I love St. Patrick's Day! Since I do have some Irish blood somewhere down the line, I don't feel too silly celebrating. This year I was especially looking forward to the day. If you'll remember, last May I fell off the vegetarian wagon. Well, really it was more of a leap than a fall, but anyway... having not prepared the dish since March of 2000, I was really looking forward to some corned beef & cabbage this St. Patrick's Day.
I invited the kids to come and eat with us. Our older daughter lives here in town, but ended up canceling at the last minute. A rough day at work combined with softball practice and lots of homework for her daughter left her too pooped to join us. Our younger daughter is on Spring Break from college. She and some friends spent the first few days in Lubbock, TX and Roswell, NM, but she managed to get home yesterday afternoon in time for supper. Our son is in college about 45 minutes away. He's not on break this week, but it didn't take much arm-twisting to convince him to come eat.
My original plans included homemade green pinwheel cookies, but they took too much time that I didn't have to spare. So, I went with a white cake mix with green food coloring and "rainbow chip" frosting. I did try a new garlic mashed potato recipe that turned out quite yummy: Boil 3 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes with a whole bulb of garlic; mash with a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of half & half.
I was sorry a couple of folks were missing, but otherwise it was everything I anticipated! Maybe I won't wait until next March to make corned beef & cabbage again.