Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

    I have much to write about concerning yesterday's activities, but that will have to wait for family work and school work to be done. I wanted to make a quick post about today's holiday though. There is an awesome book that I discovered years ago while working at Shenanigans in Virginia. It is called A Pot o' Gold: A Treasury of Irish Stories, Poetry, Folklore, And (of Course) Blarney, by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by David McPhail, chock full of Irish facts, poems, stories, recipes, etc. While working at the store I read the entire book in sneaky bits of time (but especially when it was my turn on the register and business was slow). I even scribbled down some of the recipes on scrap paper which I still have in my recipe accordion file thingy. I dug around to find them so I could share them with you. Here they are!

(I just realized that I must have copied the Irish Soda Bread recipe wrong so here is another one that looks similar. Add a cup or more of raisins and some caraway seeds if you like.)

Irish Stew
(serves 6)
4 large onions, cut into wedges
2 Tbsp oil
5 large carrots, cut into thick slices
1 1/2 lbs steak or lamb
6 large potatoes
1 cup water
salt & papper to taste
Brown onions in oil in a large pot. Add carrots & cook for a few minutes. Cut meat into 1/4 - 1/2 in. cubes & add to pot. Wash, peel, & slice potatoes & add to pot. Pour in water, season to taste with salt & pepper & bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer over low heat until meat & vegetables are tender. Stew can be thickened by mixing 2 Tbsp flour with a little water, then adding it to stew. heat until thickened & serve hot.

Marshmallow Crackers
(Cream Crackers were invented in Ireland.)
10 marshmallows
10 cream crackers (or grahams)
10 blobs of butter
10 almonds
put marshmallow on top of each cracker. Put a small piece of butter on each marshmallow, topped by an almond. Place on a pan & put under broiler until marshmallows have melted all over.