Is there a doctor in the house?

 I’m sure you’ve heard this question many times while watching TV shows.  Until recently I’ve been unable to say yes, but now our family has one.  Our granddaughter Sarah received her Doctorate from the University of Connecticut for her accepted thesis on Macular Degeneration. As a published researcher on the subject she has recently accepted a position at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.  Our family is so very proud of her achievements and wish her the very best in the move. Sarah is already in Ireland and will be celebrating Saint Patricks’ day in Dublin. We miss her already and hope you join me in sending her this little Irish blessing.

May the dreams you hold dearest,
Be those which come true,
The kindness you spread,
Keep returning to you.

In keeping in the mood, I give you the following recipe:

Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces

10 baby red potatoes, quartered

1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups water

1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet

6 ounces beer

1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped

Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High.

Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.

 

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A few months ago at a family get together we were discussing the fact that most of us were fairly avid readers.  After several discussions about books we were currently reading someone suggested that perhaps we should form a book club.  A head count followed to see how many had an interest.  Wow, around ten hands went up.....we had the makings of a club.  Mary Ann was assigned the task of laying out some ground rules to get us started. On a slip of paper each of us wrote down the name of a book they would like to see discussed and to get the club going. The slip for book number one, (Beneath a Scarlet Sky) was drawn out of the hat and our club was off to the races.

This past weekend nine club members spent an enjoyable afternoon discussing novel number four since the formation of our club. Surprisingly the novel happens to be about a book club created on the Channel Island, Guernsey and took place at the very end of World War 2. The book had the very interesting name called:  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  You’ll have to read the book to find out why. 

It appears that food has also become an important part of all our book club meetings.  Can’t have a meeting without snacks and beverages….at times even more than snacks. While creating this Blog entry my mind kept reverting back to the cute name of the English novel and food.  I thought our group should also have a cute name.  I thought something like The Meet and Eat Literary Bunch. 

The slip drawn for our next meeting was The Housemaid, an absolutely addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist.

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Here’s a recipe for a potato peel pie, but I warn you, it tastes like paste. The more authentic it is, the nastier. These ingredients will make a very small pie (expand at will):

1 potato
1 beet
1 Tablespoon milk

Peel the potato and put the peelings in a pie pan. Don’t cook the peels, because you’re in the middle of an Occupation and you don’t have any fuel. Boil the potato and the beet together in salty water, but not for very long, due to the fuel problem. Just until you can stick a fork in the potato. Take them out and mash them up with the milk. Pour the glop in the pie pan. Bake at 375 for as short a time as is consonant with digestion (fuel again), say, fifteen minutes.

The finished product will look quite attractive and pink. If you squint, you can almost imagine raspberries. Don’t be fooled. It looks a lot better than it is. However, if you forgot that you were in the middle of WWII and added a bunch of butter and milk and salt, it could be quite tasty.