Roumalade Slaw

I am always looking to expand my celebratory repertoire of things to make and do for any given holiday (season). Even if I've found a great go-to, I'm always game to change things up or try something new within the holiday realm.

Carnival & Mardi Gras time is absolutely NO different!

My main go-to is Dirty Rice. I mainly just dress up a Zatarain's mix by adding my own veggies (chopped bell pepper in all the colors, celery, onion) along with the called for ground beef, as well as adding diced andouille sausage & bacon crumbs. My hubby & daughter LOVE it when I make up the Dirty Rice! My boys? Not so much...

My hubby & I are the only ones who will eat Red Beans & Rice. The kiddos? Beans aren't their thing.

We've even done the shrimp boil thing, too. But only my hubby & I will eat seafood. *sigh*

Not only Joey Tribbiani, but my family loves sandwich night! It's a regular in the dinner rotation during the spring & summer months. We get some good rolls, find deli meats, get some decent toppings, then everyone can make their own. VOILA!

Quite some time back, we had some leftover wheat rolls that we used for sandwiches. I remember coming across something about Po' Boys, and since we had some leftover andouille sausages, my hubby fried them up, and I put mine on a roll. I topped it with a few dressings we had on hand & made a make-shift po' boy. I was so excited about it, I've been looking forward to making it again.

Well, with it being Carnival season, I figured I'd pull out sandwich night early & fix up some po' boys!

I have Pillsbury French bread to fix up & slice for the sandwiches, some andouille sausage for hubby & me (of course), but then I got some deli meats of roast beef & turkey for the kiddos to play with, then got lettuce/greens, onion, tomato, and then some sauces.

No, I didn't make gravy for the beef - sorry! However, I did see a roumalade sauce. I also found that a sweeter cole slaw is a good topper, too. I have some shredded cabbage slaw mix! So...I figured that maybe I could make a slaw with a roumalade sauce!

Here's what I did:

**********

ROUMALADE SLAW

(for Po' Boys)

Ingredients:

* 1/4 C mayo or Miracle Whip with Olive Oil
* 1/4 C mayo or Miracle Whip with horseradish
* 2 T ketchup
* 2 T honey mustard
* 2 T honey dijon mustard
* 2 T brown mustard with horseradish
* 3 T Worcestershire sauce
* 1 T pickle relish
* 2 t garlic powder
* 2 T dried minced onion
* 1/4 t celery seed
* 1 T paprika
* black pepper - to taste
* 1 t chili powder
* 1-2 T creole or cajun seasoning
* 2 T lemon juice
* salt - to taste
* 1 1/2 T sugar
* 1 T dried parsley
* 1 t hot sauce OR 2-3 pinches ground cayenne pepper
* 8 oz shredded cabbage cole slaw mix (about half a bag)


Directions:

~ Mix all ingredients, minus the slaw mix, in a large bowl

~ Reserve about half the sauce to be used as just a dressing

~ To the remaining sauce, add in the cabbage slaw mix & make sure it is coated well

~ Refrigerate the sauce AND slaw until ready to use

**********

Now that you have sauce AND slaw, you can use these to top your po' boy with! Use the remaining 8 oz. of slaw mix as a topper with or instead of, or with, your lettuce, too. Or you could serve this cajun-flavored slaw as a side. If you wanted to, you could even use all of the sauce AND the whole bag of shredded slaw mix so it might last a bit longer - depends on how many you're feeding.

Just to let you know, I'm not a spicy food eater...but I was SO happy with this! It went incredibly well with the sandwiches. My hubby thought so, too.

I also had fries to serve with or ON the po' boys. I made some quick red beans & rice for a side, also.

Po' Boy includes: andouille sausage, roast beef (deli meat), tomato, baby kale & spinach greens,
Roumalade Slaw, and French fries on French bread

Plus, I found some Zapp's Potato Chips when I was at World Market. I got them in the VooDoo flavor, Cajun Dill Craw-Tator flavor, and the Spicy Cajun Craw-Tator flavor. I thought they might be a great addition to the po' boy meal! My excitement for the pairing was confirmed when I came across Zapp's Facebook photo of the Spicy Cajun Craw-Tators with a comment from Visit New Orleans:

Of course, I had to serve my King Cake, too! (recipe HERE)

And the family loved all of it! I see it being added to future dinner rotations! Might even be this year's go-to for Mardi Gras. YAY!

ENJOY!

An Irish & Irish-Like Feast

When St. Patrick's Day rolls around, I do try my best to serve up something that is authentic to Irish cuisine...or at least Irish-like.

I'm not sure why Americans cannot seem to grasp that corned beef is NOT Irish, but it has to stop!

I have had people shocked that I don't like corned beef. They figure if you have Irish decent within you, then you should enjoy some corned beef. Sorry folks...that stuff makes me gag. But I can enjoy some serious potatoes!

