Daddy, What's That?

Last night I served Corned Beef & Cabbage, which by the way isn't authentic Irish fare. I served it with Mookie Mookie, otherwise known as potatoes. I cooked it all in a pressure cooker and the potatoes, which had been quartered, took on the the liquid in the cooker (amber beer & chicken stock) so they became a bit darker, and very yummy.

Our three year old is not a fan of potatoes. It's odd because he'll eat almost anything. So, knowing his disdain for the potato, I didn't serve any on his plate. He saw it on my plate and didn't recognize it, so he asked me, "Daddy, what's that?". Not wanting to lose the opportunity to get him to eat potato, I said, "This baby? It's called Mookie Mookie." "Mookie, Mookie?!" he replied with a giggle. "Yep, would you like some?" "Yes, please." he said with excitement of an adventurer setting sails to chart new lands. He took a bite. "Do you like it?", I asked with some trepidation. "Yes! It tastes like potato."

He took one more bite, went back to his corned beef, which he polished off, and then announced that he was done, discarding the last bite of lonely Mookie Mookie.

You Served WHAT as an Authentic Irish Dinner?

Last night, we were celebrating the birthdays of two close friends who are of strong Irish decent, so we had a dinner party for 7 with the chosen meal of Corned Beef & Cabbage with boiled potatoes and carrots. We served it with Irish Soda Bread from our local grocery mega store.

Yes, my fellow foodies, I know, CB&C is more an Irish American immigrant concoction than it is Irish, and according to Alton Brown, they got the corned beef idea from the Jewish American immigrants. But as I learned in the check-out line, it is the Irish Soda Bread that should have you reeling back in Epicurean horror.

I picked up the bread because, well it said "Irish". I figured, 'Give 'em some bread so that they get full on that and then the meat will go a little further'. But when I tasted the sample in the bakery it seemed very sweet - something that you'd serve at breakfast. But, not being one to be swayed by the obvious, I tossed it into my cart to be served with dinner anyway. So, there I was in the check-out line, with this nagging sensation that I was completing a horrific epicurean blunder, hence the line earlier about "reeling back in Epicurean horror". What to do? What to do? I called my boss & her hubby, who are both from Ireland. No doubt recognizing my cell # on a Saturday, it went to her voice mail. Not really...because she called me back a few seconds later.

(I tell her our dinner plans)
Her: "Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we don't eat Corned Beef & Cabbage back home".
(She has been in the states for over a decade, owns a home in the states, has started a beautiful family in the states....but still refers to Ireland as 'back home')
Me: "I know. But I was actually calling about the soda bread."
Her: "Well, what they sell there isn't realllllllllly soda bread. What we have at home, we toast it and serve it with jam in the morning."
(As it turns out, there is nothing green in the reall mckoy)
Me: "So, I shouldn't serve it with the Corned Beef & Cabbage?"
Her: "Are these folks from Ireland?"
Me: "No."
Her: "Then what are you worried about? Serve it. Now, will there be anything else you need from the Irish Information Helpline?"
(Sounding maybe just a wee bit preoccupied with, you know, her own life, but much too polite to say anything)
Me: No ma'am.

So with semi-approval from a true Irish(wo)man, I served my dinner to our friends. They loved it....even the soda bread.