Happy St Patricks Day!
I’m skipping the Irish coffee this year, but we’re still making a hearty cabbage stew.
And pinches for anyone not wearing green!
An author's collection of thoughts and stories
Happy St Patricks Day!
I’m skipping the Irish coffee this year, but we’re still making a hearty cabbage stew.
And pinches for anyone not wearing green!
It takes a lot of energy to maneuver five kids through various Halloween activities, so I decided to break up our celebrations into multiple days.
We made and decorated donuts, carved pumpkins, went trick-or-treating, played Animal Crossing, and ate way too much sugar.
I’m exhausted.
But it’s a good way to start the dark half of the year.
Truth be told, I’ve been feeling extra stressed out about St. Patty’s Day.
Last year, the idea of making a quick jaunt to the grocery store to pick up cabbage and potatoes was abruptly shattered, and I still haven’t returned to any semblance of “normal” grocery shopping. PTSD.
But the most depressing part was realizing that my excessively dark worldview was actually justified. Just because I tend to be a cynic doesn’t mean that I actually want people to be that bad.
Anyway, my tradition is to pull out my Irish cookbook and make something authentic for St. Patrick’s Day. This year, I’m putting currants in the soda bread — I’m not actually sure if I’ve ever had currants before, so it should be fun. I know that at least one child will refuse to touch it on principle.
This year, we bought the barley well ahead of time.
Also starting the day off with Irish coffee, because fuck it.
It’s my tradition to make an authentic Irish dinner every year for St. Patrick’s Day, but this year I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to find essential ingredients (like potatoes) with that whole, “the world has gone completely insane” thing.
To which my husband wittily replied, “Starvation is also very Irish.”
Ha ha ha.
But, through sheer heroism, my husband came through and managed to find everything on my list … except for barley.
I didn’t know people ate barley. I thought they were all gluten-free.
However, there wasn’t a single barley grain to be found anywhere.
So we’re substituting with farro. We’ll have to see how it turns out, but considering that it goes in the stew, I’m fairly certain it will be fine. Stew is forgiving. The kids will be too traumatized by the corned beef to notice anyway.
And St. Patty’s Day is still ON at our house! Oro!
No one’s invited. Social distancing, and all that. Can’t risk getting close enough to anyone to pinch them for not wearing green. LOL.