Irish Supper Menu

Royal Tara Irish Bone China

I'm half Irish. We Irish are a proud bunch. We may have been in the States for hundreds of years, but still our idea of a dream vacation is to head to the "Mother Country" and kiss the Blarney stone. And we very much like the fact that we have our very own holiday.

Growing up, my family didn't have the traditional green supper. We'd often have green cake or some such thing and of course, the traditional wearin' o' the green, but I didn't start celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a specific meal until 2008.

St. Patrick's Day is rather bitter-sweet for me in many ways.  In 2003, it was the date of my D&C after my second miscarriage.  In 2007, it was exactly a month after Dad's death (where my Irish blood comes from).

In 2008, it was the first meal I cooked following my daughter Emily's death 5 weeks earlier.


picture from our 2008 Green Supper

You might ask:

Why would I choose to make my first meal back in the kitchen following Emmy's death an Irish Supper?  

For the same reason we started a Jesse Tree that year.  I felt we needed new memories and new traditions.  So much of what we celebrated before was edged in pain because "last time" Emmy was with us. (this fact is precisely the reason I encourage friends of grieving parents to offer memberships to museums and such after a child's death--it is something new and different.)

That said, our supper was still painful, just not *as* painful as it would have been had it been something we did *before* Emmy died.

That first supper was prepared using an e-book from Urban Homemaker.  However, I don't think she sells it anymore.  Besides, I don't do things the same way anymore.  And this year, since we'll be sharing our Irish Supper with several other families, I thought I'd share it with you too!

photo credit

Corned Beef & Cabbage
Throw it in the crock pot...end of story.
{OK, maybe there's a little more to the story, but suffice it to say, I refuse to slave over corned beef when my crock pot can do it for me...}

Start in the morning with the corned beef on low.
Add the cabbage at lunch time.
Serve for supper on a large platter.

(If you want, you can add onion, garlic, cloves, and bay leaves for seasoning.  Corned beef often continues to have a pinkish tint to it even when it is completely done.  It's ok, trust me.)

*****

 photo credit - ignore the kielbasa ;)

Colcannon
You can do this recipe in addition to or instead of the cabbage in the crock.

1 head cabbage, shredded
4 leeks, chopped or 2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick butter
10 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced

In a heavy saucepan, put butter, cabbage, onions, & garlic.  Stir & cook over medium heat.  Don't brown!

In a separate pan, boil potatoes until soft.  Drain, reserving enough liquid to mash potatoes to a soft consistency.

Combine all.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve heaped up into a mound with a well in the center for more butter or sprinkle colby cheese over top and put into a preheated oven until cheese melts.
Serves 6-8

*****

photo credit

Irish Soda Bread
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. raisins
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 egg
about 1/2 c. buttermilk (you can use milk)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Cut butter into dry ingredients using a fork or pastry blender.  Mixture should resemble course meal.  Add the raisins and caraway seeds.

Break the egg into a 3/4 measuring cup and then add enough buttermilk to fill the cup.  Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly blended.

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead.  Then, split the dough into several small rounds of the same size.  Make a cross on top of each round with a knife and drizzle melted butter on top.  Sprinkle sugar on top.

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake until golden brown (approx 30 mins).
This bread can double as side dish and dessert if you like.

*****

Dessert
I'm not picky here.  If it's green, I'm good.  So, you can do:
cupcakes with green frosting
green frosted cake
sugar cookies with green sprinkles
mint chocolate chip ice cream
or whatever your little Irish heart desires!

*****

So, March 17th will find me at a friend's house planting potatoes (we're doing a corporate garden this year) and eating our Irish Supper!  What will you be doing?

Large Family Birthdays

I'm going to take a break from the scheduling posts for just a bit, but I promise I will get back to them soon!

We recently celebrated another birthday and it made me stop to ponder how very different birthdays look from when we first started celebrating birthdays around here.

I hesitated to call this post "Large Family Birthdays" because we stopped doing traditional birthday parties long before we had a large family.  However, I have to admit, we adopted a "large family mentality" about the same time and I wonder if that partly helped to make our decision.

