Waiting for Spring! Heartwarming Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes with Fresh Dill, and Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day, plus an elegant side dish of Mother's Asparagus with Sunshine Sauce and Pineapple Cake with White Caramel Icing for Easter.

Spring is around the corner, and I know that most of us are looking forward to the warm weather it brings us here in South Carolina. Spring also brings us St. Patrick's Day and Easter Sunday. So get ready to cook something good.

My late mother loved spring vegetables. She was also a wonderful cook, and very traditional when it came to holiday cooking. For example, she wouldn't have an Easter dinner that didn't include asparagus with sunshine sauce.

Would you like to know something? It didn't matter what other side dishes she prepared on Easter Sunday, because this one would out shine them all, so I thought you might like to try it.

It's the perfect time too, because the produce section of the grocery stores and curb markets seem to have an abundance of fresh asparagus. It's such a versatile vegetable and it's easy to find ways to cook it. Steamed with hollandaise sauce, roasted with olive oil and lemon, in casseroles, or in the wonderful way that my mother prepared it. I think that you'll love the taste of this wonderful old side dish without all the work of hollandaise sauce. It's good, pretty and not a lot of work, which is what I am all about these days.

St. Patrick's Day is before Easter this year, and potatoes are always in season. Who doesn't love them? In the recipe below, adding fresh dill to the  potatoes after cooking and mashing is a great way to serve them for St. Patrick's Day.

If you're making corned beef and cabbage, please do me a favor, and don't add the bag of seasoning that comes with the corned beef. You can make your own seasoning by tying sprigs of fresh parsley and thyme together. According to Chef Rory O'Connell, this is the way it's done in Ireland.

Irish Soda bread is on the menu too, and although this bread is great anytime, it is especially delicious served with the potatoes and fresh dill for a holiday celebration. Don't forget how good the soda bread is toasted and served with fried eggs and ham. With these two dishes you'll feel like you just landed at the Shannon Airport.

We never have a meal without dessert in the South, and this delicious and easy Pineapple Torte with White Caramel Icing is the perfect way to end an Easter Sunday meal. This recipe has been around for a long time, but making it in layers elevates it to another level. Oh so good.

I'm pretty hungry from looking at this food, so I think I'd better get back to the kitchen. Enjoy!

Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream & Fresh Dill

 

 

2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cooked

1 to 1-1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 stick butter, melted

2-4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

salt and pepper to taste

 

You'll need to do a little tasting with this recipe and see what suits you.

Place the drained potatoes in a mixing bowl with a wire whisk attachment. Mix the potatoes for about 30 seconds. Add the sour cream, dill and 1/2 the butter to the potatoes, whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put potatoes in serving dish, and pour remaining butter on top. Add fresh dill for garnish. Serves 4.

 

 

Irish Soda Bread
 

I've been making this recipe for over 40 years. It's the best recipe I've made so far. This recipe makes one round of soda bread. 

  

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/8 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 cups buttermilk
 

Preheat the oven to 425. Spray 2 (8 or 9-inch cake pans or an iron skillet, and cake pan of the same size) with non-stick cooking spray.
Add the flour, soda and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk with a fork. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk.
Bring the flour into the buttermilk with the fork. Mix well. When the mixture starts to come together, knead it in the bowl. It will look ragged, and that is okay. Form it into a round and place a cross in the top of the dough. Place the dough round into the cake pan. Cover the top with the other cake pan turned upside down (like a dome). Bake covered for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the top cake pan. When you take the top cake pan off, the dough will have risen and it will be golden brown. Bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.
 

My Mother's Asparagus with Sunshine Sauce  

  

Prepare the asparagus:

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed of the woody stems

 

Asparagus is cut at or below ground level when harvested. Rinse the spears to remove any remaining dirt. Trim one stem by holding the asparagus spear in your left hand with the tip end pointed away from you, and with your right hand bend the spear until it snaps off the tough end, discard the tough end, and use the spear as a guide to cut the remaining spears.

Cook the asparagus by putting it into a skillet, then pour in enough cold water to cover. Set the skillet on a burner set to high and cook for 7 minutes from start to finish. Test the asparagus with a fork to make sure it is tender.

 

Sunshine Sauce

¼ cup sauterne or other white wine

1 tablespoon instant minced onion (use a finely minced shallot if you like)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¾ cup mayonnaise

2 hard cooked eggs, chopped

In a small saucepan pour wine over the onions. Stir in lemon juice, and mayonnaise and heat just to boiling. Gently stir in the eggs. Serve the sauce hot over the asparagus spears.  Serves 4.
 

 

Old Fashioned Pineapple Cake with White Caramel Icing

I love this old fashioned pineapple cake. It can be made in a 9 x 12 glass pan, or it can be made in layers. I get compliments galore when I make it in layers, and add the white caramel icing with pecans.
 

 

Cake:

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup vegetable   oil

2 eggs

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice, undrained

1 teaspoon baking soda 

 

In a medium bowl combine all of the ingredients. Mix well. Pour into three greased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pans. After cake has cooled, divide icing into 3 equal portions to cover 2 layers and the top of the cake.

 

White Caramel Icing:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes

2/3 cup evaporated milk

pinch of salt

1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans

1/2 cup coconut

 

In a saucepan combine the sugar, butter, milk and salt. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat. Cook and stire for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the pecans and coconut.

Toasting pecans: Place the pecans on a microwave safe dish, and microwave on high for 60-90 seconds depending on the power of the microwave.