Photo by Dexie Wharton

“Why, you just slice it across the grain!”

Umm…yeah. That helped. You’ll just go…umm…Right. Well.

Actually, it isn’t that hard to find the grain of the meat. After it is cooked, look at the side with the least fat. You should see long lines running through it. Ah, the grain! So, don’t cut the way the lines, which are muscles, are running. Instead, cut the other way, which is straight across the lines.

Still not sure you’re doing it right? Just make your best guess and cut a thin slice. If it is long and stringy and falls all apart, just eat it and then cut the rest of the meat the other way. Unless you break down and cry about the ruined slice so loudly that your dinner guests hear you, they’ll never know you messed up that first slice.

Post from: Blisstree

How to Cut Corned Beef

Re-using materials has always been fun in our family.  I grew up in an era when there wasn’t lots of extra money for craft supplies.  So my siblings and I created with used materials from around the house and out-of-doors.  I also did crafting with my daughter using “found” items.

Image: sxc.hu

“Green” crafts for St. Patrick’s Day:

• Cut shamrock from green wrapping and construction paper saved from previous projects.  (Families can keep a paper recycling bin or box like we do at many schools.) Make these shamrocks into place cards for the table, connect them for shamrock chains, paste them to a larger sheet of paper for a collage.
• Make leprechaun houses from “found” items, such as twigs, leaves, paper, string and stones.  (Some people call these fairy houses.)
• Save cards…greeting cards, postcards, holiday cards.  Youngsters can have such fun making their own cards, collages, mobiles, and more by cutting images from the cards.  If you have any old cards with St. Patrick’s Day designs, they’re very appropriate for this celebration.

What do you do for “green” crafts? We called it being creative with what we had on hand, when I was a youngster.  Or stretching our budget when my daughter was young and I didn’t have money for new craft materials.

Today we’re being “green.”

Post from: Blisstree

“Green” Crafts for Kids

While I make my family a traditional Irish dinner on March 17th, I also try and do some things that fall within the “spirit” of St. Patrick’s Day. For example:
Send St. Patrick’s Day Cards
Forget Valentine’s Day! Send your loved ones a St. Patty’s day card to let them know you care. There are some funny ones and also a few with a serious message. My favorites ones carry the traditional Irish saying:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Send Your Favorite Blogger an Email
Is there a blog you enjoy reading? Why not look up your favorite blogger and send him or her some good wishes?

Review Your Favorite Book
People are more likely to post a review when they don’t like a written work. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, pull up your favorite book on Amazon and give it a great review. The author will certainly appreciate it, along with anyone else interested in buying the book.

Call Up an Old Friend
Before Facebook and Twitter, there was the telephone. Nothing replaces the sound of a friend calling to say hello.

Give Flowers to Your Neighbor
Have a cranky person living next door? Maybe some flowers will cheer him or her up. Pick up some inexpensive green carnations with a note that tells them to have a great day.

Pray for Someone
People often say they will pray for someone struggling, but this St. Patrick’s Day, be sure to keep that promise.

These are just a few unconventional ways to bring a little Irish cheer into your day. Do you have others? Share with us here!

Image: www.sxc.hu.

Post from: Blisstree

Unconventional Ways to Celebrate March 17th

We always made St. Patrick’s Day a special occasion when I was a youngster because the hired man, Dan Sullivan, was Irish.  He wore a tiny green bow on his work cap.  It was a game which one of us children spied the bow first when Dan and my dad came from the barn for breakfast.

St. Patrick's Day Dinner - Image: istockphoto

(Dan worked for my dad on the farm and was a surrogate grandfather for us children.  He took his meals with us and rented a room from a neighbor.)

Mother cooked corned beef and cabbage, with boiled potatoes, onions and carrots, one of Dan’s favorite meals.  Often Mother baked a cake and colored the icing green.

She had a close friend, Aunt Pat, whose maiden name was Kirkpatrick.  Pat always sent us cards on this holiday.  When these friends were in their 80s, Pat still sent a St. Patrick’s Day card, even when she didn’t mail one for other holidays.

When I was substitute teaching the other day in kindergarten, the teacher’s plans called for me to read a story about leprechauns, to use coloring and counting sheets with a St. Patrick’s Day theme, and to discuss the holiday during circle time.

