Yesterday was St. Patricks's Day, and in my house that means it gets celebrated. Some of our ancestors were Irish - and English, Scot, Lord knows what else - but that's not the only reason it's a major day around here.
My parents were introduced to each other at a party on St. Patrick's Day 1956. Less than a year later, in February 1957, they were married, at the old First Baptist Church in Atlanta.
When I was a kid, St. Patrick's Day meant we were having corned beef and cabbage for dinner.
I HATED corned beef. Hated it with a passion. Hated even the smell of it. Wrote a poem about how much I hated it, which was published in the team newspaper I edited. The first line went something like: "I don't like corned beef / Indeed I do not / I think it is comparable to pig slops that have rot..."
Sadly, the rest of the poem is lost in time, a literary masterpiece that didn't survive one of the many moves...
I must also note, I now like corned beef, cooked the way we like it, in a crock pot with a lot of wine and garlic.
My mother is an excellent cook. However, boiled cabbage and corned beef were my least favorite things she cooked. On those nights I only ate what I had to, to survive, and if there was cornbread that was the main meal for me. (She has always made wonderful cornbread, even before discovering Lewis Grizzrd's mama's cornbread, which includes mayonnaise...)
Last night's dinner was the new St. Pat's Day dinner. After reading a bunch of recipes for Irish food online, I decided to just fix what we like, and not worry too much about authenticity.
I found some beautiful pieces of salmon at Publix, and poached them in a mixture of white wine, water, fresh lemon juice, and dill. I also made a sauce which was delectable - mayo, fresh lemon juice, and dill. Yes, it's the flavors are a little repetetive, but the sauce was wonderful.
I also had Michael run to the store and buy a bag of real potatoes. Not pre-made mashed potatoes. Nope. I peeled and diced them, boiled them, and added a lot of butter and sour cream, and some garlic salt. I must also point out that the potato has always been a staple of Irish cuisine.
For the green, we had roasted asparagus, and a lemon pie. It's the lemon pie made with a can of condensed milk and fresh lemon juice and egg yolks. I added a drop of green food coloring - which initially horrified Michael until I explained that food coloring has no taste. He ate two pieces..
So our dinner wasn't the usual, and the potatoes were a bit of trouble, but everything was really good, and I got a lot of compliments from Mom and Michael. Well, Mike wasn't effusive, but watching him eat with great gusto, big portions... that told me all I needed to know.
Because Elva and Tony met on St. Patrick's Day 1956, they got married and started procreating, and I came along in 1962. I adopted Michael in 2007and we added Lola to the family in 2013. So we all owe our little family to St. Patrick...