However, when St. Paddy's Day rolled around, I have been searching for a recipe to fix that everyone will actually enjoy. Much of the meat eaten in Ireland is generally pork or lamb. I haven't found a lot of lamb around here, and we have a non-pork eater. So I had to revert to beef. Not corned beef, but a good brisket. I know beef is more rare, but I found this Irish-pub style orange beef recipe that I was hoping would go over. (recipe HERE)

You know what? We only had 2 slices of beef left...so the dog got to enjoy some St. Paddy's Day fare, too! I think I want to add a bottle of Irish ale to the liquid in the cooking process, next time, for an added layer of Irish flavor.

~~~~~~~~~~

I also made some colcannon for the first time! And I did mostly use this recipe, HERE, that I found. But I did change up a couple of things, so here's what I did with the colcannon:

IRISH COLCANNON

Ingredients:

3 lb Yukon or buttery potatoes (I found golden butter potatoes)
1/2 C cabbage slaw mix (mine included green cabbage, red cabbage & carrot)
1/4 C kale leaves, chopped or torn into pieces (I've also used turnip greens)
2 T dried chives
1 stick butter
1/4 C buttermilk
sea salt
white pepper


Directions:

~ Rinse & lightly scrub potatoes

~ Cut each potato into 6-8 cubed pieces - I left the skins on for texture & as a time-saver ( like the more rustic feel & look, anyway)

~ Place the pieces into a large pot, cover with water

~ Bring the water to a boil & then turn down to simmer until potatoes are tender

~ When potatoes are tender, drain the water & transfer potatoes to sprayed lazy cooker insert

~ Add the other ingredients to the potatoes in the lazy cooker, close the lid & set on high for about 2-4 hours

~ After 2-4 hours of cooking, lightly smash & stir the potato mixture until blended, but still chunky

~ Serve


I want to tell you that this has a taste like a loaded baked potato. Just add some bacon bits & cheese...and BOOM! Loaded smashed potatoes! These were a total hit! I was SO happy with how it turned out.

~~~~~~~~~~

I also offered up some slaw. I have tried to modify a tried & true sweet slaw recipe...but it never turned out quite right.

Since we were having some family over to enjoy the meal, I decided to have 2 slaws on hand. We found a great KFC copycat recipe on Pinterest (recipe HERE), and I have since handed it over to my daughter to make. She does a GREAT job with it!

But I know there's a mustard-dill slaw that is very Irish. So I found a very workable slaw recipe (HERE) to make a non-sweet slaw. And I did make my own modifications, plus I didn't need as much as the recipe called for.

Sweet KFC copycat slaw, above; mustard-dill-vinegar slaw, below

MUSTARD DILL VINEGAR SLAW

Ingredients:

1 bag cabbage slaw mix
1/8 C minced onion
2 T garlic powder
3/4 C Miracle Whip with olive oil
1/4 C French's honey dijon mustard
1/4 C distilled white vinegar
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
3 T white wine vinegar
3 T buttermilk
1/4 t sea salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1/8 t celery seed
2 T dried dill weed


Directions:

~ In a large bowl (preferably with a tight lid), place all ingredients except the slaw mix, stir well

~ Add in the slaw mix to the bowl

~ If you have a lid for the bowl, close the lid & shake it up very well
~ If you do not have a lid for your bowl, mix with a large spoon very well & then cover with foil or plastic wrap

~ place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving...but is better if done a day before

~ Serve


I placed my slaw in a great pottery dish that I used for my Irish Bread & Butter Pudding (recipe HERE). It was actually very good! If you do not like a sweet slaw...try this one!! It has pretty good bite to it, too!

~~~~~~~~~~

I was truly disappointed that I did not have time to make traditional Irish soda bread. Something had to be cut when I tried to make some oatmeal cookies. Something went horribly wrong with the cookie recipe, apparently, and they melted all over the inside of the oven. I had to stop baking operations to cool & clean the oven, so it cut into times to get food done. I was bummed!

~~~~~~~~~~

Irish Cream Apple Cake & Erin's Lush Pie

However, I had to make dessert! So I did my Irish-inspired apple cake (recipe HERE) & the glaze (recipe HERE) to go with it. But I, also, wanted to make my mom's tried & true St. Patrick's Day dessert go-to. I've seen it listed places as Pistachio Pudding Dessert (or something along those lines), but I grew up with it being called Erin's Lush. However...I had no time to bake the crust. So...I cheated it a bit & made it into a pie!

Slice of Irish Cream Apple Cake & a slice of Erin's Lush Pie

ERIN'S LUSH PIE

Ingredients:

1 large pre-made graham cracker crust
2 small packages pistachio pudding mix
2 C Irish Cream Creamer
1 8 oz cream cheese brick, softened
1 8 oz tub whipped topping, divided
1 C powdered sugar
2 T crushed pistachio nuts, divided
1 T almonds sliced


Directions:

~ In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar & 1 C of the whipped topping together

~ along the bottom of the graham cracker crust, sprinkle about 1/2 of the crushed pistachio nuts

~ Carefully spread about 1/2 - 3/4 of the cream cheese mixture, evenly, on the bottom of the crust (if some of the nuts get mixed with the cream cheese mixture, it is fine)

~ In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk both pistachio pudding mixes & the Irish cream creamer well, for about 2 minutes

~ Carefully add the pudding mixture on top of the cream cheese layer in the graham crust

~ Add what is left of the whipped topping with what is left of the unused cream cheese mixture & blend together

~ Carefully spread the whipped topping mixture on top of the pudding layer in the pie crust

~ Take the almond slices & what is left of the crushed pistachio nuts & evenly sprinkle on top of the whipped topping layer

~ Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving to allow to fully set

~ Serve


This pie is so decadent & fantastic! I did use pistachio nuts because of the pudding & they are green in color. I also used almond slices because they are my favorite. You can also use pecans &/or walnuts, instead.

This was SO good! And so easy!

~~~~~~~~~~

Some of the 21 & over aged kids did enjoy some Irish Ale from Boulevard, too.

I hope this has inspired your future Irish meals. Open your minds a bit & know you don't have to eat green potatoes with corned beef & cabbage to be considered an Irish meal.

I have a few other things that are Irish or Irish-inspired, HERE, also.

ENJOY!