As a child St. Patrick's Day was nothing more than Green Day. I didn't know that people outside of the bubble I grew up in were dancing in the streets, floating on green rivers, eating corned beef and cabbage and drinking green beer. I didn't know that St. Patrick is revered in Ireland for driving all of the snakes out into the sea. I mean that alone is enough for me to celebrate his day. Of course, I grew up in Mormon land, we didn't talk much about the Catholics or their traditions.
So about five years ago when Mr. T and I moved to our little corner of Montana we discovered just what we've been missing. Butte and Anaconda are full of Irish Catholics. They take St. Patty's day very, very seriously. Which is a good thing they hold parades and it doesn't matter what the weather's like. AND all the restaurants (which throughout the year have crappy food) serve the BEST corned beef and cabbage in many, many variations. And here is a little known fact (little known to me anyway) boiled cabbage is so yummy! I could eat two heads of it myself. I can't believe I missed out on this for so much of my life.
I stole this photo, but it looks very similar to what we had for dinner yesterday. And I'm proud to say I fixed it all myself. It's another super easy meal. Buy prepared beef, boil for 1 hour per pound. Last hour add cut up carrots, potatoes and CABBAGE! Tadah! I could eat this every day of my life!
And one last funny fact. The Irish didn't even come up with the corned beef deal. It was the Jews. The American Irish totally stole their idea, threw on a green shirt ate the feast, drank the green beer and danced in the street! How can that be a bad thing?
