Who's your Paddy?

WARNING: This post does contain references to the consumption of alcoholic beverage, the dressing of animals to resemble leprechauns and other boorish behavior

I love me some St. Patrick's Day.

The thing I find the most charming about this senseless holiday is that there is no pressure to perform or obligation to make social appearances. It is just a little green day and each of us is given the free agency to take or leave the festivities.

I take them.

My Schedule of festivities usually goes a little something like this:

-Leprechaun Lope 5k
(sadly I missed it this year because I was traveling AND someone put screws in my foot...RUDE!)

-Buddy Birthday Brunch
(this just means that e will dress the dog food up with a freshly fried egg for Buddy, as it is his birthday and he loves himself some eggies)

-Dressing Buddy up in either his purple birthday hat or his handsome Irish digs...maybe both if we are feeling bold


-Smelling the corned beef cooking in the crock pot all day. The rich aroma of the Guiness, clove studded oranges and vinegar hits all my senses, just right. We run tandem crock pots and stuff as much deliciousness in as we possibly can.

-Adding the fingerlings and baby carrots to the crock pot to cook along side the corned beast



-Enjoying a Black and Tan while watching the meats cook. This is not an activity that requires much concentration

-Some picture taking of the boys
E's shirt says: Who's Your Paddy

(Thanks Susie for drinking all that beer so E could dress like a proper lover of festivities today)

-Adding the cabbage to the crock pot. Again, the smell of the clove studded oranges and the malt vinegar...delicious!

-Another Black and Tan. Why not? Its blood St Paddy's day after all

-Indulging in the consumption of Guinness Cheese.
Are you kidding me? This is so incredibly delicious (and does not taste like beer, PS)

-Arrival of dinner guests: In the past we have had upwards of 30 peeps and this year I am sad to say I got old and as much as I crave the company of our rambunctious friends, I didn't have the hostess with the mostest in me this year. So we kept it real small.

-Irish Car Bombs to kick things off

-The Feast: Every time we eat this meal, we lament about not doing it more often. Beef that is so tender is melts in your mouth. Veggies soaked in delicious spices and a good heavy beer to fill any crevice of your belly that may remain. Life is good.
Even with a limited guest list, we still went through 11 lbs of meat. There is something very wrong and oh so right about it

-Time for sleeping with my satisfied, distended belly. Always a good day.

Thanks for being my Paddy.



You can skip this part, I am doing it more for me while it is still fresh since I have 5 confilicting recipes but I think this year we hit the pot of gold (and corned beast)

Katie's Kountry Kitchen Korned Beast:

-Remove fat from the beast and put it in a crock pot.
-Cover the meat with half Guinness, half water.
-Add: 1 tsp whole coriander,
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1 cup of malt vinegar
Juice from 1/2 an orange
Stud 1/2 the orange with cloves and add to the pot
1 quartered and peeled yellow onion or 8-10 boiler onions
-Cook on high for 4 hours and let sit overnight on warm
-Add carrots and fingerling potatoes 8 hours before serving and cook on low
-Add 1 cabbage cut into 8 wedges 2 hours before serving