Colcannon - Food of MY people

Aaron called me from his consulting job one afternoon and told me he had an idea for dinner. He saw what his colleague was eating it and wanted me to make the same. His colleague was eating colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. I'm part-Irish, and it has simple ingredients, so I figured why not? I'm so glad we tried this!

I started with this recipe from AllRecipes.com and made some changes

Colcannon - Variation #1
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)

Instructions:
After cleaning and cutting potatoes, put potatoes in large pot with water to cover. Boil until very tender, easy to mash.

Place bacon in skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Set bacon aside to dry on plate, leave drippings in skillet. Crumble bacon after it has cooled and dried. With the drippings, saute onion and kale until kale wilts. Putting a lid on the skillet will help vegetables cook more quickly.

Drain the potatoes, mash with the 1 stick of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the bacon, kale, and onion. You can transfer to a serving bowl if you like. Make a large well in the center and pour the 1/4 c. of melted butter in well. Serve immediately.

Colcannon - Variation #2
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1/2 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)

Instructions:
See above. Saute cabbage with kale and onions.

I made Variation #2 when we had both kale and cabbage to eat. That is, it would have gone bad and wasted had we not eaten it. I also decided to double the recipe when I had 2 greens, mostly because I wanted to get through the greens but also because I know the leftovers are awesome. *grin*

The kid review is mixed. The first time I made this, they really enjoyed it - especially the bacon. The second time, they were both overtired and had a hard time eating anything. Ellie still showed excitement at the bacon, and Caleb professed love for "cold cannon," but I can't say either of them ate a large amount the second time. Still I think you should try it. Most kids seem to like mashed potatoes, and these are only slightly dressed up.

October 10?!?

How did it get to be the second week of October?

Anyway, food continues to be delicious, but we have reached a new challenge. This past Monday was our final CSA pickup. :( Granted, we got more food than we can go through even in two weeks, but what will we do for fresh local conscientiously grown food after that? *sigh*

For the record, here is what we received in our final CSA pickup of the season:

Half of the full share:
1 HUGE butternut squash
1 carnival squash
1 delicata squash
1 stalk of brussels sprouts
1 yellow/gold cauliflower
3 ears corn
1 bunch arugula
1 head lettuce
1 bunch kale
1 savoy cabbage
1 napa cabbage (it's quite large)
1 large eggplant (white)
1 HUGE green pepper (I've dubbed it Darth Pepper)
a bag full of various hot peppers
a bag of apples (maybe about 8-10 small-medium?)
1 pear (I gave my neighbor the other 2 because we have a few already)
1 tomato

We ate the brussel sprouts for dinner last night, and they were amazing. I actually liked brussel sprouts even before trying these, but these did not have the weird aftertaste. They were phenomenal, and all I did was steam them. Besides the brussel sprouts, we also enjoyed a blue hubbard squash - roasted with butter and brown sugar. Caleb periodically insists that we buy some unknown food from the farmers' markets. It is through Caleb's curiosity and persistence that we discovered not only blue hubbard squash but also delicata squash. Both are great. If you think you don't like squash, you might want to revisit them with the simple farmer "recipe." When Caleb finds his prize, we end up asking the farmer what the object is and how to cook it. Usually the farmer tells us to cut it in half, butter/oil it and roast it until it is soft. Give it a try - you might like it!

Aaron already has polished off the arugula by adding it to his turkey wraps. He is so very proud of his professional-looking wraps. I must say that they are very tasty and do look quite professional - but less expensive. :)

Tonight's adventure will include more squash as well as a modified Kielbasa y kapusta, Kielbasa and Cabbage. Since we don't eat kielbasa, I'm going to substitute the casing-free chicken sausage from Trader Joe's.

I'll report back soon!