St Patricks Day

 

For St. Patrick's Day this year, we had a lot of fun.  We attended the St. Patty's Homeschool Party at Constitution park where we had lots of green treats, facepainting (Lily and Amara painted my hands and I painted their face), and a cute leprechaun painting craft.  

She wanted a daisy.  I thought, "easy."  Uh, face painting is not my forte.

This is supposed to be a leprechaun, but it looks more like an orange octopus with a pilgrim hat.

It was windy, yet warm.  They used plastic forks to paint the orange hair on their leprechauns.  It made for a cool texture.

Earlier that day, we planted our cold weather crops in our garden for good luck!  You can read all about it on our Wild West Gardener's blog, just click here.

And later that evening, we had a very traditional St. Patrick's Day meal- Corned Beef and Cabbage Artichokes.  The grocery store never got their shipment of cabbage, so it was good ol' artichokes for us!

Growing up, we always had the one pot meal of corned beef, boiled potatoes, boiled carrots, and boiled cabbage with lots of butter and salt and pepper.  My dad always made it for us because it was his family's tradition growing up.  I called my grandpa Lauret a couple months ago and he told me that he always made corned beef and cabbage in one pot because that is how his dad did it when he was growing up.  So, I can trace this tradition back at least 4 generations.  I always thought it was carried on through my English-Irish ancestry, but my great-grandfather Lauret was not Irish, he was 100% French, and a really good cook that owned his own bar/restaurant in California.  Ha!  I'm wondering if he picked up the method from his culinary endeavors in America or if his French family also enjoyed a one pot corned beef and cabbage.  Perhaps the tradition goes back further... or maybe we were wrong all along and it's a french dish?  Hmmm... 

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