Served alone as a Lunch Entree, or with salad and/or Traditional Irish Vegetable Soup for Dinner.

Shepherd's Pie - in an individual serving size casserole dish - layered -

• Lightly seasoned pre-cooked shredded beef

• Steamed sweet green peas and carrots

• A generous layer of creamed Irish Potatoes

• Salt & pepper to taste

• (We add shredded mixed cheeses to the top)

• Bake in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees) until the potatoes are light golden brown

Serve with warm sourdough bread and rich creamy butter.

(Hints: Crock-Pot a large roast until it is falling apart tender for a family dinner.  Save and shred a good portion for Shepherd's Pie.  Canned or frozen peas & carrots are fine for this recipe.   Instant mashed potatoes are as good as real mashed potatoes, if you use boiling water and lots of butter to make them.  Add some mixed shredded cheese to the potatoes as well as sprinkling on top, but not too many.  Find a good recipe for Irish Soda Bread, or substitute Chiabata Bread.)

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Irish Scones

Traditional Irish Scones are much like a dry version of a really good biscuit, but with added flavor, sometimes fruit and nuts.  Choose your favorite biscuit recipe, Bisquick, or our favorite for baking, General Mills Biscuit Mix and have fun with your family as you bake several varieties of scones. They keep very well in the refrigerator for several days.

Ingredients:

• Biscuit Mix (or your own biscuit recipe)

• Water, Milk  or Buttermilk

• Cinnamon Powder (Lightly)

• Granulated Sugar (Just a little)

• Nuts (Suggest pecans or walnuts - rough chopped)

• Raisins (or Cranberry Raisins – other dried fruit is also good)

Make up a generous portion of your biscuit batter, but make it stiff (not wet).

Gently fold in a handful or two of pecans or walnuts, raisins and cinnamon with a little sugar mixed in.  Do not over mix!  You should see streaks of the cinnamon/sugar with fruit & nuts scattered throughout the dough.  Roll out the dough on a flour dusted biscuit cutting board to be 5/8 inch to ¾ inch thick, then cut with a 2 ½ inch to 3 inch round biscuit cutter (Lady Anne likes smaller Scones).  (Coat your cutter with fresh flour before each cut.)  Place your scones on a flat greased baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until they are golden brown (cook time varies with biscuit mixes).   

Originally, scones were not seasoned with sugar because of the lack of sugar available, so dried fruit was the sweetener for scones.  Scones were intended to be more firm that our traditional country biscuits so they could be cooled, dropped into a clean cloth sack and carried to work by those who worked away from home.  Scone baking competition became quite a sport at Irish county fairs and festivals.

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Irish/American Creamed Vegetable Soup

(Aire Castle Style)

Hot puréed creamed vegetable soup has been a staple for cold Irish evenings for decades.  Mike & Ann enjoyed a fantastic version while on holiday in County Connemara on the west coast of Ireland.  As we tried to determine the ingredients, we decided we could create our own version in a simple manner back in our own Kentucky USA.  Here is what we came up with.

Ingredients:

• One can of condensed cream of potato soup   

• One can of sliced cooked carrots

• Half a cup of half-&-half cream

• Salt & Pepper

Open both cans and pour all contents into a blender.  Add the half cup of half-&-half cream.  Cover and turn on the blender, blending until all the carrots are totally puréed.  Pour the creamy mix into a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  Caution! Canned products already have lots of salt, so don’t over do it.

Serve with sourdough bread, Irish soda bread, or any other fine bread that you like.  This soup is excellent as a pre-course to the Aire Castle Irish Shepherd’s Pie.