Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

This is the week everyone in our community looks forward to during Lent.  A sort of break in the rigorous fasting and abstinence, you might say.  First there's St. Patrick's day, then St. Joseph's, St. Benedict's, and finally the feast of the Annunciation; all very big feasts for us.  I've been rather busy for the past few days planning our annual St. Patrick's Day Party so I was unable to publish my usual "Sweetsome Sundays" post. Instead, here are some pictures from the party, and a recipe for the delicious corned beef my mom made...

I decorated the house with sparkly shamrocks and green and white tulle the day before and put together a couple of apple pies ( this was slightly impromptu...our cooler started freezing everything inside last Sunday, so we had an excess of green apples that needed to be used up as quickly as possible =)) so they'd be ready to put in the oven on the day of the party.  The apple slices were slightly mushy, but it worked great for the pie and no one knew the difference.

We FINALLY got our very own St Patrick statue...

The day of the party we got up early to go to low Mass at the Abbey...when we got back home we started baking, cleaning, touching up the decorations, and making guacamole.

Everyone brought a dessert and a side dish...there was so much food one of the little boys just stood staring at the table with his mouth open for several minutes.

We had a rather diverse age range of youth attending-from one years old to twenty-three, and everyone was able to mingle and have fun together.

Of course the punch was very popular...

After dinner we all headed outside to jump on the trampoline and play Frisbee.  Some of the dads even joined in and we played until it was too dark to see the frisbees anymore.  Then me and some friends went to the barn for an incredibly competitive game of pool...those not playing separated into teams and cheered the players on.  Everyone said they had a wonderful time and the younger kids all wanted to know if we could do it again next week.  There were several injuries sustained by one of the younger boys including a bloody nose, several whacks on the head from the frisbee, a sore neck from being throttled by his brother during a wrestling match, a burn on his hand from sliding across the trampoline, and several bruises from two other boys falling on top of him, but he was a real champ about it and was reasonably consoled by a bowl of ice cream. =)

Corned Beef

We bought our meat ready to cook from Whole Foods...I found instructions online for starting at the very beginning of the process, but it was way to complicated for me to do in the amount of time I had. =)

You Will Need:

A cast iron pot with a lid

Filtered water

Ready to cook Corned Beef

Preheat oven to 275 Fahrenheit.  Place meat in cast iron pot and put in oven.  Cook for six hours.  When done, remove and slice.  The meat may look under cooked, but trust me, it's done.  This is delicious right out of the oven, or cold the next day.  Enjoy!

How Was Your St. Patrick's Day?