~ Culinary Q&A & Kitchen Therapy Too (3/4/11) ~

I guess I never quite realized how many people would be searching for recipes for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day holiday.  Thanks for all of your great comments and feedback, both here and over on Facebook, regarding my Irish Soda Bread and Braised & Brown Sugar Glazed Corned Beef recipes. Whether you are Irish or not, and, whether it is St. Patrick's Day or not, these are two easy and really delicious recipes that I'm sure will please your family and friends!

If you're one of my local readers and are planning on going out to celebrate St. Patricks Day, I'm also pleased to announce that both the soda bread and corned beef will be on the menu at The Philips 1921 Restaurant in Philipsburg, PA!  To prepare them for yourself:

~ Braised & Brown Sugar Glazed Corned Beef ~ can be found in Categories 2, 3, 11, 19 &  20.

~ Irish Eyes are Smilin' on Mary's Irish Soda Bread ~ can be found in Categories 5 & 11.

Late last night, I got a question/request from a friend who follows my posts over on Facebook and I think it is going to be of  interest to all of you too!

Q.  Les comments and asks:  When I was growing up, my grandmother used to make potato soup.  She didn't make it for St. Patrick's Day, she made it all year round.  I would like to make potato soup for my family for St. Patrick's Day this year.  Do you have a recipe you would share or perhaps give me some advice on how to make a great potato soup in general?

A.  Kitchen Encounters:  Les, how nice to hear from you!  I just happen to have a recipe I think you and yours will really, really enjoy.  My recipe for Baked Potato, Roasted Garlic & Cheddar Cheese Soup will be just perfect for your celebration and I'm pretty sure your grandmother would approve too!  Look for my recipe to be posted here on Kitchen Encounters early next week (Monday or Tuesday)!

NOTE TO ALL READERS:  My PC has finally given up the ship and died.  It was old and had been slowing down for quite some time, but it did not die of natural causes.  It died because of a virus that was inflicted upon it by some sick soul who has nothing better to do than sit around and infect PC's.  Luckily, my husband Joe was able to run it in "safe mode" long enough to retrieve ALL of my recipes and ALL of my photographs, meaning:  not just the ones that had been backed up, ALL of EVERYTHING.  Over the next couple of days, I will be transferring everything over to a new iMac, 21.5-inch LED 16:9 widescreen computer, where I am told I won't get any sick viruses from sickos anymore.  So, please bear with me. If a few days go by without any posts from me, it is all good news:

I'LL BE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!

Enjoy your weekend everyone, and once again:  To leave a comment or ask a question, simply click on the blue title of any post, scroll to the end of it and type away!

"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti

(Commentary and Photo courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2011)