A St. Patrick's Day Dinner

We had a very pleasant dinner tonight with visiting friends and local friends. I tried to prepare something that seemed to be a bit more authentic Irish than corned beef and cabbage, which is Irish-Amreican.

The menu was:
                               

Irish cheeses & crackers

(Cheeses: Dubliner, Kerrygold with Stout,

Kilaree Irish Cheddar)

Bibb, Bacon & Apple Salad w. Camembert Dressing

Irish Onion Soup  wti Ivernia Cheese

Traditional Beef & Guinness Stew

Irish Soda Bread

Strawberry & Bailey’s Fool   

One of the guests made the dessert.

The cheeses were very tasty. I bought them at Whole Foods.

 I found the recipes for the salad, soup and stew at http://www.irishabroad.com/culture/kitchen/recipes.asp

That site has lots of great-sounding recipes. The dishes were all tasty. However:

1. The stew was more like a soup. For some reason, it did not thicken up.

2. Although the guest who made the dessert added extra Bailey's, there still was not a strong taste of Baileys's. However, the dessert was still very tasty.

For the soup, I could not find the recommended cheese, so I used Irish Ivernia cheese.

I loved the salad. I found Irish-style bacon at Whole Foods.

I bought the bread at Publix. It tasted good, but I think it works much better as a breakfast bread because it has lots of fruit in it.

This was my first attempt to do anything Irish. I was happy with the results. It took me about 8 hours to prepare the meal because there was lots of chopping, mincing, etc.