St. Patrick's Day leftovers.....

Today's blog has nothing to do with quilting.  However, the camaraderie of friends, family and dogs, egads, dogs????

Being of mostly Irish descent, I do celebrate St. Patrick's Day in  more traditionally Irish ways- not getting blasted or drunk.  When I was 20 my parents wonderfully allowed me to study Irish Drama in Galway, Ireland for 6 weeks.  All the time I was there I never saw soda bread or corned beef.  We had lots and lots of salmon and lamb.  At that time I was still fed up with the fish on Friday rule, fish had never been a favorite food of mine.  My mother would make salmon patties - yuck!  Fresh fish in the grocery stores just wasn't common place in the fifties as it is today.  Our group from College of St. Thomas from St. Paul, MN was invited to many receptions - all of which showered us with salmon concoctions.  Still didn't learn to like it, but did like the method of acquisition though.  The rivers and waterways were not state controlled or owned then, but owned by the large manors and estates - yes, British owned.  So we would joke about how tasty the poached, poached salmon was.  However I did try the lamb and loved it - not mutton - but lamb.  The cute little things ran all over the countryside and roads.

This past holiday I invited my neighbor and fellow dog owner to a Irish lamb dinner. My daughter, Jeny, joined us as well - she is so used to these dinners.  In her mind the lamb is better than corned beef.  While I was too busy putting it all together:  shopping for the shanks, baking two batches of brown bread etc, I neglected pictures of us all.  However here are some leftovers from a good time. 

Every morning my Irish mother served brown bread - still my favorite.  While most of my diet at home is gluten free - I can't resist this bread!

Neighbor Richard brought dessert from the Silverberry on Plainfield....great this morning with the second cup of coffee!

He also selected wine for the lamb and appetizers.  Here, the wine is  protecting the three shank bones for today's chew by the dogs.  We had four dogs with us.....dogs, dogs, dogs everywhere!  Can you believe that not one of them begged....but they did stay close.

 A trip to Russia with a bunch of fun loving wanna be Irishmen led me to drinking Jameson's.  Still un-opened - ahhh t'is for another day....

Four dogs and three bones - one Minnie, my grand-dog on the right, lapped up left-overs from a plate.  The bones. above were enjoyed by grand-dog Meg (left) and Peaches, the gray dog and Bernie - my dog checking out Minnie's backside.....he left the largest bone.

Later this week I'll cook the corned beef - it's just the best time of year to buy one.  While waiting to return to USA in 1970 I did see corned beef on the menu at Shannon Airport.  That one meal was the only time I've ever been sick from corned beef.  Thirty years later I tried it - and liked it!  Good things take time....I also eat and enjoy salmon, too!

Happy March to you all!