These Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Blarney Castle -The day we all kissed the infamous stone 

   It was June 2006.  Sometimes, its difficult to believe...until I look at the photos.  It was the summer before I donated 17 1/2 inches of my hair to locks of love.  My husband was still in the Army.  Our youngest had just completed third grade.  It had already been a busy year for him.  He had broken his foot in two places.  Once the cast was off, he came back to martial arts class and earned his black belt.  It was the summer we drove around County Cork, Ireland.  I remember we had tried to work it out so all the kids could go with us, but for some reason, the dates didn't mesh.  We had to go when my husband could get time off from work.  In the end, we promised that someday we would go back...as a family.  I miss Ireland.  It felt like home.

   This morning, when I woke up, I frantically searched for green workout clothes.  I was determined I wasn't going to be pinched.  I can never get by with the fact that my eyes are green.  My husband found a green dress shirt.  Our youngest decided on a shirt we had bought him long ago while in Ireland.  We'd bought the smallest size they had.  He'd been waiting five years for it to fit.  Then, as on every Saint Patrick's day since the trip, he added his favorite leprechaun hat...complete with fake beard.  

   When we were downstairs having our morning cup of coffee, I broke the news to my husband.  "I'm sorry honey, but no corned beef and cabbage this year.  I'm trying to stay on track."  He doesn't argue anymore.  He justs pouts in a grown up manly way.  He knows its a good plan and that it is working, even though it is sometimes painful.  I offered to make Shepard's Pie with ground turkey.  From the look on his face, I knew he was thinking that, at this point, the Irish ancestors were rolling in their graves.  What could I do without breaking my husband's big Celtic heart?  Not having Irish food on Saint Patty's Day, to him, was like not having turkey on Thanksgiving.  I told him I had the ingredients to make stuffed peppers (but with ground turkey and whole grain brown rice).  As my neighbor says, "They are green, right?"  I mean, shouldn't anything green be authorized on this day?  Heck, I didn't know.  I had been told most of my life that my ancestors were Irish, English, and Scottish.  But after researching through Ancestry.com, I discovered they were mostly English.  Besides, growing up, my family never ate corned beef and cabbage, shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, bread pudding, or well, anything else traditionally Irish.  The only alcohol in the house was a solitary beer my mom kept for emergency headaches she would occasionally get.  No, I never ate anything remotely Irish until I officially became a "Hurley".  And like my husband, I absolutely love Irish food (on my last birthday, I asked for bread pudding at the local Irish pub in lieu of a cake).

   In the end, we decided to try the stuffed green peppers.  He wants to support my efforts in maintaining a new healthier lifestyle, even if that means turkey stuffed peppers on Saint Patrick's Day.  I think we will be fine though.  I went out and got him a 12 year old bottle of Jameson's Irish Whiskey, and some Bailey's Irish Cream.  We'll have Irish coffees with whipped cream after dinner.  Then, if he wants dessert, he can have a Weight Watcher's mint chocolate chip (green) ice cream sandwich (only 140 calories each/2 points).  I'll have to let you know how the healthier stuffed peppers turn out.  If you have any suggestions for next year, please let me know...maybe a veggie shepherd's pie? : )