St. Patty’s Day

[#1]

Historically we haven’t done anything to celebrate this holiday except to ask the girls’ if they want to wear green to school, pretty lame, I’ll admit.   Last year the girls came home all excited because while they were napping at school the leprechauns came, messed up their classrooms and left some “gold coins” which I thought was a cute idea.  So this year I thought we might try and have a special dinner to honor the occasion as well.   Traditionalists would say it’s got to be corned beef and cabbage which is something I’ve never made.  After reading through some recipes I likely never will either given the cook time – 3 hours in the oven?  My turkey doesn’t even take that long on Thanksgiving!  Fortunately I found a pre-cooked, microwavable option in the refrigerated meat section.  With that I think I can swing the dilled cabbage recipe I found on our website – very easy (http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Recipe-Search#iframetop).    What traditions do you have for St. Patrick’s Day?

[#2]

Mmmm...St Patricks Day has become a favorite in our house.  My family LOVES sauerkraut so we do a little twist on the traditional corn beef & cabbage.  I throw a corned beef in the crockpot without the little seasoning packet & I drain it, even though the package says the liquid is part of it, then I dump in a jar of sauerkraut ("our" cabbage).  When I get home I throw potatoes in the microwave to "bake", when they're done I quarter them & throw them in my Kitchen Aide mixer with butter & milk & make mashed potatos with skins (used to think this was weird, now I LOVE them!) Then we eat the corned beef with the potatos with the sauerkraut over the top of the potatos.  This year I added a sweet Irish soda bread (got the recipe on line-VERY easy) & it's definately going to be a new part of St Patricks Day in our house!!