So, let me give you a taste of what birthdays USED TO look like:

A room full of people
Tons of children (not my own)
Gifts being discarded within seconds of being opened
Very few decent birthday pictures because of the chaos
Tons of money spent on birthday extras that were really just a way to "keep up with the Joneses"
Exhausted parents & cranky children

Now, I know some of you LOVE the birthday party atmosphere, but for our family, it just wasn't working.  And as our family grew, all we could envision was more and more chaos on more and more days of the year.

So, we ditched it all.

The day of the child's birthday, they are exempt from school and chores.  They choose what we eat and most of the activities we participate in that day.  We open presents as a family and usually eat ice cream cake.

Someday during the birthday week, grandparents come for a visit with more cake and their presents.  There is always a special cake made by Granny to the child's specifications.  (The cake in the picture is my horse-loving daughter's special cake.)  The grandparents get the joy of seeing the children open their gifts without the frenzy of a million children and a million gifts.

Ocassionally, there are special outings with one friend and one friend only.  A few years ago we experimented with having 2 friends and it was not good.  Someone was always left out.

We also do half-sleepovers where the one friend gets to stay at our house until midnight or 12:30.  The kids LOVE this!  We do not do full sleepovers at all.

The celebrations include the entire family which teaches humility and sharing for the birthday child and patience and servanthood for the other children.  Everyone definitely knows who the birthday child is, but the birthday child is encouraged to be considerate of his or her siblings.  Celebrations are calm, but fun.  There are pictures galore and they are really, really good ones.  Presents are kept under control, and I never feel the stress of needing to put on a gala affair.

And that, my friends, Works for Me! (to read all sorts of other tips and trick from other bloggers, click the link!)

It Was a Happy New Year Indeed

Last year, I rang in the New Year by having a baby.

2010 was spent watching him grow.

And yesterday he turned 1!

He's walking (but still prefers to crawl).  He "reads" as he thumbs through books (yep, we're raising another one!)  He slept through the night last night and the night before! (now, that's a record!)  And he's gorgeous...breathtakingly, heart-sighing, makes-me-want-to-cry-tears-of-joy gorgeous!

So, how did New Year's go for you?  (I'll be honest with you...I'm getting old...ringing in the New Year was WAY more about the kids!  I was just the clock-watcher...wondering how long before I could put them to bed!)

Christmas Reflections

For most, the celebrations are over and decorations are quickly finding their way back into storage tubs.  Not for us.

Having lived in a Swedish community for several years where Christmas decorations were not removed until January 13th on King Knut's Day, we adopted a later set-strike for the Christmas decor.  I want to savor it for as long as I can.

Espeically this year.

This Christmas season I made some poor choices until it was nearly too late.  I chose to become preoccupied for the first time in ...well, forever.

I've never understood those who speak of wildy-busy holidays that they find totally overwhelming.  I've always enjoyed everything about Christmastime.  But this year, things were different.

This year, I lost my focus.

The realization of that lost focus was a major contributor to me posting my 2009 Review and taking off for a while.  I needed to figure out what had happened and how to get back the focus I had lost.

I know I said "until next year", but all it took was a couple of days to reach an understanding.  And what I realized needed to be shared here.

I lost my balance.  Not the kind that causes you to fall off the balance beam in 4th grade gym class, but the kind that leaves you clinging to the sides of life petrified that the white-knuckled grip you hold won't last long.

I was "getting by" and things were still getting done, but I wasn't really enjoying any of it.  I was beginning to feel as if lots of other things "owned" me and my time, but all I really wanted to do was sit still and soak in the season.

This Christmas was spent at home.  On purpose.

We were snowed in to boot.  Perfect timing.

The blog was on auto-pilot and I had nowhere to be and nothing to do but enjoy my husband and children and RE-focus on my Savior's birth.

So, I leave you with a few pics from the quiver.  I pray your Christmas was blessed...

and focused!

 

 

Travel Games...Without Pieces

photo courtesy of kevinzim

'Tis the season for traveling!  In fact, the last couple of days I've logged quite a bit of Windshield Time with my awesome husband and cute-as-a-button kids.  

