become quicker at the process of making the croutons) Dust the second side and brown. Add a twist of black pepper and a pinch of salt into each batch. The last batch gets a pinch of Italian spices.

Depending on the size of the pan you should be able to do these amounts in four batches. The idea is to toast each batch and dry the croutons in the oven on a cookie sheet. Drying time will take about 40 min.