Brown Sugar Ginger Carrots

So onto the first part of our St Patty's Day spread! Brown sugar ginger carrots are a bit of a staple in our home! They pair well with most any other veggie or meat dish. We've also used maple syrup, sucanat, you could probably even use honey in place of the brown sugar! Feel free to experiment as you wish :)

* Brown Sugar Ginger Carrots *

Ingredients

1 lb. carrots

2 TB brown sugar

1/4 tsp powdered ginger

2 TB of butter

1/2 cup of water (or more)

*NOTE: this recipe easily doubles, triples, etc. So adjust to your family size and tastes!

Directions

(1) Cut carrots into smaller pieces, peeling the carrots if you wish. I usually cut the carrots in half lengthwise and then into thirds (and we leave the peels on for extra nutrients!).

(2) Add carrots to a medium saucepan. Add enough water to generously cover the carrots. In effect you'll be steaming the carrots, so you don't want them all completely submerged. You can always add more water later in the cooking process if they're getting low on liquid!

(3) Add butter, sugar, and ginger to saucepan.

(4) Cook over medium heat for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until carrots are easily pierced with a fork. Cook less if you prefer an al dente finish and/or for even more added nutrients!

Disney Food- Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room

So we interrupt this week's special of St. Patty's Day food to bring you a brief run down of one of my favorite dining places at Disney World- the Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room in Epcot's world showcase! Here's a quick overview of what we had on this past trip..

 I made a meal of side dishes- green beans, cauliflower and cheese gratin, and mashed potatoes. I truly cannot tell you which was my favorite dish- they were all fabulous!! And let's not forget my decaf British Breakfast tea in the corner ;) The Twinings Tea Cottage is just across the street from the Rose & Crown- unfortunately they don't have much black decaf tea for sale there, but they have lots of herbal and fruit teas for me to peruse :)

DH got the Cottage Pie (essentially a Shepard's Pie, for those Irish ladies reading!). He's always enjoyed this dish! The last two years the chef made me a vegetarian/gluten-free version- delish!

For dessert, I had the Queen's Cake (hubby had my eggnog shooter though!). Unfortunately, I've had better flourless cakes at other Disney dining establishments, but it will certainly satisfy your chocolate sweet tooth in a pinch! 

DH had the Jaffa Tarts for dessert- orange-cream filled cakes with chocolate ganache. He found them quite tasty! (AJ over at The Disney Food Blog was asking about these today. She has an awesome in-depth article about the Rose & Crown- head on over and check it out!!)

The really neat thing about Rose & Crown is that you can get a great seat for the evening fireworks show, Illuminations (my favorite Disney evening show!). If you get the coveted outdoor patio dining location, you're set! If you're inside, or in a less perfect outdoor seat, we've had the waiters hold our food for us so we could scoot outside and stand on the patio to view the show! So fabulous!!

I'll come back and edit this post later to add on some more dishes we've had in past years ;)

St. Patty's Day flag spread

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 

So last night we started our St. Patrick's Day celebrating by hosting dinner for some wonderful friends! Throughout the upcoming week I'll share the recipes that we created, including:
- baked asparagus with smoked cheddar {recipe}
- mashed cauliflower {recipe}
- brown sugar ginger carrots {recipe}
- potato leek crockpot soup {recipe}
- Irish soda bread {recipe}

For today though, I'll just leave you with a photo of our St. Patty's Day flag spread! Yummm-mmmy!!! Come on back tomorrow for our first recipe- Brown Sugar Ginger Carrots :)