Catching Up

It’s been a busy few weeks and there is much I’ve been wanting to post. It’s lacrosse season which means  my middle school team is busy with practices and games. Matt is playing this year, too, so his practice and game schedule is hectic as well. As some of you may know, I am once again raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a participant on the Northern Ohio Team In Training cycling team. Our training has been tough this spring because of cold, snowy weekends, so we have to compress about a month’s worth of training into a couple of weeks. I’m also acting as the webmaster for my 30 year high school reunion website which has really been fun. This week I’m getting caught up.

Leprechaun Lunacy VIII

Renée and I held our eighth annual St. Patrick’s day party, known far and wide as Leprechaun Lunacy. When we first started having these parties, our guest list was small enough that we could hold the party at our home. Since then it’s grown to the point that for the last three years we’ve rented the town hall. It’s always a fun party; we supply the beer, mixes, snacks, and corned beef and guests bring a side dish. One year my band played, but I didn’t get to spend much time with our guests since I was behind the drums all night. For the last two years we’ve rented a karaoke machine and let me tell you, that is entertaining!

We have a good friend and neighbor who gets us a deal on the corned beef. This year I cooked 47 pounds of it. There were four briskets that I divided into smaller slabs so I could fit them into the pots I have. Every burner on the cooktop was occupied and I even had some in a roasting pan in the oven.

This is my favorite part of St. Patrick’s Day; I never get tired of eating corned beef. Everyone raves about the corned beef at our party and has wonderfully nice things to say about how I get it to taste so good. I wish it was something I could take credit for, but it really couldn’t be easier. These briskets come pre-seasoned, so all I had to do was cover them in cold water, bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 4 hours. Good stuff, Maynard!

Italian Easter Bread

Ever since I can remember my mom has made an incredible stuffed bread for Easter. She learned it from Nana, my grandmother, and it’s a sheet bread consisting of a meat, cheese, and herb mixture baked between layers of dough that have been brushed with egg wash. Being Catholic, we were never allowed to eat any until after midnight on Good Friday, when fasting was over and eating meat was allowed once again. My dad calls it “fragun” (frah-goon), but I’ve never been able to find a reference to it by that name anywhere. No matter, it’s one of the strongest food memories I have and luckily, mom makes an entire sheet just for me! Well, for me, and Renée, and Matt, and Ali. But mostly for me.

The bread dough has that wonderful yeasty freshness that you can only get from homemade. The filling is a mixture of cheeses along with ham, salami, and herbs that isn’t duplicated in anything throughout the year. My sisters and I often asked mom to make some of this bread at other times but she never did. And I’m glad; it would have diminished how special this bread is during the Easter season. I’ll see if I can get mom’s recipe and post it in another entry.

Plain Vanilla

I ran across a cool little product at a local store called The Village Herb Shop that makes it easy to make your own vanilla extract in perpetuity. It’s called, cleverly enough, Perpetual Vanilla, and consists of a wax-sealed 5 ounce bottle containing three gourmet organic Madagascar vanilla beans. Perpetual Vanilla is a product of Harley’s Herbs and is also available in cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

After breaking the beeswax seal and removing the beans, you simply split them, put them back in the bottle and add vodka or light rum. After four weeks, you’ve got vanilla extract. As you use it, simply top it off with more vodka or rum, and you’ll have vanilla extract for years! Mine has been stewing for a week so far. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Thanks

Lastly, thanks to markymark39 for the mention in the cleveland.com Food & Wine Forum. I appreciate it!

Tagged as: Bread, Corned beef, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Saint Patrick's Day, vanilla