Professional Recipes Blog

Making Irish Potatoes for Saint Patrick’s Day is one of those things I look forward to every year. Not only does it mean that Saint Patrick’s Day is coming (when everyone becomes Irish for a day), but it means that Spring is right around the corner and the winter snow and cold weather is moving out for a while. We make these every year and often make extra to share with family and friends. It’s a classic recipe and so easy to make.

Here is the recipe for Irish Potatoes, which is our Featured Recipe:

Servings: 6-10

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8oz. cream cheese, soft
• 16 oz. coconut, shredded
• 2 lbs. confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tbs. vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon for topping and garnish or melted chocolate

Instructions:

• Mix together all of the ingredients, except the cinnamon, thoroughly.
• Roll into 1 to 1 & ½ inch balls (potatoes!)
• Roll in ground cinnamon, or melted chocolate according to taste!

This is our featured recipe on Professional Recipes, please vote if you like it!

You can print the recipe here: Irish Potatoes.

I’ve added a new section to the website all about different types of food and ingredients with more articles coming over the next few weeks. It’ll have information about where the ingredients come from, how they are used, recipes to prepare using those ingredients and other interesting information.

There will be a Food and Ingredients home page listing the food items alphabetically and as new articles are added, this page will be updated. Here is the link:

Food and Ingredients Home Page

At the moment, there are articles about the following:

• Garlic – a favorite of mine!
• Ginger – more common than you think!
• Kale – one of the healthiest foods around.

Have any suggestions for new articles? Leave a comment here and I’ll be sure to update the site. Cheers!

As Easter is already upon us and of course, dinner is at our house so I decided to pull out some of the old favorites and use them for dinner tomorrow night. The Pineapple Stuffing is made and in the refrigerator and I’ve gathered the ingredients for the Pineapple Ham Glaze, but that comes tomorrow while the ham is cooking.

For vegetables, I’ve got fresh asparagus and will be making a hollandaise sauce from scratch tomorrow to go along with it and glazed carrots using brown sugar and butter. Fresh mashed potatoes and croissants will finish everything off nicely along with a bottle of white zinfandel and fruity Robert Mondavi wine. For dessert, well, we’re heading over to my grandmother’s house for dessert and to give her the Easter flowers I bought for her today.

Try this glaze for your next ham:

Pineapple Ham Glaze

Servings:
1 5 lb. ham

Cooking Time:
60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of crushed pineapple
• 1 can of sliced pineapple
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp prepared mustard
• 1 small jar of maraschino cherries (optional)

Instructions:

• Whisk together everything but the sliced pineapples in a bowl, mix well.
• In the last hour of cooking, pull out the ham and glaze the ham with the mixture using a brush.
• Layer the pineapple slices across the top. Use wet toothpicks to stick them in. If using the cherries, do the same with these in the middle of the pineapple.
• Baste every 10 minutes. If needed, you can add a little water to the bottom of the pan if getting dry.

And this Pineapple Stuffing is to die for:

Pineapple Stuffing

Servings:
5

Cooking Time:
Prep: 5-10 minutes, Cook: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• ½ cup margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
• 5 slices potato bread, cubed
• Can substitute 5 slices of white bread for the stuffing instead

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C) and grease a 9 inch baking pan.
• In a mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugar.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Add the pineapple and bread cubes to the mix.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour.
• Let the stuffing cool for about 5 minutes before serving to firm up.

Have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? Leave a comment below! Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Thanksgiving is upon us once again and Americans will be stuffing themselves on turkey, stuffing and their favorite side dishes they’ve enjoyed for years (including stuffing!). So, to honor the holiday, I thought I’d throw out some recipes for those looking to try something new and hopefully create some new traditions.

To start, we have the classic Thanksgiving Roast Turkey for the main course. There are some who enjoy ham instead of turkey and some who do both or try something else entirely.

For something entirely different, check out the Cornish Game Hen with Garlic or Rosemary.

Or for the adventurous types, there is the increasingly popular Turducken, which is a chicken stuffed inside of a duck stuffed inside of a turkey. John Madden of NFL and Monday Night Football fame made this one popular. I have to admit, I’ve never attempted to make one, but if I do I’ll be sure to post the results here and the recipe as well.

