“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, May good luck pursue you each morning and night.”
We’re back to rainy and bleak. We’re also back to cold as it will get down to 18˚ tonight. This melt and freeze cycle is creating potholes all over the roads. I’ve been lucky so far as I’ve seen the holes in time to avoid them. Some people weren’t so lucky as a few hub caps are lying near the biggest holes.
What’s left of the snow is ugly. More of it will disappear because of the rain. All the roads are finally clear of the icy ruts. I’m just hoping the combination of the clear roads, rain and 18˚ won’t cause black ice.
My mother, father, two aunts, my 80-year-old grandfather and I visited Ireland together. It was my second trip there. It was the first for everyone else. I loved traveling with my parents and my grandfather was a trooper. He kept right up with us. One aunt always went with the flow; however, the other aunt I would have sold to the Irish Travellers whose caravans we saw throughout Ireland. She had a couple of heavy suitcases filled with enough clothes for an around the world trip. Every night my dad had to haul them out of the van to her room and then back to the van in the morning. We generally stayed only one night in each spot, usually a B&B, so why she needed both suitcases I never understood. I did ask and she said she didn’t know we would be stopping night by night. She thought we’d stay in one place. That still didn’t explain the amount of clothes and why both suitcases every night. I suggested she bring in what she needed just for the night and the next day, and she got huffy. That aunt is only five months younger than I am; she is number 8, the baby of my mother’s family. That gave her a strange sense of entitlement. Huffy should have been her middle.
My father loved boiled dinners, corned beef and cabbage for those of you living outside of New England. My mother would make the dinner a couple of times a year and always on St. Patrick’s Day. My favorite memory is one dinner when the potatoes disappeared. My mother was filling my dad’s plate with the carrots, cabbage, onions and meat. She used her spoon to hunt for the potatoes. There were none. She saw a couple of lumps of what might have been potatoes floating but that was the only sighting. When she brought dinner to my dad, he wanted to know right away where the potatoes, his favorites, were. My mother admitted she thought they disintegrated. My dad rushed out and hunted through the pan. He didn’t find any either. It became a family legend: the year of no potatoes.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: 18˚, black ice, bleak, Boiled Dinner, corned beef and cabbage, heavy suit, Ireland, Irish Travellers, onions, potatoes, potholes, rainy, St. Patrick's Day, ugly snow
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March 17, 2015 at 2:55 pm
I would have gone mad if travelling with my family but it would be a story well worth of writing down. They all hate each other so I’m not sure all going away would come back, at least not in one piece 🙂
Sunny, warm and wind free here today and it will stay that way until Friday when winte shows it still not is over. I’ve been waiting for a setback even if I did hope it would miss us this year 🙂
I like corned beef and cabbage but it’s a long time since I had it. I rather make cabbage rolls. I’ve so far never lost any potatoes though 🙂
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Christer.
March 17, 2015 at 3:55 pm
Christer,
I traveled with just my parents several times and once with my sister. They were great travel companions.
The sun came out for about 15 minutes today. I just got back from buying all my dinner ingredients, and it is still warm. The cold will be back tonight.
I’ve gone out and ordered corned beef and cabbage when I’m by myself. My mother used to make it so I would go there for St. Patrick’s Day. She only disintegrated the potatoes once but never lived that down!
Have a great evening!
March 17, 2015 at 4:32 pm
Hi Kat,
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
I put my corned beef into the crock pot rather late today so it will be tomorrow’s dinner. My potatoes may disappear too. They are fingerlings and might not stand up to the slow pace. Eh, it will thicken the broth. 🙂
Enjoy the day.
March 17, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Hi Caryn,
Happy St. Paddy’s Day to you!
My dinner isn’t until tomorrow as one of my friends couldn’t make it today. I did all my shopping this afternoon. I have a flow chart ready for tomorrow. I have to peel the turnip and cut up the cabbage but everything else is ready. I bought small Yukon gold potatoes, as small as fingerlings, so who knows if mine will last.
I’m making mint chocolate pudding and mint whipped cream. I’ll do that in the morning.
Hope your dinner is delicious
March 18, 2015 at 7:31 pm
The potatoes survived the process intact. Dinner was delicious and I hope yours is as well.
March 18, 2015 at 10:33 pm
Caryn,
It was delicious, and the potatoes survived. The meat was scrumptious. It was a fine meal!
March 17, 2015 at 5:19 pm
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Sunny spring day today. Too bad that the sunny weather won’t stay so we probably can’t really admire the partial solar eclipse on Friday.
March 17, 2015 at 6:28 pm
Birgit,
Happy St. Patrick’s to you too!
It is cold and has started raining. The night is an ugly one and spring isn’t anywhere to be seen!
Sorry about the eclipse.
March 17, 2015 at 10:19 pm
Today is the thirteenth anniversary of my father’s passing. To celebrate both St. Patrick day and my dad I ate corn beef and cabbage with potatoes for lunch. The lunch was prepared by our company cafeteria and wasn’t even close to the same delicious dish my dad made every March 17th. Obviously, there is nothing like home cooking with or without the case of the disappearing potatoes.
One of my favorite alcoholic beverages is Guinness Stout. I would love to toast my father’s memory in a real Irish pub with a pint of stout over some genuine pub grub. Traveling with my family as a kid was bad enough but it would be a nightmare as an adult. I want to explore things on my own and then invite the family to come over to watch the photos on the big screen TV when I get home.
Today the temperature reached 80 degrees and the stubborn pile of snow in the parking lot has finally disappeared. Rain is forecast for tonight, tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
March 17, 2015 at 10:32 pm
Bob,
My father passed away on the 14th of March 22 years ago. We put a green carnation on his label when he was waked because he loved St. Patrick’s Day. He wasn’t the chef for the day but he was the best enjoyer of the meal. He yummed a whole lot.
I bought plenty of Guinness for dinner. Though I don’t drink it, I know my guests do. I toured the factory in Dublin but didn’t taste it. My traveling companion was more than happy to have mine.
We had 15 minutes of sun, a pounding rain for about an hour and temperatures in the low forties. It is now below freezing. All of this was in one day. I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind.
Glad you’re getting some more rain.
March 18, 2015 at 12:12 am
My father didn’t want a funeral but willed his body to the medical school. He told me that after he died he wouldn’t need his body any longer and wanted medical students to learn from his remains and he hated the idea of us giving any of his money to the funeral industry.
March 18, 2015 at 11:20 am
Bob,
My dad had the best funeral mass. People laughed and people cried. My dad was well-liked by everybody.
March 18, 2015 at 10:57 am
Thanks for the e-card. We were at Lisa’s last night for corned beef and cabbage (with potatoes). Hmmmm. yesterday was my grandmother’s birthday. She would be about 130 years old by now.
Francisca called and said she would be here on Sat.
March 18, 2015 at 11:18 am
Bill,
You are very welcome.
My dinner is tonight, and I’m about to make the dessert. We’re having mint chocolate pudding with minted green whipped cream. I have my flow chart for the dinner and my table is already set.
I hope you have a good time with Franciska.