Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top of the morn' to you! (well, it's not morning but I can't think of another good Irish greeting) We celebrated the day as we do every year, with the traditional Irish dinner. Or maybe the American version of what we think is traditional Irish. It was nice not to have to work today, because the meal really takes all day to cook. I put the corned beef in the Crock Pot this year, and that was a first for me. I used a combination of beer (Beamish to be specific) and apple cider as the liquid. Then added onions and spices, and cabbage at the end. It came out really good, after cooking on high for 6 hours or so. Corned beef is not complete without mashed potatoes and they are always a hit in my house. I also made homemade Irish Soda Bread, so called that because of the baking soda that is a main ingredient. It came out really yummy too, and I love it with a bit of butter because it compliments the raisins and caraway seeds. I think that is the only way I will eat raisins these days! Keely demanded that we eat in the dining room since it was a "holiday" and we even used the good china. Because we might as well, it's such a waste to have it to use only a few times a year. So that was our day, and the kids also got lucky gold chocolate coins at school from the visiting Irish leprechauns (who, according to Keely, are headed back to Ireland on Thursday in case you were curious). I also bought an extra large corned beef purposely for leftovers -- and we will be making reuben sandwiches later this week, yum!