However, I did want to do something special in honor of St. Patrick! My mother is big into St. Patrick's Day. Every year, we all gather for corned beef, cabbage, soda bread, Bailey's cake and assorted other desserts. Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mother's passion or her talent in the kitchen. Since we celebrated St. Joseph Day at church last Saturday and St. Patrick Day with my family on Sunday, I moved our celebration to this past Saturday night.
I went the more simple route. GFS had some shamrock cookies on clearance at GFS. I brought three boxes and froze two for our Women's Club bake sale. I had read on Facebook about someone making a Shepard's pie and it sounded like it was my speed. I found a great recipes here for a Guinness cottage pie recipe. I can't imagine my husband's taste buds dealing with lamb and I don't like simply because my dad hates it. So, beef it was! The Guinness worked wonderfully as we had plenty left over from Mom's party, although she did give me a look when I stuffed four bottles in John's diaper bag (two for the pie, two for me).
The ingredients are simple and cheap. I remember our Assistant Director once telling me that no matter how bad of a cook you are, just saute an onion and your kitchen will smell amazing. Boy, was he right!
Here are some pictures:
We ended up pairing the pie with the last of my mom's soda bread made without raisins because I hate them. It's from an old, secret family recipe carried down from the old country. Who am I kidding? Grandma got it out of the Chicago Tribune sometime during the 60s!
Overall, it was a success. John had half a plate, which is unusual for him. We gobbled it up quite nicely as well. It was very flavorful even today when I had some leftovers for my lunch at work. Johnny is totally obsessed with the cookies. We were upstairs and he insisted on going downstairs only to grab the bag Tim left on the couch and gobbling a few up.
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