Special Occasion Menu: Porchetta, Mushroom Risotto, Asparagus, and Parmesan French Bread

Some people have asked me about this dinner menu and though it is not specifically CSA-oriented, it is all from scratch so since that is legit for my blog, right? (Links to recipes in text). First up, I made the same asparagus I've always made it, since my friend showed me how, roasted with salt, pepper and olive oil and lemon and grated Parmesan at the end, pretty simple. The bread is based on this recipe for Jalapeno-Cheddar bread, but I just use Parmesan for the filling, depending on what I am serving. It's probably my favorite bread recipe in the whole world. For the risotto, I just made my standard risotto, browning the mushrooms separately and saving the liquid to use in the risotto. I also bought some chives at Tendercrop Farm that were included in the risotto, fresh herbs make such a difference. For the porchetta, I used this recipe from Bon Appetit, I had been saving it for over two years for the right moment. The only real change I made was not using fennel seed, not a huge fan of fennel here. My only regret was that I didn't make it sooner. The pork belly came from Blood Farm, which is the last small slaughter house in Massachusetts, they are so awesome that they don't even need a website. as for the porchetta, it just made the meal so special, it truly is a great recipe and I was really glad that I went out on a limb and made it instead of sticking with a rib roast or steaks.

Orange Sweet Rolls

We don't eat a lot of bread around here but these are perfect for a special occasion. If you enjoy the cinnamon rolls in the tube at the grocery store, you will like these even better. And even if you don't like them, you might like these, they weren't doughy or artificial tasting like their processed counterparts, they had just the right amount of sweetness. What is really great is that I found that this dough is easy to work with, I've tried other recipes and have found the dough difficult to roll out or the end result was tough and chewy. I used orange but I think they would be great with lemon as well. Next year, I plan on trying this when Meyer lemons are in season. You can find the recipe here, on Lauren's Latest.

St. Patrick's Day Dinner Menu

 Quite a few years back, we had a little disaster with corned beef, I took it out of the package and roasted it like a regular brisket. The trash was quite full that night. I'd actually never heard of corned beef and cabbage until my adult life, I suppose my family chose to embrace the Italian side because the food is better. However that may be, a little variety never hurts and I have actually learned to make corned beef. Next year, my goal is to prepare the brine myself. And before you freak out about that, you can easily order juniper berries online.

So here is my menu:

The whole spread

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Soda bread, Kerrygold Irish Butter, and Kerrygold Dubliner cheese

I used the bottle to make a centerpiece

Bailey's Irish Cream flavored buttercream, my piping skills have no effect on the tastiness

The cake that changed my mind about chocolate cake

This really isn't a difficult dinner to make. For the corned beef, I either order it or just buy it at Costco. The key thing is to rinse the brine off the beef before cooking, and then it is pretty much just covering it with water and gently boiling until tender. I set it aside once it it tender and add my vegetables, boiling for about half and hour. You can add whatever vegetables you like but I had a whole cabbage, quartered, a large onion, quartered, about a dozen baby reds and some carrots in mine. I just fill up the pot with all the veggies that can fit.


Soda bread could not be easier, I found this no fail recipe at Brown Eyed Baker. I just follow it to the letter, I can easily whip up two loaves in under 15 minutes. If you don't usually like soda bread, this will make you a fan. I served it with Irish butter, which made it even better, and some good Irish cheese.

The Guinness cake comes from the same website as the soda bread but with a variation on the frosting. I'm not much of a drinker, so I just buy a small nipsized bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream. I beat 3 sticks of butter in my mixer until it s fluffy and add about 4 cups of powdered sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla, the bottle of Bailey's and a pinch of salt, if I am using unsalted butter. I tint it to the right color and spread it on the cake. For the piped frosting I just use the same method (no Bailey's though) with 1 stick of butter and a scant cup of powdered sugar, and more food coloring. If you need to thin the frosting, you can always use milk or half and half, I usually add the powdered sugar gradually until I have the consistency that I want. One last thing, the directions for this recipe say about 35 minutes for the cake, I found that I went closer to an hour. Make the cake! You will never regret it!


The centerpiece is just the bottle from the stout that I used for the cake. I ran out of green food coloring, otherwise the carnations would have been green, but it still looked nice. If your guest brings Australian wine, like mine did, you can imagine it was made by the descendants of the transported Irish. I have a Pandora station on my TV so I set it up to play Irish music while we dine, if you wish to do the same, search for Wolfetones, The Irish Rovers, or Paddy Reilly. Afterwards, you can play cribbage. I don't know if that was ever an Irish thing, but all of the old Irish guys around here know how to play.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!