I am German. And Swedish… with a smidge of Scottish, and a touch of Maltese. Luckily for me, I’m also Irish! Huzzah! Not that Ireland is much known for its cuisine, but if there’s a potato involved, they can mash, whip, roast and bake with the best of them. Saint Patrick’s Day 2020 saw a distinct lack of partying and green beer drinking, but I was determined to celebrate one of my nationality’s holidays with as much style as I could manage. Magnolia Table is not exactly chock full of traditional Irish cooking (thankfully), but I found a couple appropriate recipes, such as Shepherd’s Pie. I have vivid memories of my mother making this meal a couple times a year as I was growing up. And hating it. Her version featured ground beef, canned green beans, mashed potatoes and a cheddar cheese topping. Keep in mind I was about 5 years old when I first had it, and I made a snap-judgment as soon as I saw an onion speck peeking out of the beef layer. I was NOT an onion fan! I determined then and there that Shepherd’s Pie was fundamentally gross and didn’t enjoy it for decades.
Hallelujah, I got over the onion aversion, and now use them every chance I get! Jo’s Shepherd’s Pie has some similarities to Mom’s early 80’s version, but with a little more spiff. Ground beef with sautéed onion is still the base, but the addition of tomato paste, carrots, garlic, Worcestershire, and a bay leaf went a long way towards improving the depth of flavor. In the waste-not-want-not spirit of our current times, I scrounged everything I could from the fridge, including the baby carrots my daughter used to take to school, back in the good old days when kids left the house… Last week. Even if the recipe didn’t call for carrots, I would have used them anyway! 
I admit I took a couple shortcuts, personalizations and additions after the base was cooked. I was supposed to use fresh cut green beans, but seeing as perishable veggies are in short supply at the moment, I whipped out a nice bag of frozen steamer green beans which worked just fine. I make a mean mashed potato all by myself, so I ignored her directions and made my standard recipe. But here’s where Jo got it wrong: she ended with the potato layer! WHAT?!? As far as I’m concerned, there is no excuse for skipping a healthy pile of cheese on top, so I added sharp cheddar and mozzarella. Here’s to you, Mom, sorry I was so picky as a child!
I was willing to give a meat-and-potato dish the benefit of the doubt, but I held NO hope for the only Irish side dish I could find, Dutch Oven Cabbage & Bacon. I really can’t stand cooked cabbage; in fact I only ever eat cabbage in KFC coleslaw or in a salad. Corned beef and cabbage was a dinner I endured for a period of two years when Mom had a fixation on it, and on those nights I would usually just eat a bowl of cereal. 
Look, I tried to eat it, I really did, but that was one thing I just could not choke down. So imagine how thrilled I was to make a big ol’ pot of limp cabbage… To be fair, the start looked pretty promising: a Dutch oven lined with thick-cut bacon and dotted with butter. Well that sounds good! After that, I dumped wedges of green cabbage on top, added some apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper rounded out the seasoning. Surprisingly, this recipe also called for thick slices of onion and wedges of a sweet apple, like Honeycrisp. Truthfully, I was able to clean out several partially used baggies of food, such as my daughter’s half-eaten sack of apple slices, though I have no idea what variety they were. I expected to cook this on the stovetop, but the Dutch oven was simply lidded and thrown into a 300 degree oven for 2.5 hours. I went rogue here again, since I wanted to match up the serving times of both pie and veggie, so I jacked the temperature up and reduced the cook time by about a half hour. You know what? It came out perfectly; ugly, but nonetheless perfect! We all ate it, adult and kid alike. We all LIKED it! I would eat this again! It must have been a St. Patty’s miracle… 
Have Book, Will Cook 