For a different kind of stuffing, try this Cornbread Stuffing instead of your usual “classic” bread stuffing.

There are thousands of side dishes made in all sorts of ways. Often different family members are responsible for bringing this or that. If you’re one of those family members and you’re looking for something different or special to make, try some of these side dishes, sure to be a hit:

• Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
• Carrots Vichy
• Bacon Cheddar Whipped Potatoes
• Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
• Candied Yams

Here’s an interesting one I found, Mashed Potatoes with Lavender and Honey. Not sure how this one is, but if someone gives it a try, please comment here and let everyone know how it is.

For dessert, we’ve got a couple of suggestions here:

• Chocolate Mousse
• Cherries Jubilee with Cote Rote Wine
• Coconut Cake
• Poached Pears
• Classic Pecan Pie

Hopefully now you’ve got some different things to try for your Thanksgiving feast. If you decide to try one of our recipes, please post a comment and let us know how it came out. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

To all you chefs out there who enjoy blogging: I found this interesting post on a contest for Pomegranate Recipes with a $5,000 top prize:

Pomegranate Recipe Contest

I figured that it was worth sharing with all of you. The prize is $5,000 and become the Featured Blogger for Pom Wonderful. If you like to blog and are looking for exposure, this is your thing!

And while you’re here, check out some of our recipes from our Gourmet Recipes Collection!

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, the official start of summer some say, but always a good reason to clean up the grill. Yes, it’s officially grilling season! For this weekend we’re cooking up some delights on our grill. I’ve even made my signature BBQ sauce for the occasion, to go with a few racks of beautiful beef and and pork ribs as well as nice healthy legs of chicken! Nothing better to start off the Memorial Day Weekend.

We’ve got our Steak and Shrimp Kabobs in the works with some grilled corn! Salsa and Grilled Sweet and Hot Italian Sausage!

My mom’s semi-famous Ambrosia recipe and fresh fruit salad and let’s not forget the greens – a giant tossed salad to boot. We’re doing it up here this Memorial Day Weekend.

What are you cooking for Memorial Day? Post a comment below and let us know and in the meantime, check out some of our recipes below:

Cola Nut Grilled Salmon – added 6/15/2008

Steak and Shrimp Kabobs

Chef Newman’s Burgers

Chicken Salad

Grilled Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Mandarin Orange Gorgonzola and Almond Salad

Seven Layer Dip

Enjoy the holiday weekend!!!

Although I knew it was a common and popular recipe in some parts, I was surprised to hear how many people didn’t know how to make Pineapple Stuffing and were looking for the recipe. It is easy to make and tastes amazing, especially with ham glazed with some kind of pineapple glaze or sauce.

We cooked (my wife and I together) an Easter ham dinner for 15 people on Sunday and of course, we made my wife’s pineapple stuffing. The recipe is her recipe but it is the same as a few popular ones I’ve seen, so it’s been passed around quite a bit.

We make it using potato bread but the original calls for white bread, but really it is a personal preference. Potato Bread soaks up the pineapple very nicely and gives it a little extra texture, though it is filling!

The recipe calls for a 9-inch pan to be used and I recommend sticking to it if possible. If you do decide to use a bigger pan, take care not to fill the pan too high as it will not only take longer, but you risk the outside browning nicely while the inside is still very wet and undercooked. If this does happen to you, simply remove the top quarter or more and transfer it to another pan.

Due to the number of requests for it, I’ve put it up on Professional Recipes and you can grab this recipe by going here:

Pineapple Stuffing Recipe

Of course, to go with the Pineapple Stuffing and the ham, I made a Caramel Pineapple Glaze (my own title of course) to glaze the ham and make a sauce for the guests to drizzle over their plates, garnished with, of course, pineapple slices in the sauce bowl (for anyone who loves to munch on pineapple with ham – like me!).

Take care when trying the Caramel Pineapple Glaze recipe though as making the caramel can be tricky if you don’t get the timing quite right. You can grab this recipe by going here:

Caramel Pineapple Glaze

Enjoy!