Did you know it’s ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ or ‘St. Paddy’s Day,’ but not ‘St. Patty’s Day?’  

I didn’t, until yesterday.  Good thing I’ve always gone with the full name out of ignorance.  For a moment there, I felt like I did as a kid when I found out that my ‘ValenTIME’ was really ‘ValenTINE.’  

I have no idea why I like March 17 so much, since I’m not Irish nor did my family ever do anything special growing up, but nonetheless, I love it.  I wear my green and make Irish Soda Bread without fail.

(Andrew always comments when I wear this shirt on St. Patrick’s Day… I get to wear it ONE out of 365 days a year!  What, does he think I’ll forget and not wear it?!)

We started our day with shamrock shakes.

 

(Points for green apples and a green mixer in the photo, too!)  

My soda bread was cooling on the counter by 7 a.m.

Before leaving for school, I prepped and loaded the crockpot with the goods for corned beef, cabbage and veggies.  I think the addition of potatoes and carrots technically makes it a ‘New England Boiled Dinner,’ (according to Betty Crocker) but I’m going with Corned Beef and Cabbage.’  It’s more Irish.

 

The corned beef turned out wonderfully, which was an added bonus since it was my first time attempting it.

 

The soda bread was perhaps my best.  I’ve been using King Arthur Flour’s Irish-American Soda Bread recipe the past couple years, but I started out using Martha Stewart’s.  Both are great.  

 

On the side, we had the boiled veggies and cabbage.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the cabbage wasn’t very good.  Perhaps it was a bit overdone?  It was mushy, as opposed to just slightly crunchy.  

 

Mr. Nye joined us, as Mrs. Nye is currently out of town.  Mr. Nye even came sporting a green clover-leaf necklace.  Way to get into the spirit!  Hadrian’s ears are back there, too.

 

For dessert, I SO wanted to make some sort of green-mint-chocolate concoction, but Andrew would never go for it (which would just leave me with a ton of leftover dessert) so I opted for another ‘Irish’ favorite: apple crisp.  Not exactly sure why so many apple crisps came up when I googled ‘Irish desserts,’ but it’s got to be the oats.  I went with Ellie Krieger’s Apple Crisp from one of my cookbooks, and I’ll be honest–it wasn’t that great.  Don’t get me wrong–it was sweet and warm and tasty–but if you’re looking for an amazing apple crisp, it’s just not it.  (For amazing, try Barefoot Contessa’s Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp.)  It’s just too darn healthy.  I did like that it used three different kinds of apples WITH their skins (more fiber!) and I ended up using hazelnuts in the topping instead of almonds.  

 

So what does one do with a too-healthy dessert??  

They top it with ice cream and GREEN whipped cream!

And tonight, we’re having REUBENS with the leftovers!