On Wednesdays my husband takes the girls to ballet practice, and Lulu (our basset hound) and I are responsible for making dinner. Usually we're having fish or pasta or the like, and Lulu deserts me to sit on the top of the armchair by the living room bay window and wait for a glimpse of Truffles or Carl, the other basset and the Welsh corgi on the block, during their respective afternoon walks.

But yesterday was different. Bacon changes everything.

And so I had a constant companion in the kitchen.

All the stops were pulled out in an attempt to earn just a little piece of whatever was up on that counter. Bassets are notoriously stubborn and do not care much for this "dog-and-master" nonsense, so to actually sit meant a lot coming from Lulu.

After a good two minutes of sitting like a well-behaved dog, she was resigned to the fact that she would have to wait until her sympathizers returned from dance class. There was no point in wasting the energy that sitting up took, and so she opted to sulk instead. At least I think she was sulking. To be honest, she looks like this when she's happy too, but given the circumstances and the flat tail, it's fair to assume she was disappointed that all that sitting up work led to naught.

But then dinner was finally plated, the girls finally came home, and I'm guessing that a bit of corned beef magically made its way under the table as she she slept oh-so-devotedly on Amelia's bed last night.

I have a special place in my heart for St. Patrick's Day. We do not have any Irish in our family tree (though isn’t the saying that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day?). But what I do have is the most remarkable Irish friend, Jean—who really set my life on the path it’s on just by meeting her.

I met Jean in the early 1990s; I was a college student in San Francisco and applied for a job at a nursery school nearby. Jean already worked there; she had recently graduated from Trinity College in Dublin, moved to the states with a friend and settled in San Francisco for a bit. We instantly hit it off. She was (and is) the type of friend you know will be part of your life forever. Warm, funny, sincere and with a heart of gold. And through her I met some of her lovely friends who had settled over here as well.

A few years later I was heading out to celebrate a birthday from the circle of friends Jean introduced me to. We were all in our 20s, and when you’d meet up there was always someone new visiting from Ireland or the UK. And on that particular night, one of the visitors had just finished up his schooling in Scotland, and was seeing the states before going back home to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. His name was Tom Wright (do you see where this is going?).

And so because of my dear friend Jean introducing me to her dear Irish friends I met my husband-to-be. He never went back home. Within a week he had a found a flat, a car, a job and a wife (or at least a girlfriend at that time). He proposed the next year, and you won’t believe when—St. Patrick’s Day, 1996. So to me, there is something to be said about the luck of the Irish.

Tonight we’ll celebrate our engagement anniversary with corned beef and cabbage. But if you’d like to celebrate St. Patrick's day with a more unconventional all green meal, here is a link for an article I did for education.com:

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/green-recipes-saint-patrick-day/

The past few days have graced us with the most glorious spring weather. The light is amazing, making the daylight savings transition a little more bearable in the morning (sure we’re racing around because we’ve all overslept, but it all looks so beautiful as we barrel down the stairs headed for school !). So this morning, after everyone was out the door (and yes, on time even), I took a moment to capture some sights of springs at our house.

In my mind Easter is usually the kick-off holiday for spring, but the way the weather is going it might be St. Patrick’s Day this year. Speaking of St. Patrick’s, have you bought your corned beef yet? We’ll be simmering it on the stove tomorrow, but instead of cooking the cabbage the traditional way (throwing it in the pot 15 minutes before serving the meal), I’ve decided to braise it this year. In my mind, braised cabbage is the unsung hero in the world of comfort food. The days are slipping away for hearty comfort food; soon we’ll all be thinking about summer fruit and summer grilling, so this year we’ll have braised cabbage for March 17^th. Unconventional, sure, but as a friend pointed out that many American’s celebrate the day by drinking green beer, we might have to admit most of us aren’t aiming for authenticity here.

So here is my recipe for braised cabbage and bacon, because what could balance out a corned beef meal better than a little bacon!

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces bacon, cut into 1-inch strips

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, sliced thin

2 bay leaves

2 small heads of green cabbage, cored and sliced thin

1 ½ cups beer or chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, warm the olive oil. Add the bacon until browned and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a plate lined with paper towels.  Add the onion and sauté until golden brown. Stir in the cabbage and season to your liking. Pour in the beer, cover the pot and braise until the cabbage has wilted, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes. Stir in bacon and serve. 

 Sarah and I hosted a baby shower for our sister Libby last Sunday. Mom-and-Dad-to-be have decided on a sock monkey theme for the nursery, so we just had to build off of that for the shower. We did the luncheon table in brown with red and white polka dot napkins. Fruit and veggies were served in coordinating baskets, and the rest on white platters. You can’t go wrong with white platters; they always look great, especially against bold or rich solid colored tablecloths. 

At first, before we knew about Libby’s wonderful sock monkey nursery, I thought we’d do a tea party. But there was a little problem—the guest of honor doesn’t like tea fare!  When we host parties at home Libby always sneaks to the kids table to see what they are eating, so we felt a comfort food menu was in order.

We wanted the food to be easy to eat while visiting, so we decided most the menu would be finger food. Sarah works for a wonderful gourmet food shop in Alameda called Culina, so they prepared a batch of fried chicken drumettes.  Sarah then prepped an eye-popping assortment of vegetables for the crudités, it was stunning!

We made mac and cheese from scratch, wrapped cocktail sausages in puff pastry and made egg salad sandwiches as well. A basket of strawberries satisfied the sweet tooth until it was time for dessert.

We extended the mini-portions to the dessert table too. Instead of serving a cake, we opted for a more bite-size approach. We did make cupcakes, but just the mini-size: red velvet with cream cheese frosting on a tiered wire stand, and a plate of chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting on another plate.

If you weren’t in the mood for cupcakes, we also had chocolate chip cookies on hand. We took a cue from Amy Atlas and Mom filled petite popcorn boxes with caramel corn.

Candy buffets are all the rage, but you really have to be hosting a huge event to make it worthwhile. Instead we did a candy tray with movie theatre candy, and filled little take-away boxes with the remainder for party favors. All the treats had a nostalgic feel to them, inspired by the sock monkeys on the table.

So, it’s a food blog so I blogged about the food, but the best part of the shower was catching up with family and meeting the new babies and toddlers—it was a day of little ones! In about a month we’ll have another little one to welcome, I can’t wait to meet him!

I mention his book in the TV Diet article—but it’s worth its own posting. If you haven’t already, head to your local bookstore and pick up Michael Pollan’s Food Rules.  It is not a diet book, it is an “eater’s manual” with wonderful suggestions that address these three questions: what should I eat (eat food), what kind of food should I eat (mostly plants) and how much should I eat (not too much).

That’s it. No complex plans or systems. Just the kind of advice our grandmothers probably heeded. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but so simple and well written that some of the rules are sure to stick. My older daughter and I went through the book and picked some rules for us to follow as a family; ones that would involve all the family. I think every month we’ll add a few new ones to focus on. But for February we chose the following:

#7 Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce.

#12 Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

#32 Don’t overlook the oily little fishes

#51 Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

#60 Treat treats as treats.