Before we started driving a 15 passenger van, we found more often than not our precious little ones had managed to drag the entire contents of their rooms into the minivan.  Not cool when you have children packed in like sardines with no elbow room in a van that is piled to the ceiling with junk, beloved toys.

When the 15 passenger came home I knew something had to change or else we'd end up with not just the contents of their rooms in the van, but the contents of the rest of the house in the van.  I just couldn't hack the clutter.  So, I made a rule...

No more than 2 items per child in the van at any given time.

That equals 10 items...plenty to keep 'em busy, right?

To be honest, there are still times when they need something to do.  So, in the spirit of eradicating boredom, our family invented a myriad of travel games ...all without pieces!  (I do so love games without pieces!)

My kids and I spent some windshield time the other day brainstorming all our games, so here is the list:

• ABC - Find all the letters of the alphabet along the road.  This is a cooperative game where all the players search out billboards, license plates, restaurants, street signs, etc in the hopes of finding every single letter (no skipping or giving up allowed!) before reaching their destination.

• I Spy - Good old-fashioned game of "I Spy with my little eye something...orange."  Other players guess until someone discovers the answer.

• Last Letter-First Letter - Start the game with any word.  The last letter of that word is then used to begin the next word from the next player.  So, if CAT is the word, the next player has to start a word with "T".  If TURTLE is the word, then the next player has to begin their word with "E" and so and so forth.

• Color/Shape Hunt - Pick a color or a shape (or both!) and work together to find as many things along the road that shape and/or color.

• 20 Questions - One player thinks of an object and the rest of the players ask Yes or No questions until someone guesses the object correctly.

• Spell a Word - Similar to ABC, except you pick a word and then try to find the letters in that word in order.

• Penny Hawks - This game started in an act of desperation (too many voices in too small of a space!) and has become one of the kids' favorite games (probably because they get paid!)  The older kids get a penny (up to ten cents) for each hawk they spot.  The little kids just get a penny per bird of any kind.  You can choose any bird or landmark...make it hard if you're not in the mood to pay out!

• Rhyming Game - Mom or Dad pick a word and everyone takes turns coming up with a word that rhymes.  I say Mom and Dad pick out the word because inevitably if left up to a child to choose, he or she will want to have everyone rhyme with something like "hippopotamus".

• Spelling Bee - Just what it says it is.  Pick a word...have them spell it.  Great way for you homeschoolers to work in a little car-schooling!

•  Stories with Holes (also known as Lateral Thinking Puzzles) - A favorite of mine!  But beware, these are tough!  We have several books of these that we sometimes take along on trips, but I also have a few memorized as well.  One person gives the scenario and everyone else asks Yes or No questions until someone solves these sometimes outrageous brain-teasers.  Riddles can also be a good way to pass the time.  If you get good enough, you can make up your own.
  

Now, gather up your family, jump in the car, and play some games this busy travel season!

If you'd like to know what I pack for our family day trips, just click on the link!  And perhaps you are interested in how those of us sportin' 15 passenger vans organize the thing...read how Peace Creek mama does it.  Take the stress out of traveling this holiday season and enjoy the memories!

Frugal Gift Wrapping

We'd all like to save money this holiday season.  Why not save it in the way you wrap your gifts?  Here are a few of my favorite frugal gift wrapping ideas...

1.  Save Boxes & Bags

Our recycling plan includes both corrugated cardboard and paperboard, so I have quite a few boxes on hand at any given time.  However, there are some select shapes and sizes I do not send to recycling because they are the right size for wrapping up presents.  These I break down and keep in the garage.  When they are broken down, they take up very little space and can easily be reassembled.

When you receive a gift in a gift bag, keep the gift bag for using again if it is still in good shape.  Which brings me to my next idea...

2.  Have a Gift Wrapping Storage Container

In our basement I keep a tub with all those saved bags, ribbon, and tissue paper, small boxes, and any other items I think might come in handy for dressing up gifts (beads, small flowers, etc).  This keeps everything neat and tidy and in easy reach when I need to quickly throw together a gift.

