MadMania

Recently Heather and I took a short weekend off together to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

As most of you know, I love Irish Stew. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a place that serves it that isn’t called ‘Dan’s House.’

For those of you who don’t know, Irish Stew is lamb, potatoes, carrots, and leeks. Its unique flavor comes largely from the lamb and thyme, but from the leeks to some extent.

O’Dowd’s Little Dublin at Zona Rosa serves an Irish stew minus the leeks and with no detectable thyme, but they have added beef. At first I thought this was a good idea, but the problem is that the beef flavor runs wild over the lamb and crowds out the unique flavor. Overall the stew was a really great beef stew, but just a mediocre Irish Stew. While my palate was disappointed, my ego was gratified that my stew is better. I’m not saying my stew is more authentic, because I wouldn’t know, but I do think it’s better.

Heather, however, had some pork chops with mushrooms and a side of asparagus, and it was pretty amazing.

She also absolutely loved her bread pudding, both fresh and warm as well as cold from the motel fridge.

Our waitress, Jennifer, was very nice and we didn’t have to wait for anything.

Overall, O’Dowd’s was nice enough, but the high-backed seats were a little shallow and the place felt plain old American, and not the least bit Irish.

Just in time for Christmas New Year’s! You wanna make some yourself? Here’s the recipe:

MadMan Dan’s Emerald Isle Stew

• 6 potatoes
• 5 carrots
• 5 sticks of celery
• 6 leeks
• 1-3 lb lamb shank / leg of lamb
• salt
• pepper
• thyme, (chopped fresh thyme is best, but dried is doable)
• chicken broth
• fresh parsley

Hardware required:

• good, sturdy knife
• cutting board
• tablespoon
• cast iron skillet
• large pot
• aluminum foil

This recipe is based on a year of research culminating in the best batch I ever made back in October of this year.

1. Cut up the potatoes, carrots, and celery into small bit-size pieces.
2. Cut the whites of the leeks in half lengthwise, and then slice into small pieces
3. Put all the vegetables into a pitcher. Sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of thyme and a teaspoon each of salt and pepper
4. Pour in chicken broth until it covers all the vegetables. Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge for 1-4 days (this step is optional, but it was contributory to my best batch of stew ever).
5. 1-4 days later, cut your lamb shank into bit-size pieces. Set the pieces on the cutting board on the counter and sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of dried thyme. Let it sit for a half an hour.
6. Set aside a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter large enough to contain the cut lamb.
7. Heat up your cast iron skillet crazy hot and put just a wee bit of oil in the bottom.
8. Brown your lamb in the skillet. After it is browned, wrap it in the foil from step 6 for 10 minutes, then dump them in the stew.
9. Bring the stew to a boil for 5 minutes, then turn down the heat and simmer for 60-90 minutes.
10. Chop your fresh parsley and sprinkle on the top of the stew when it’s time to serve.

Like most good food, it tastes better if you stick it in the fridge overnight after cooking.

Enjoy!

That’s not a complaint. Last night I cut up all the vegetables for MadMan Dan’s Emerald Isle Stew.

Once again I have been asked to provide a Christmas List. You would have thought that people learned after reading last year’s, but you would be wrong. To you readers who did not specifically ask for or hint at what to buy me for Christmas, don’t buy me anything: this is strictly for your amusement.

You might wonder why I don’t just refrain from giving a list and thus thwart those very generous persons, but the answer is this: I have some stubborn relatives  (which is probably where Heather gets it). Besides, I like to buy people things, and it aggravates the heck out of me when they won’t give me a list either.

At the very least, you deserve something that is hopefully well-written, interesting, and humorous to read.

So at any rate, whether you buy me a thing or not, please enjoy the list. You may notice some repeats from last year. For the repeats that you do not notice, thank you very much for those nice gifts.

MadMan Dan’s Christmas & Birthday List 2009
(abridged)

Delicious Monster. As I have mentioned ad infinitum, I love books. New books, old books, handmade books, you name it. Thankfully, I did receive both shelves and shelving materials this past year. What does this have to do with monsters of the yummy variety? Delicious Monster is software that helps you organize your library, and keep track of your books, especially if you have a habit of loaning them out and forgetting to whom you loaned them. Or even worse, loaning them in and not returning them.

Dress shirts. You don’t want to see me topless do you? I didn’t think so. I just need some long sleeve, button up dress shirts, in either black or green. Neck is 15-1/2 – 16, and the other numbers inside my shirt say 32/33.

Bowler derby hat. The older I get the more I like old things; first it was the handmade journals, then it was the book press to hand-make journals with. Now it is the now-archaic custom of wearing a hat. My favorite is the Belfry Deuce-Stingy Brim Bowler.

Lamb Shanks. No, there is no hidden irony in this request. I really want lamb meat. The reason is that since last Christmas when I first made O So Glorious Irish Lamb Stew, I have been addicted to the dang stuff. Problem is, lamb meat is expensive and hard to come by. At least one day of my typical week goes like this:

Heather: What do you want for dinner?

Me: Irish Stew!

Heather: We can’t afford Irish Stew. Besides, Piggly Wiggly doesn’t have any lamb meat.

Me: Fine. I don’t want anything. I’ll just starve to death.

Set of 36 Marking Punches. Now that I am starting to acquire tools with which to fix things around the house, it would be nice to have some way to mark them with my name and lucky number.

Wireless X-Box 360 controller. Come on; what am I going to say about this? Um…I need this to pwn n00bs. Happy?

Digital Innovations SkipDr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System. Someone in my house keeps leaving discs out and they tend to get kind of scratched. Someone told me he came to an unhappy end and drowned in the creek, but I could see him if I peered in.

1.1 Liter MSR Stowaway Pot. Someday I hope to eventually go on a backpacking trip that doesn’t start out with me going to the hospital with heart problems. If that ever happens, I would use this pot to cook up some amazing stew.

Apple Brood. What the heck is Brood? It’s this malt-flavored soda pop that’s bottled in Lebanon. Yes, that Lebanon. I don’t know where to order it; right now I just have to buy a few bottles here and there whenever I go to eat at the Habashi House.

Blackthorn bush. Blackthorn is a shrub that grows in the UK, and the Irish use it to make shillelaghs. I intend to do the same thing, but the stuff’s so hard to get ahold of. I tried to grow my own, but it’s too hard. It’s also known as Sloe-berry or by its Latin name, Prunus Spinosa. Where can ya get it? Kick me if I know.

The Oxford English Dictionary. What’s so special about this dictionary? It’s the dictionary. Every word in the English language dating back to the time when Beowulf was the new hot item. This thing is 20 volumes, weighs in at about a Brazilian pounds, and costs about 1,000 bucks. So don’t buy me it. I mean it. So why did I list it? Because how can you not list an item that you have to say in the drooly Homer voice?