Bit-of-Irish Comfort and a Foodie Weekend

First of all, let me share this recipe with you I got in my email today. Now, I don't end up making the overwhelming majority of the recipes I receive, but I sure am hungry when I'm done reading them! But, this one - oh my flippin' goodness - I MUST MAKE!!!! (Assuming I can find the springform pan I've had for years and never used. LOL)

Bit-of-Irish Cheesecake recipe

You see, I have Bailey's on hand that I don't drink often (mainly because I can't afford another bottle just yet) and I dearly love cheesecake. It has a nut crust instead of graham cracker, but I'm betting the graham cracker can be used, too. Plus, you know what they say about shopping when you're hungry. Well, I'm browsing recipes while hungry and this is screaming my name so loudly I'm surprised the neighbor, whose dog barks incessantly for hours while she's gone but who can't stand any elevated sound from us, isn't pounding on the joint wall of our row homes.

If I do find the springform pan and acquire all the ingredients (cream cheese and more sour cream and the crust ingredients), I will let you know and post a photo of my efforts.

As for the Foodie Weekend I mentioned....I am so looking forward to this weekend. On Saturday March 19, there is an Old-Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie dinner at the Richwood United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. AYCE, like Mom used to make. This isn't pie, people. This is dough strips cooked in chicken broth served with the chicken that made the broth and other truly good and tasty homemade items. At home, we'd have applesauce and, occasionally, green beans or another vegetable. Mom preferred to forgo the veggies for the truly spectacular saturated and satiating pot pie. If you're familiar with Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you're familiar with Southern Chicken and Dumplings (or even those at Cracker Barrel), you'll have an idea what I'm talking about. This is true comfort food and a wonderfully filling budget meal if money is tight. All you have to do is make a dough - usually very similar to pie crust or biscuit dough (southern-style does use leavening) rolled out very thin and cut into strips (and then into squares, if you wish) which are left to sit a bit while the broth is being prepared. I think having them dry out a bit is part of the process. I have also used flour tortillas, which when you think of it are just flour dough that has been pan-baked.

Because you sprinkle the dough with flour as you roll it to keep it from sticking, that flour serves to thicken the broth in which it is cooked (I take the tortilla strips and shake them with flour in a plastic bag for a similar effect). You remove the chicken from the broth and let it cool while the strips are cooking (or keep the chicken warm, depending on what you're going to do with it). Once the strips are cooked, you can shred the chicken to re-introduce it to the pot (southern-style) or serve it warm on the side or debone it and freeze it for another recipe...your choice. Of course, you can also make the broth with chicken stock base or bouillon cubes, but that home made broth is the best. A cousin from Delaware is coming up and we'll be meeting her there to enjoy this dinner.

Sunday the 20th is my son's 30th birthday. I plan to take him out for breakfast to the Mantua VFW Post 7679's AYCE breakfast buffet, their monthly fundraiser. It will be my treat for his birthday and a chance to see Mom's neighbors while Paul is still here. He is going back Utah on April 5th. I haven't been down Mom's part of Main Street since we finished removing the last of the contents of the house after Mom passed. I haven't seen her neighbors in two years. I'm looking forward it seeing them and having them see what a man my son has become as well celebrating his birthday. (Do I really have a 30 year old?? No way that I'm that old!!) I'll try get shot of some of it all when I go to post to those blog entries. I haven't been to a community gathering since before Mom passed. I miss them.