I also keep a Christmas wrapping box that is long and accommodates rolls of wrapping paper.  Included in that box are tape, scissors, and a pen.  That way I can just grab the box when I'm ready to wrap presents instead of hunting for all sorts of paraphernalia.

3.  Buy on Sale
After the holidays you can find some great deals on wrapping paper.  I've also had good luck with finding brand new rolls of wrapping paper at thrift stores!  Make sure the price is good and buy it up.  You'll thank yourself later.

4.  Let the Store Wrap It...IF it's free
Some stores do gift wrapping for free and often on weekends you can find ministry groups in the malls wrapping presents for free.  Don't hesitate to use this service.  They want you to.  In fact, this year especially, more and more stores are offering free gift wrapping services in order to entice shoppers.  Be aware, however, that often the free wrapping offer is only on certain dates and usually only on weekends.

5.  Have a Gift Wrapping Party
Why not pool resources?  I've got some great wrapping paper but no ribbon.  You've got a great supply of ribbon but are lacking in gift bags.  If your home is anything like ours, gift-wrapping is something done by mama in the middle of the night.  Why not get together with friends and make it something fun...and frugal!

6.  Get Creative.
Gift wrapping doesn't have to be the traditional paper with cutesy snowmen on it.  Think outside the box and try a few of these ideas:

• Newspaper - wrap your gifts in newspaper (the comics section if you want some nice color)

• Paper bags & raffia - cut along the "seams" of your paper bag and then wrap the gift, making sure any markings on the bag are to the inside.  The rustic charm of brown paper is always lovely when coupled with the inexpensive beauty of raffia.

• Embellish trash bags -  Have a large gift you need a sack for?  Rather than go out and purchase one of those large gift bags, try embellishing a trash bag from home.  Cut snowflakes from paper or coffee filters and tape to a black or white bag.  Paint stripes or designs on the bags or leave plain and add a decorative ribbon or tie to the top.  The bonus of this idea is that come Christmas morning you have a ready-made place to stuff all the trash!
  

• Make your own bows - This is my favorite suggestion the holiday season (and my new found obsession!)  The kids and I spent one afternoon making bow after bow after bow from this tutorial, originally found on Money Saving Mom.  The results are stunning!
  

• Wrap with fabric - I have a friend who keeps a piece of lovely material on hand for the sole purpose of wrapping gifts with it.  In fact, that piece of material has been everything from a table cloth to a make-shift skirt!  All you have to do is cut a piece of material the right size and wrap as normal, pinning with safety pins as you go.  Add whatever extras you'd like and you have a wonderfully unique package!
  

Do you have a creative way to wrap gifts that doesn't cost a lot of money?  Share it here!  I'd love to hear about ways you cut corners in the gift wrapping department!  (Be sure to read through the comments section...readers have left some great ideas!)

This post is linked to:

Cranberry Walnut Jelly

A delightful holiday spread 
and wonderfully delicious gift!

Cranberry Walnut Jelly
5 c. cranberries
2 c. water
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 box Pectin (or 6 Tbsp if bought in bulk)

Wash your jars in hot soapy water, rinse well.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and place in warmed oven. (this dries them and protects them from contaminants)

Place cranberries and water in a large pan.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.







Stir in walnuts.  Stir in pectin.  Measure sugar into a separate bowl and set aside.

Bring to a rolling boil while stirring constantly.  Quickly stir in all the sugar. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Skim off any foam with a metal spoon (I didn't have any).

Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. *Invert jars 5 minutes, then turn upright. After jars are cool, check seals. *OR follow water bath method recommended by USDA.

See how simple that was? 

And the taste...oh honey, you'll just have to make some and try it for yourself!

Traditions

When you have children, doing something one time makes it a tradition.  You know how it is...

"But Mom!  We ALWAYS eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!"

When it comes to the holidays, it isn't just the children who feel a sense of tradition.  We adults feel it too.  There are certain things that just are.  Don't mess with them.

