St. Patrick's Day 2010

This was the best St. Patty's ever! I really enjoyed having a plan that didn't just focus primarily on booze and we had lots of fun and learned some new things. It was a great family day- though smaller than we had hoped because my sister and her family couldn't be there because of a feverish baby girl (who is better now- yay!). It was still good green fun! Plus it gave me a wonderful reason to bust out with my green flower hair toys again, I was delighted to discover that they included bells of Ireland! Woo-hoo!

I actually had clover or false clover (I'm not certain which) growing in my yard quite beautifully this day so I wanted to get some photos of Maximus in it- I was pretty pleased with my results, though Max was a little grumpy as this was directly after his nap.

He perked up some and I got sunshiney green pictures which were just what I was hoping for!

He was really exceptionally well-behaved about my fascinators- I think he's finally learning to be gentle- which is awesome.

I had fun finding a bunch of stuff around the house the decorate the mantle with- I actually intended to put up a wooden snake that we have, but I didn't get around to it. If you can see it, there's a photo right above those beads of my sister, best friend and her husband at a St. Patty's day parade where they were very festive and very much in their cups. I wish I could have been there but it happened right before my wedding so I was too busy.

The rest of our celebration involved our version of an "authentic" Irish feast- I did some internet research and this seemed pretty accurate- plus I'd always wanted to make a colcannon. What's a colcannon? you might ask. Well- here you go. You peel, cut, boil and mash some potatoes. Meanwhile in another pan you need to cook a mixture of shredded cabbage, diced leeks, milk, butter, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

Once that's soft but not browned you blend it with the potatoes and then you make a well and fill it with butter, stick it in the broiler until it's slightly browned on top. Then you're supposed to eat it from the outside in, dipping your bites in the butter well as you go. It was fun, and tasty, quite mild, I never would have guessed how much cabbage and leeks were in this.

This was just our side dish though- and that drink is a shandy- which can be any kind of non-stout Irishy brew- (I guess lagers mostly) mixed with anything from ginger ale to lemonade. There's apparently a lot of wiggle room with this drink and it was tasty, just like a lighter, sweeter more refreshing beer. ( I went with ginger ale as it seemed more accurate than lots of recipes that called for sprite). Our main dish was salmon with leeks which was super easy and quite tasty. All three bears enjoyed it. You just bake some covered leeks, dill and lemons in a pan, then once they're soft, add some salmon and scoop the stuff over it and put it back in to finish cooking. It was nice- I enjoyed the leeks combined with the fish quite a bit.

Jack made sure to bring me home something green for dessert- pistachio gelato with some green sprinkles for fun. Thanks Jack!

Once Max went to sleep Jack and I watched our Netflix movie: Darby O' Gill and the Little People- which I believe is Sean Connery's very first role. Lord is he cute in this flick- it's almost too much to handle. Plus, he sings! I was really pretty impressed with the small vs. big effects for such an old movie- they were really quite believable except for a few really obviously constructed big hands and the like. I think this would be a fun movie for kids to watch, I know I would have liked it when I was little.
And now I leave you with another cute pic of my boy. I made these little sticky appliques for his outfit and I'm still working out some kinks, but they sure made my pictures turn out better- I'm so glad I did this- I think it's the beginning of yet another "little hobby" for me. We'll see if it turns out to be any more fruitful than the myriad of other things I like to do. :)