Top O' The - um - Afternoon!

And a Happy St. Paddy's Day to all!

Shrike's working today, so we're not actually doing anything to celebrate, but she did wear a green shirt to work, because I'm the only one allowed to pinch her!

I got motivated last night (by the 10 lb bag of potatoes in the fridge) to do a bit of Google cooking, in search of Potatoes O'Brien, which sounded sufficiently Irish for the occassion.

As I looked at various recipes, two distinctly different themes began to emerge. One was basically potatoes, onion and red & green bellpeppers. The other involved cream o'celery soup (or another cream o' soup) and cheese.

I decided to go with the best of both worlds, and use all that stuff at once!

I also made some distinctly not-Irish baby meatloaves, based on a recipe that I'd used before, but modified according to what I had on hand. As usual.

I think it all turned out pretty nicely and we had that for lunch today, plus we've got lots of leftovers.

Potatoes O'Brien-ish
Ingredients
Two largish potatoes, diced (very small)
(I left the skins on; that's your call.)

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup green bellpepper, chopped

1/2 cup red bellpepper, chopped

1 Tbs butter or margarine

1 can cream o'celery soup

1/4 cup milk
(I probably used about 1/2 cup, but it was a bit runny.)

2 tsp chicken bullion granules

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp pepper
(I just gave it a few good shakes)

dash nutmeg
(I think I saw that in one of the recipes that I Googled.)

2 oz Velveeta™, diced

1 cup shredded cheese

1. Saute onions and peppers in butter.
2. Add potatoes, garlic, pepper and nutmeg, and saute until potatoes are cooked and browned.
3. Add soup, milk and bullion, and mix well.
4. Lower heat, add Velveeta™ and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and stir until cheese is melted.
5. Transfer to casserole and top with remaining cheese.
6. Cook at 375 F for about 30 minutes, until it all looks done, browned and yummy.

Cornbread Meat-Muffs Mini Meatloaves
This can be seasoned and topped in a variety of ways - Mexican, Greek, Italian, barbecue. This time, I did half with spaghetti sauce and half with barbecue sauce, and 4-cheese Mexican blend on all, but kind of generic seasoning. Feel free to experiment!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef

1 small package (8.5 oz) cornbread or corn muffin mix

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, beaten
(I used about 1/4 cup of egg substitute.)

1/2 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp pepper
(As usual, I'm guessing on the amounts of the seasonings. Put as much as you like, or substitute seasonings to match your sauce.)

1/2 - 1 cup sauce of your choice (spaghetti, barbecue, salsa, etc)

1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice, to go with the sauce

1. Mix all ingredients, except for sauce and cheese.
2. Put meat mixture into muffin tins, that have been greased, buttered or sprayed with Pam™. (This makes 1 dozen full-sized muffins. The cups won't look full enough, but it will puff up as it's cooking. Next time, I will probably make 18 from the same amount of meat, because one is a big much for my teeny-tiny-toddler-tummy, especially with a side dish. Two muffins, plus a side dish, is probably a good serving for a normal person.)
3. Using a spoon, make a little "well" in the top of each muffin and fill with sauce (about a tablespoon or so; I just used a soup spoon and it was perfect)
4. Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes, top each muffin with cheese and then bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.
5. If the pan was sufficiently non-stickified, you should be able to pop the muffins right out, using a large spoon.