Getting in touch with our inner Irish

When I was at Penn State my department had an annual Heritage lunch where everyone was supposed to bring a dish from their ethnic/geographic background. I remember calling my mom to see what Irish dish (I'm 3/4 Irish) I could handle with my limited cooking ability at the time and she suggested Irish soda bread. I considered it, but I don't think I even owned a loaf pan at the time. In the end, I think I just snuck into the lunch without bringing anything myself. I might have brought Chateaugay cheese one year.

So, as this St. Patrick's Day rolled around, I thought I'd give my Irish cooking a try. Since Bill has been working such long hours for the last year I'm improved my cooking ability pretty steadily. I spent quite a bit of time looking for Irish stew and soda bread recipes, and ultimately decided on an Beef & Irish Stout Stew (wasn't adventurous enough to try lamb stew) and a traditional soda bread recipe that turned into a Wheat soda bread because I ran out of white flour. If I do say so myself, I think both turned out quite well, though the shamrock pan I made the bread in kind of looked more like a plus sign that a shamrock. Drew, Bill, and my mother (visiting for a few days while Dad is NY) all gave them thumbs up too.

Other highlights from St. Patrick's Day...

Drew shows off his leprachaun art project from school.

Thanks to my mom visiting, we were able to get a St. Patrick's day family shot without having to mess with the camera's self-timer. ACU material counts as green, right?

We even got the green into the bathtub. A few weeks ago I found an Elmo bath set that included these bath tablets that turn the water different colors. Drew thinks they're fantastic and was amazed at how the one blue tablet and one yellow tablet turned the water green last night.

Drew and his Good Luck Care Bear (which was Mommy's growing up) get ready for storytime with Grandma.

Seems like Easter is right around the corner. Time to take the shamrocks down and the Easter eggs up!