irish for the day

Today is St. Patrick's Day, of course, and because I have a tiny percentage of Irish heritage somewhere waaaay back in my ancestry, and because I like Irish music, and the color green, I have always liked this holiday. I don't know a thing about Saint Patrick, and my idea of Irish music is to put on the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, but it still makes for a fun holiday.

I'm always a little iffy on the food, though. I'm okay with having the traditional corned beef once a year, but that this big hunk of meat is traditionally boiled has always grossed me out a little bit. I've cooked it this way time and time again, and enjoyed eating it, but always with a little shiver of revulsion at the fact that I'm eating boiled meat. I don't know why, but something about boiled meat just rubs me the wrong way.

But yesterday I stumbled across this recipe for Guinness corned beef, which is actually cooked in the oven! I decided to do mine in the crockpot, and we didn't have any Guinness around, but I substituted the stoutest beer we had in the fridge, and right now every time I take the lid off of the crockpot I am assaulted by the scnet of hot beer and I kind of want to vomit. But, I was unsure about the crazy Voodoo Cake I made yesterday, and that turned out to be surprisingly wonderful, and very rich, so I'm hoping I'll be surprised by this strange beef as well.

After our massive beef ingestion tonight, we'll be returning to our newly acquired state of semi-vegetarianism. And I swear I'm not turning my blog into a food blog, but that's all I can think of to write about lately. Just wait, next week after I return from visiting my sister, this blog will be plastered in photos of my new nephew. Strange foods and new babies, two of my favorite things.