Do you have any St. Patrick’s Day traditions your children will remember?

Post from: Blisstree

St. Patrick’s Day Family Traditions

Photo by K Thomas

Our little zoo is just the right size for a trip with young children and has a really nice picnic and play area attached. I don’t know if the kids had more fun visiting the animals or climbing on the play equipment, but I know I had fun seeing some of the animals up close.

We saw some baby goats, but if you wait a bit longer and go to the zoo for Easter or spring break, you may be able to see some more exotic  babies, like gibbons or wombats. (If you can’t wait to get a baby zoo animal fix, check out ZooBorns. These guys are soo cute.)

Don’t forget to check to see if your zoo has any spring time specials. Our local zoo doesn’t, but the Maryland Zoo at Baltimore is having a grand opening special today and tomorrow where admission is only $7 for kids and adults. Other zoos do egg hunts during the Easter holiday.

Photo by K. Thomas

Photo by K. Thomas

Photo by K. Thomas

Photo by K. Thomas

Photo by K. Thomas

Post from: Blisstree

Springtime at the Zoo

Any Excuse Will Do…

A newcomer lady was concerned the other night about having a difficult time staying away from the first drink on St. Patrick’s Day here in Savannah. We have the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. After the parade there will be approximately 300,000 people gathered together on River St. downtown primarily for the purpose of getting trashed on alcohol. It’s a beerfest.

Funny, but coming from New York where the first largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held, I couldn’t help but remember that any excuse to drink would do when I was drinking. TGIF. New job. Wedding. Funeral. Got fired. No Sex. Wrong kind of sex. Dirty diapers. Money. Bills. Football game. Baseball Game. Basketball game. July 4th. New Years. Stress. To relax. Christmas. Easter. You ignored me. You yelled at me. You disagreed with me. Too hot out. Too cold out. Picnic. Christening. Anniversary. Barbeque. Power went out. Washing machine broke. Dishwasher broke. St. Patrick’s Day was just another day when the beer drinkers drank green beer and found themselves in the bathroom a lot, losing time from their drinking. I had long since passed that “silliness.”

You get the idea, right? If an alky really, truly, wants to drink we’re going to drink. It would certainly help if we stayed away from places like River St. in Savannah, Ga., on St. Patrick’s Day night because it is hard to imagine a legitimate reason for being there other than drinking on that night, unless, of course, you’re a policeman ready to fill up the paddy wagon.

How important would it be to not be at this one – your first time trying to get sober? Well, it could be your life, no? How many of us throughout our lives can recall reading the Sunday or Monday morning papers with their announcements of the alcohol related arrests, accidents, and deaths? We’ll find out that alcohol won some battles over this coming weekend, for sure.

Any day an alcoholic doesn’t drink is a victory over death!

I wonder how many other places there are besides the bars downtown where someone who really wanted to drink could find alcohol. Hundreds? No doubt, at least. Many will likely stay home, watch the parade on their TV while “sipping” a cocktail in the safety of their own living room. I’m rather sure that there’ll be an alky or a couple of ‘em, doing what we do without going downtown today.

Go to a meeting. Go to many meetings. Spend the day at meetings and with your sponsor. Call your sponsor once, twice, a number of times. Check up on your best AA friend. Read the Big Book. Help a newcomer. If you have a month you have something someone with a day doesn’t have.

Work a step. Work a lot of steps. Buy a new journal, pick up your 12 and 12 and start writing. Do an inventory. Identify shortcomings. Ask for your character defects to be removed. Hit your knees. Hit your knees again. And again. Raise your thought consciousness to the God you understand. Meditate.

Take an Eleventh Step walk. Take the dog with you. Take the dog and your sponsor with you. Take the dog, your sponsor and a newcomer with you.

“In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle.” (page 86)

“Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.” (page 133)

My hope for you is that by reading this rambling perhaps you’ll be able to realize that there are many, many, many other things that can be done at times like this that are not “normal” for us but are certainly different than the way we used to act. Ways that can help save our lives today rather than aid in our death. Take care…

[Graphic “Leprechaun Dancing Riverdance Style” found at Animation Playhouse]

Post from: Blisstree

St. Patrick’s Day