Happy St. Pat's!

Ok, up above you have your before and after shots of the Irish Beef Hand Pies. They turned out pretty good - took a long time to cook from frozen. I can't say I recommend that. Also, I would add a touch more worcestershire sauce, myself. However, as far as Irish cooking goes, these can't be beat! Pretty original. They would be much better with handmade pie crust, though, just as a suggestion!

I'm going to be travelling the 12 hours or so to Hilton Head tomorrow so most likely I will not post! By the time I get there, I will need some wine and advil! I will be back on Thursday, assuming my inherited-from-my-daughter-laptop decides to cooperate!

Top o' the mornin' (afternoon, evenin') to ya as my friend Henry Clougherty says when he calls! I hope you Irish are having a great St. Patrick's Day, and even those o' ya who aren't - I made Irish Beef Hand Pies for the first time for my family to have for dinner tonight. I will take a photo and post it later, when it's all cooked up. In the meantime, here's the link to the recipe. Yes, it's a Martha Stewart recipe. What's wrong with that???? Please, don't take her perfection seriously - she has a staff!!!! Oh, yes, and I'm Irish. O'Kearney was my mom's family name before they came to the U.S.

I have a few suggestions to make in case you decide to go ahead and spend the inordinate amount of time that it actually takes to make this recipe! Doo not be fooled - prep is NOT 15 minutes. First, do not buy the pie crust that is already in those little shells all frozen up. Buy the kind in the box, in the refrigerated section. Believe me, they roll out MUCH easier. Second, this recipe makes more than you think. Putting a 1/2 cup of filling in your 1/4 size pie crust is way too much! I made a double recipe, thinking to freeze the second set of pies from the second box of pie crusts. I had enough to actually use up the awful second set of already-frozen-in-little-tins-pie-dough and make an "irish pie". Third, it takes a bit longer to cook up than Martha suggests - unless you really dice the red potatoes smaller than I did. But you don't want them to get mushy either, which is why I diced mine over 1". Red potatoes smell so good cooking, did I mention that? And the cabbage cooks down so much by the time you are done, you don't even see it! You don't even know it is there!

OK, having said all that, when I post the photo, I'll tell you how they actually turned out. The only problem I am having is that I don't have green beer... Be warned, they don't look as pretty as Martha's. Thank goodness I'm not a perfectionist...