Granny ALWAYS makes the stuffing.  We ALWAYS use the leftover turkey and rolls for sandwiches Thanksgiving night.  We ALWAYS put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.

The boys ALWAYS string the lights.

We ALWAYS put tinsel on the tree (because Ty's Granny ALWAYS put tinsel on her tree)

Daddy ALWAYS puts the tree topper on while everyone ooohs and aaahs.

We ALWAYS get out the Playmobil Nativity Set.

We ALWAYS train the new baby in the house not to touch the tree and reward him with toys on the floor near the tree that are just his own.

 And we ALWAYS play Christmas music while we decorate (and every day after that).

Tradition is so much a part of the holidays that we can easily become discouraged when traditions fail to happen at their regularly scheduled time or fail to happen at all. We feel as though something just isn't quite right. We may even feel like everything is ruined if certain traditions don't happen.

Ever wonder if Mary, all those many years ago, dreamed of having a normal, perfect birth with her midwife and the women of the family surrounding her in her home with all the things she would need for her first child right there clean and ready?  I'm sure there were traditions among the Jewish women surrounding childbirth that Mary assumed would be a part of her birth experience.  Yet, I am sure when she embraced her precious son, all those expectations melted away and any frustration she may have felt about being drug halfway across the country on donkey-back only to find herself birthing in a barn disappeared.

Traditions are not what this time of year is all about.  Yes, they make things special and yes, we enjoy them, but don't let the practicing of traditions become the be-all-end-all of Christmas.  Don't let the likely chance that something will change this year ruin your holiday season.  Embrace what you are given.  Embrace the Son.

This post is linked to:

A Blessed Thanksgiving to All of You!

From our home to yours, 

May you enjoy the beauty and blessing of God's mercy and love during this holiday.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God,
and the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it:
And His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture
And the sheep of His hand.
Psalm 95:2-7a

How to Make a Grapevine Wreath

As a child, I used to follow my mother deep into the woods near our lake cabin and harvest long strands of grapevine. Our feet would crunch deliciously on the leaves underfoot as we drug those vines back to our home in the cool autumn air. A few weeks later, those vines would become beautiful wreaths for the holiday decorating.

Decorating with grapevine is a beautiful, natural way to decorate your home during any season, but for the holiday season, it just seems perfect.

When we lived in the house with the nice front porch, I would go into those same childhood woods and harvest from the same trees my mother and I harvested from. I would take those vines and thread them over and around the railings on my porch in large frolicking loops. With golden garland to shine in the daytime and twinkling Christmas lights to shine at night, I created a festive atmosphere from grapevine that didn't cost me a dime.

Grapevine grows wild just about anywhere, but it is rather fond of evergreen trees. The picture at the top of this post was taken next to our lake cabin (note the characteristic leaves for those of you worried about accidentally making a poison ivy wreath--don't laugh, I know someone who did just that!). I also found a goodly amount of grapevine growing wild on my chain-link fence right here in the city!


I carefully pulled the long strands from the fence and laid the vine out on the ground. This time of year is good for harvesting grapevine because it is still fairly pliable. If you wait much longer, you won't be able to get a tight wreath from it. However, if you are going to use it the way I did for my porch, you can harvest well into November.


Next, I plucked all the leaves off the vine, which my daughter gathered into a lovely bouquet.


After the vine was stripped of its leaves, I wrapped it over and over again in a circular shape to create my wreath. As you can see here, I only had a small amount, but I'm using mine as decoration for a candle. If you are going to make a wreath, you will need as much as it takes to create the thickness you desire.

I took my "wreath" inside and let it dry in that shape for about 2 weeks. It turned brown and became stiffer, holding it's shape quite nicely.

I'm not going to give you concrete examples of what you can do with your grapevine other than the few ideas I've offered here because really the possibilities are limitless and your imagination is the best guide of what you can do with this lovely bit of nature. In fact, even if you do nothing but add a candle or put a bit of ribbon around it to hang outside your door, there is something elegant in its simplicity. One of God's little creations that makes me smile.

Want to see other Do-It-Yourself Fall Projects?
Click here: