St. Patrick's Day

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all whether you're Irish or not.  My Mom's side of the family provides the Irish for me.  She was born a Kennedy, alas a poor one, her mother was an Anderson, also an Irish name thanks to Viking invaders, and her mother was a Finn, her father having been Michael Finn an immigrant from Ireland via Liverpool around 1857.
So to pay homage to them, and because my husband loves it, I'm cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage in the crock pot today.  Mac asked it I was putting potatoes in too, I laughed, "It's Irish food I'm cooking isn't it, so of course there's potatoes in it."
I remember visiting Ireland back in the 90's and being served potatoes at every meal and sometimes 2 different types of potatoes at one meal, did my heart good.
Mac was wondering what the Irish ate before the discovery of the New World and the importation of potatoes to Ireland, anyone know?
Mac made me the hat on the left as  St. Patrick's Day gift, he made it out of a flower pot.  I asked him where he got the idea and he said Pinterest, oh dear, even he's hooked now.
I was reading a blog today, Sightings Over Sixty,  and the writer was talking about snakes in Ireland; he was like me and thought that St. Patrick had driven them all out.  Well it seems that times have changed and people in the   Celtic Boom years of the 1990's and early 2000's people thought it was cool to buy snakes as pets.  Then when times got tough and it was expensive to feed them they took them out to the countryside and let them go.  They've thrived in the wet, mild winters and they've found a 16 foot python in Westmeath.   I knew Florida had a problem with pythons, but Ireland?  Where is St. Paddy when you need him.