I've mentioned before what a big deal St.Patrick's Day is in the Lou. Maybe it's all the Catholics, maybe it's living in a brewery town, maybe we like green. Whatever, the reason, it's a good time. With a town coming down off of all the Mardi Gras debauchery, it's nice to have a more family friendly celebration to take the littles to. {The only part of Mardi Gras that is family friendly is the pet parade, which I highly recommend if you are ever in this town in February. Heck, if you are sans family, I highly recommend the Mardi Gras parade, too. But, please, don't take your kids! I, myself, haven't been in 12 years.}
Sure, there are plenty of revelers that have been drinking green beer since 7:30 am, but there are also plenty of normal people with their kids in tow, and a sack lunch waiting for some candy or beads to be thrown from the 'clans' of St.Louis that walk in the parade. It really is fun. Good, green fun.
Unfortunately, this year, I'm not sure we'll be headed down to Dogtown. Jake was supposed to be off to go with us, but it turns out he has to go into work after all. With the {literally} thousands of people, I simply don't trust my eyes alone to keep our brood safe. It can get a bit overwhelming at times, and with Betsy's mobility it just really shouldn't be attempted by my lonesome. Sigh.
So, it's a good thing we'll have that 'Guinness Chocolate Cake' to keep us company, along with corned beef and cabbage slow cookin' in the crock pot. Maybe I'll whip up some Irish soda bread, too.
Hope you have the luck o' the Irish today!
P.S. You can leave out a bit of the whipped cream in the frosting recipe, and add a tablespoon or so of Bailey's Irish Cream to kick the frosting up a notch. Yum!
Smart move. We did Dogtown ... 2 kids and 4 adults and it was still crazy. More crowded than I've EVER seen it.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was there. She was the one with the "artsy" graying hair (meaning she cut it herself) who was probably yelling something funny to the bagpipers about their kilts as they went by in the parade. Crap, I miss St. Louis and my mom.
ReplyDeleteI tried to do the rainbow cupcakes today and the corned beef thing, but I totally forgot my daughter had karate tonight, so we made do with chili. At least I got to play my little leprechaun tricks...turned the milk green, dotted their noses with leprechaun "kisses" while they were sleeping (note to self: use washable next time), and turned the toilet water green. Freaked them out royally. But the leprechaun made up for it by leading them on a trail of green m&m's to piles of gold chocolate coins.
That Guinness cake sounds wonderful! How was it?