WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING

I never had the privilege to meet Craig's Grandfather on his Mother's side, who are by the way Irish. The name he went by was "Shorty", because of his height, but in Craig's eyes he was a giant of man. I do believe that Craig's wicked dry sense of humor came from his Mother, who has the twinkle of the Irish in her eyes whenever she and Craig go back and forth with a wee bit of good humored bantering. Myself? Not a bit of Irish on either side of my family tree, but I still love to cook, which is becoming my annual St. Patrick's Day feast, a corned beef and cabbage dinner.
We will be enjoying it a night early, as our invited guests had plans for Wednesday night, but we will take pleasure in the meal as if St. Paddy was sitting at the table with us. This is one of the few times that I get my Mom's kitchen to myself, as she leaves the cooking to me, but not without a few looks over my shoulder to check things out. In fact, I've even caught her sneaking a peek under the lid of the pot a time or two. What's on the menu you ask? I'll be happy to tell you, but even happier to be eating it later tonight. First off we have a slow cooked corned beef, garlic and butter tossed potatoes and carrots, cabbage, and of course a good red Irish ale to drown it all down with. But the item most of the guests will be looking forward to the most, is the bread pudding with a whiskey cream sauce that we will be devouring for dessert. You can find the recipe for the bread pudding here.I may not be Irish, but I do love to cook this meal, and you can be sure that around that dinner table tonight, there will be a toast or two raised in honor of "Shorty" and Craig's Mom, their Irish eyes no doubt smiling, both here on Earth and in Heaven, for the part Irishman I love the most......Craig.