I’m getting ready to make our traditional St. Paddy’s Day dinner and thought I’d share the recipe. My friend, Brendan, who’s a great cook, sent me the recipe from The Frugal Gourmet. I make this “Irish Boiled Dinner” on St. Patrick’s Day, then we have one night of leftovers and a brunch of corned beef hash.

Jeff Smith was the author of a dozen best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show that aired on PBS from 1983 to 1997. Smith died in 2004 of natural causes.

Irish Boiled Dinner Recipe

3 1/2 lb. corned beef brisket

2 12-oz bottles lager beer

2 cups water or to cover

2 bay leaves

10 black peppercorns

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 tsp. salt

2 tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2 cups chopped and rinsed leeks (white part only)

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced

3/4 lb. carrots, cut up

3/4 lb. red potatoes

1 lb. turnips, peeled and quartered

2 lbs. green cabbage

In an 8-10 quart stove top covered casserole add beef, water, beer, bay, pepper, parsley and salt. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic, leeks, and onions for a few minutes. Add to the pot. Cover and simmer gently for 3 1/2 hours or until tender (about one hour per pound.) In the last 25 minutes of cooking, add the carrots and potatoes. In the last 15 minutes add the turnips and cabbage.

Serves 4

Serve with Irish Soda Bread, a good ale, and some sweet hot mustard.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you’re looking for a sure-fire, easy to fix dessert for your holiday parties, this Cranberry Pie recipe is foolproof.

I love anything with cranberries in it. That sweet-tart flavor of cranberries is pure bliss in cakes, crisps, cookies, even granola. I always buy a few extra bags of fresh cranberries during the holiday season and freeze them for later in the year. They’ll keep their flavor for a year. Of course, I make my own cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.

A few years ago I went to a potluck celebration and was lucky enough to snag a piece of this incredible cranberry pie before it disappeared. The woman who brought it was gracious enough to share the recipe. It has the texture of a shortbread and when you bite into a whole fresh cranberry, you get a burst of that tart berry flavor. I’ve seen several variations of this recipe but I’ve perfected this one to the flavor and texture I like best. Every time I bring it to a party, people ask for the recipe. You can whip it up in about five minutes and it looks beautiful on a buffet table.

Cranberry Pie Recipe

2 cups fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
10 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup each sugar and flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash cranberries and drain them well. Pour them into a 10-inch pie pan. (Don’t chop them up or the pie will be soggy.) Sprinkle the berries with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and toss them around so they’re evenly coated.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix the batter (it will be thick) and spread it over the cranberries so they’re covered to the edge.

Bake 45 minutes until golden brown. I like mine slightly browned so I cook it the full amount or a little longer.

It’s time to get out my trusty Thanksgiving folder and start organizing this year’s Thanksgiving celebration. My worn manila folder is a treasure full of memories of Thanksgivings past: menus, recipes, shopping lists, decoration ideas, guest lists, timetables, and notes about what worked and what didn’t.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday to host. I love bringing my family together to celebrate. I enjoy the planning and the preparation. And since everyone requests the same traditional foods every year, I’ve gotten the holiday meal down to a comfortable routine.

I hosted my first Thanksgiving in 1980. I was a young mom living in Southern California with my husband and our two children. All our family lived in San Francisco, so my two grandmas, my parents, my in-laws, and my two brothers all flew down for the big event.

I researched recipes and read tips on turkey preparation for novice cooks. I also knew I could count on my mother and grandmothers to offer their wisdom on the day of the feast. I set the table with all my best china, silver and crystal—wedding gifts that were taken out only for special occasions. On the day before Thanksgiving, I made a batch of challah dough and braided 20 individual dinner rolls. My mom and two grandmas kept me company polishing silver and folding napkins. After that dinner, my braided rolls were legendary. My grandmother never stopped raving to all of her friends about them. Though the rolls were a show-stopper, in an effort to simplify, I stopped making them after a few years.

One enduring family favorite on our Thanksgiving menu is “Grapefruit-topped Sweet Potatoes.” My mom found the recipe in a Sunset magazine and I still have the original pasted in my recipe binder. Grapefruit sections bake on top of the spicy mashed sweet potatoes with a melted butter and brown sugar glaze that melds all the flavors into a tasty dish that pleases everyone.

Our after-dinner activities have varied over the years. We’ve reminisced about Thanksgivings past and played board games, like Pictionary and Yahtzee. We made stamp art cards to send to my daughter, the year she was studying in Bristol, England. But my favorite Thanksgiving ritual started in 1999, when I found a creative way to have everyone say something they were grateful for.

My husband cut maple leaves out of yellow, brown, and orange construction paper and put one at each person’s place. Before dinner I asked everyone to write something they were grateful for on the leaf. Then I collected all the leaves in a basket and put them away until we were finished with dinner. After the dishes were cleared, I brought out the basket and let everyone pick one leaf—not their own—to read out loud. We had so much fun laughing and trying to guess who wrote which leaf.

I still have all the leaves in my manila folder. Reading them now, the handwritten words of gratitude bring back sweet memories—especially the ones written by departed family members. I’m so grateful for all these Thanksgiving memories I’ve celebrated with my family.

Grapefruit-topped Sweet Potatoes

• 2 lbs. sweet potatoes*
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup light cream or milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 tsp. each nutmeg and cinnamon
• 4 Tbs. melted butter
• 2 medium grapefruit
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Steam the potatoes until tender. Then peel and mash until smooth. (You should have about 3 cups.) Beat in the egg, cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and 2 tbs. butter. Spoon potato mixture into a greased shallow 1 1/2 quart casserole. Cool, cover, and chill if done ahead.

Cut skin and all white membrane from grapefruit; carefully cut out sections and arrange them on top of the potatoes. Pour the remaining butter evenly over top and sprinkle evenly with the sugar.

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven until heated through, about 25 minutes.

Serves 8 generous portions

* You can substitute 1 large can and 1 small can of cooked yams.