Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Dear Son in Law Mike is a St. Patrick's Day baby and Dear Son Chris loves this holiday! We celebrated Mike's birthday on Saturday evening with Irish Stew, soda bread from Panera, and Green cupcakes! The cupcakes are actually Paula Deen's recipe for red velvet cupcakes available by googling exactly that. Just use green food coloring instead. They were a big hit. The Irish Stew recipe follows. It was written to use lamb. Lamb is an acquired taste, so I used beef instead. The original recipe was from www.allrecipes.com, then I altered it for our party:

IRISH STEW

1 tablespoon olive oil 2 pounds beef stew meat
1/2 teaspoon salt freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion 2 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into large chunks 3 cups beef broth
1 bottle Guiness 3 large potatoes, cut into quarters
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary 1 cup coarsely chopped leeks

Heat oil over medium heat in a large stockpot or Dutch oven. Add beef and cook, until evenly browned. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion and cook along side the beef for a few minutes. Transfer to a crock pot and add the broth and Guiness. Add the vegetables and rosemary, cook on low for 6 hours. Serve in bowls with Irish Soda Bread - we bought ours from Panera!