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.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and it’s not always about how much money you spend for this day, but more often about the thoughtfulness of a gift or idea. One way to surprise your special someone is to bake them a delicious cake to enjoy after a romantic dinner. Here’s a hint guys, women really love it when a man can cook!

This Valentine’s Chocolate Heart Cake is sure to do the trick. It’s the Featured Recipe and a nice way to say Happy Valentine’s Day to your special someone:

Servings: 12

Preparation: 30-45 minutes / Cooking: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
* 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup less 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
* 1/8 tsp salt
* ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter
* 2/3 cup granulated sugar
* 2/3 cup, firmly packed, brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 ¾ cups buttermilk

For the Frosting:
* 2 cups prepared frosting
* 2 cups whipped cream
* 1 pint fresh raspberries

Tools:

* 9-inch heart-shaped cake pan
* 2 pastry bags with small star tips
* Waxed paper

Instructions:
* Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of the pan with waxed paper. Grease the paper and all sides of the pan, and then dust with flour.
* In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
* Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla; mix until blended.
* At low speed, alternately beat flour mixture and buttermilk into butter mixture just until blended. Pour batter in prepared pan.
* Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack; cool for 10 minutes.
* Turn out and remove the waxed paper. Turn the cake topside up and cool completely.
* Frost the cake evenly with chocolate frosting. Run the tines (forks) of a fork across the top of the cake to form a wavy pattern south-to-north across the cake (from the bottom of the heart to the top).
* Spoon any leftover frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Starting an inch from the edge, pipe out stars in a heart shaped pattern, following the edges of the cake. To make a star – squeeze the bag and lightly lift the tip to form the star.
* Fill another pastry bag with the whipped cream, fitted with a small star tip. Pipe around the top, outer edge, and along the bottom of the cake, forming a scroll pattern.
* Garnish with the raspberries!

You could substitute the chocolate frosting with white chocolate frosting or whipped cream!

Serve this dessert as a romantic finale to your Valentines’ Day with your sweetheart. If fresh raspberries are not available, use fruits in season or what is available like strawberries or blueberries.

Print this recipe here.

Be sure to check out the Featured Recipe page on the main site and place your vote for the Valentine’s Day Chocolate Heart Cake!

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the United States and most folks are gearing up to break out the grills for the first time this year and fire them up for a barbeque in the backyard with friends and family. I cleaned up the backyard tonight and pulled the dusty cover off of my huge gas grill in preparation for this weekend. Tomorrow, I’ll clean it up real good, use a grill cleaning brick (made from lava stone) and hook up the gas tank and test it for leaks (this is very important!). Once that’s done, it’s time to oil it down and give it a test run with some burgers and grilled corn. Here’s a picture of my grill, it’s a Charmglow that I bought last year and I am very happy with it:

My Charmglow Grill

It’s important to clean your grill before cooking. While some believe that keeping some of the burnt food on the grill irons adds flavor, it’s simply not true. That will cause more headaches instead as food sticks to the burnt leftovers and chars the outside of the food before the inside is cooked, which forces you to keep it on longer, burning the outside even more. Make sure to oil down your grill before cooking on it as well so that food doesn’t stick and always remember – SAFETY FIRST!

Check out some of these great grilling tips from my site: Grilling Tips from Professional Recipes

On the menu this weekend, I’ve got:

• London Broil with a smoky mesquite marinade
• Grilled Corn on the Cob
• BBQ Chicken marinated in my near-famous barbeque sauce (not giving out that recipe yet)
• Steak and Shrimp Kabobs
• I might do these again this year too: Grilled Chicken with Walnut Sauce

Are you looking to try something different this year, like a gourmet hamburger? I might give these a try, from 2 chef friends of mine:

• Greek Burger with Beetroot Relish
• Chef Newmans Newman Burgers

I wrote some posts last season as well for Memorial Day and Tips for Grilling in general and keeping the grill clean, check them out if you get a chance:

Memorial Day Weekend, so What’s Cooking on the Grill?
Grilling Tips for the Backyard Gourmet

I found this article today about enjoying wine at the backyard BBQ, check it out:
Burgers and Beyond, Wine Comes to the Barbecue

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!

Ah, the luck of the Irish. Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up soon and I’ll be cooking up some family favorites around the holiday as well as enjoying good company and drink with some friends of course.

One of the most popular recipes at home and on Professional Recipes is the Irish Potatoes Recipe. It’s simple and easy to make and a old recipe passed down to me from a grandmother. They usually don’t last very long though so we often make a many batches of this. Simply double or triple the recipe if you need to make more, just be careful to mix it really well. Here’s the recipe below:

Irish Potatoes

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.
• Roll in ground cinnamon, or melted chocolate according to taste!

To print the recipe, visit this link to it on our site: Irish Potatoes Recipe and select your browsers print option and you’ll get a nice clean copy to print.

Here’s another idea for something to make, try Irish Soda Bread. It’s a little more involved of course, but is a classic and often served in restaurants specializing in Irish fare. The Shanachie Irish Pub and Bar comes to mind. They serve this as their bread served to every table and it’s really good.

I’ve also made Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage and changed it up with using Ham instead of corned beef. The kids especially enjoy the ham over the corned beef, so I often make both around this time of year and I make enough to have for 2 nights each, so our fridge is a little full for a few days!

And this is interesting, a recipe I found from The Hungry Mouse, someone I follow on Twitter: How to Make Your Own Irish Cream Liqueur!. Give this one a try and any party you have for Saint Patrick’s Day will be a hit!

Enjoy!

The three biggest holidays around this time of year, in my part of the world, are coming up literally one right after the other. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, began at sunset on Sunday the 21st. Santa Claus comes Wednesday evening as Christmas follows on Thursday the 25th and then Kwanzaa follows on Friday the 26th. Whew!!! That’s a lot going on right there!

It’s a wonderful time of year where most people you meet seem to be more a little more cheerful than usual, as long as you’re not trying to take their parking spot at the mall!!! It’s also a time of year where people indulge in some of their favorite holiday foods and sweets. Extravagant displays of goodies adorn many tables and the home bakers of the world get busy making their favorite cookies and cakes to share with their friends and families. My wife was busy this weekend in fact, baking up the family favorites (I’ll post some recipes up here shortly!).

In honor of the holidays, we’ve got a few suggestions for recipes below that you might like to try:

• Hanukkah Candle Cookies
• Christmas Light Cookies
• Candied Yams
• Pumpkin Pie

However, admittedly, I am short on different holiday and traditional recipes and not very knowledgeable about the dates of other holidays this time of year. If you have any recipes you’d like to share or any comments or suggestions for a holiday that you celebrate, please leave us a message or submit your recipes on our Submit a Recipe page.

Check out this great resource on the three major US holidays:
December Holidays

Happy Holidays to all!

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!