Killing my feet with the Irish

So Leon was gone on Friday, Maddy came home early and when Meri DID come home, she was bummed about something and almost fell asleep in my office tub while waiting for me to get off the phone to talk.  So I handed her a blank sheet of paper and a pen and we conversed that way.  In the end, I sent her in with Maddy to make pizzas because I had to work late.  

Don't you hate it when something big comes down the pike on a Friday late afternoon and suddenly you're in conference  calls right and left?  sigh... Friday afternoons are for winding down and making lists of things you want to do and shop for over the weekend!  For cryin in the mud...

By the time I came in the house, the girls were just finishing up baking the pizzas and then left for a bonfire.  Robb and I were practically alone!  Unless you count his mom downstairs or the 3 dogs vying for attention and will have an accident if you don't give them enough...  

Saturday morning, Robb and I left early to go test drive another car...  But this one shows promise and is being sold by an old friend of Robb's sister.  We've bought cars from him before.  He's a good one!  It's a minivan (yeah - I'm back in that stage of my life again.  I guess I missed it!)  has bucket seats in the middle so THAT'S a plus!  No one has to touch anyone else!!  It has a dvd player, which is a must if you drive Leon on long trips.  He has to have his superheros or Scooby Doo if he's in the car for more than 30 minutes!  

So anyway, we'll find out more on Wednesday when our BIL gets a chance to test drive it with Robb.  He's a fab car expert and I say that in the most admiring way possible!  He can hear a ping and tell you exactly what's wrong with the car and is always right.  He's like a car whisperer.  So our friend is holding the car until then.

After the test drive, Robb and I went everywhere.  My three favorite stores for groceries and in this order.  Aldi's for whatever I can pick off our list, Sam's club for the big stuff and then Walmart to finish off the items that I couldn't find at the other two.  The only thing that NO ONE had was apple cider.  REALLY??!!!  sigh.  That is the most vital ingredient in Dublin Coddle and Saturday. my friends, was our annual St. Patrick's Day meal with my bestie and her hubs.  Robb and I spent all afternoon working on the food.  And if I could find the right cable to download the photos from my old camera, I'd show you what we made!  But I can't.  I accidentally took all the photos with the camera memory instead of the SD card...  So all the photos at the bottom of this post are photos OF a photo viewer...

So anyway, I sent Robb to a local store when we got home because I knew they ALWAYS carried apple cider.  And they did.

We also picked up Maddy's car that was in the shop for a few days getting worked on for her Colorado summer adventure.  I got to drive it home and it felt nice!  Still had the road noise, but that's because of the tires.

Oh yeah, St. Patrick...  We had the girls be our sous chefs for as much of the afternoon as we could.  They also had to fit in rollerblading and piano jamming.  Meri made the leek/onion/blue cheese tartlets that turned out superb and she discovered she doesn't really like it.  Maddy made apple/blackberry crumble, which is her personal favorite.  Robb and I made a billion things, but the new thing was Black Currant Fool, which you have to be careful on how you pronounce it, because if you put the comma (pause) in the wrong place, you might offend someone...

Kind of like "Let's eat, Grandma!" or "Let's eat Grandma!"

I made the Black Currant Fool with black berries and I'll share the recipe on a day later this week when I have nothing better to blab on about.

Mike and Ada drove up and we had a very fun time.  It was like an Irish all you can stuff in buffet.  I think I gained another five pounds by Sunday morning.  We did cook about 20 pounds of potatoes and probably that much in Leeks...  So I guess I ate my fair share...

There are several other menu items that weren't handy when I took these photos, but here we go!

Leek/onion/blue cheese tartlet on the left and Leeks in cream sauce (with bacon) on the right. 

My oven was filthy... sorry!  I did run it through the cleaning cycle yesterday and it looks sweet today.

Corned beef with cabbage.  The corned beef turned out tough this year.  Robb thinks it's because of the place we bought it, but I'm thinking it was because I kept pulling off the lid of the pan whenever it boiled over...  Oh well.  We'll go back to the other place to buy it next year just to be safe.  Maddy and Meri actually loved it tougher!  Weird.  I guess we'll make two next year!

Cod and onion pie.  You DON'T put whipped topping on this stuff!  Robb invented this one.  It was originally Chicken and onion pie in the cookbook, but he made it with cod and it was delish!

Onion pie.  ANOTHER pie you don't want to put whipped topping on...

Apple and blackberry crumble.  It has steel cut oatmeal mixed in with the crumble and YUMMM..  Go ahead and put whipped topping on this one!

 

The obligatory Irish brown soda bread!  I think it would have tasted better dipped in some potato soup, but this wasn't a soup supper! We'll use up the rest later with soup!

MMMMM and Dublin Coddle which is my and Maddy's favorite!  Robb used cut up brats instead of pork sausage this time.  It turned out Extremely good! We've got plenty of cider leftover to make more when and if the leftovers ever run out.

 There were lots of other dishes.  But my mind is a potatoey mash this morning...  

At the end of Saturday, my feet and legs were literally killing me.  I had been on them ALL day.  I had washed so many dishes to keep up that I don't think a single pot went unused in our kitchen that day...

Maddy headed north right after dinner.  She texted when she got there.

I'll post again on Wednesday because I have tomorrow OFF!!!!  YAY!!!!  I'm going to be a bagpipe groupie tomorrow and follow the band around to the various pubs in Des Moines.  If you're wanting to see a bagpipe band for St. Paddy's, email me and I'll give you the itinerary!

Gotta go.  Have a great St. Patrick's day!  Eat your green eggs with ham for breakfast and don't forget to wear green or you'll get pinched.  In elementary school, that was the rule.  It didn't matter if you were Catholic or Protestant or whatever.  If you didn't wear green, you'd be gold and white by the end of the day.