St Paddy's Day Feast & A Special Birthday

Yes I realize this is over a week old and overdue, I've been busy at work and no time to blog! I have tried to get better at cooking more now that I'm feeling more human and not on barf-patrol (sorry too much info!). St. Patrick's Day is always a fun day for me, I love all the celebrations, the green everything and most of all it's my Grandma's Birthday. This year was a tough one for me, very tough, as she passed away earlier this month and didn't get to make it to what would have been her 80th birthday.

 So I celebrated for her. I made Corned Beef and Cabbage and a green lemon birthday cake with green lemon frosting! If anyone knows much about me, it's that I'm not a huge meat person, and especially when it comes to Corned Beef and Cabbage I've never been a fan. I think as I'm growing up (or just getting older!) I'm coming to try new things and like more varieties. So for me to MAKE Corned Beef and Cabbage in my house, that is a HUGE step. I remember my Grams always making corned beef and cabbage a couple times and how badly the house stunk when you walk in. Yuck! I can say when I made it this year, for the first time ever, it didn't stink quite as bad. I think one special ingredient helped with that (Thanks to my cousin D'anne for suggesting it). And I made a green cake with green frosting for Grams' birthday. The cake mix was from a box, lemon flavored. I made the frosting by scratch, which didn't turn out very good. It was more a consistency of icing, practice I suppose. I made the frosting green and lemon flavored. I kind of thought it would be too much lemon but it turned out great!! I've never layered a cake before either, which will take practice but hey it turned out pretty good.

So Happy Birthday Grams! I love you and miss you so much.

All in the crock pot and ready to cook! Layered: potatoes, carrots, onion, corned beef, seasonings, garlic and cabbage. Man it's a good thing I have a large crock pot! Oh and 2 cups water and 3 cups apple juice {SECRET INGREDIENT}. This helped the "juice" or broth be so flavorful and I think it helped tenderize the meat and take away the stink, yahoo!

This was so good, tasted amazing and was a great dish to finally make for my first time on St. Patrick's Day.

Next, on to the cake!

The cake doesn't look very green but it was pretty green. Man it tasted good! Our celebration was just Josh, Lucy and I (well and baby Dewey!). Happy Birthday Grams, we love you!