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Remind me again where the last year went, because I swear this pic­ture was taken yes­ter­day not one year ago. D-man was once cra­dled in Hubby’s hands gen­tly stretched out on his fore­arms now he is mov­ing from baby into being offi­cially one. And I’m in awe, total awe, that he went from this lit­tle baby to a cruis­ing around, vocal (Oh, does he ever get vocal–both Hubby & I are now banned from leav­ing the room for fear of his tiny but pow­er­ful wrath) and see­ing his per­son­al­ity com­ing out more & more very day. But today I’m going to hold him, remem­ber­ing this time one year ago when I held him for the first time, & drink in every moment of it.

Tech­no­rati Tags: baby, birth­day, fam­ily, kids, moth­er­hood, tod­dler

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland.

I feel a deep affin­ity to Ire­land. Even though at this point I’m less than a frac­tion Irish, Irish blood still runs strong in my veins. My mother always cel­e­brated St. Patrick’s day in our house. We will do the same thing in my home today with an Irish-American feast, com­plete with my home­made Irish Soda Bread. It is my mother’s father’s side is Irish. When I was young I thought the pic­ture of Pres­i­dent John F. Kennedy was of a fam­ily mem­ber, at 5 I remem­ber learn­ing that he was not. At least not that they knew of but he was Irish Catholic & that meant they had arrived.

While they may have felt like they arrived here in the States. I dream of one day vis­it­ing Ire­land. A visit to Ire­land is some­thing I’ve always wanted to do. My hus­band, who doesn’t believe he has an ounce of Irish her­itage, also has always thought Ire­land would be a beau­ti­ful place to visit. All that his­tory & beauty, the cul­ture & the peo­ple, it just calls to us.

In honor of this St. Patrick’s Day. I thought I’d share some pho­tos via Dis­cover Ire­land of Ireland’s beauty.

Can’t you just hear the call of coun­try side?

Is there any­where in the world you want to visit?

Tech­no­rati Tags: ire­land, irish, St. Patrick, St. Patrick’s Day

Pot Roast is a sim­ple dish that you can lit­er­ally fix and for­get about for a few hours. When it emerges from the oven per­fectly cooked it will soft like but­ter & a but­ter knife will cut through it. The way you get pot roast to have this juicy ten­der­ness is low & slow.

This Pot Roast will be cooked & roasted in a cast iron skil­let, it will cook for 3 hours. It serves 4 people.

What you need:

1 Pot Roast
1 Tea­spoon Salt
1/2 Tea­spoon Pep­per
1/2 Cup Flour
1 1/2 Cup of Red Wine
1 Cup of Chicken Broth
4 Large Rus­set Pota­toes
4–5 Fresh Car­rots
1 Whole Onion
4–5 Cloves of Gar­lic
1 Table­spoon of Ital­ian Seasoning

What you Need to Do

Pre­heat your oven to 325 degrees.

After your Pot Roast is room tem­per­a­ture (if you have to dethaw it, this is impor­tant) you will cover it all over with your 1 tea­spoon salt & 1/2 tea­spoon pepper.

Then dredge it in the flour. Mean­ing cover the entire Roast with a layer of flour.

Now you will want to sear, or brown it, on all sides in the pan on a low to medium heat. The crust on it will help to keep it nice & juicy dur­ing the long roast time.

After this is done, you will need to add into the pan 4 cut rus­set pota­toes, 4–5 cut fresh car­rots, 1 whole onion that you will cut into 4 parts, and 4–5 whole cloves of gar­lic tossed in 1/2 a Table­spoon of Ital­ian Seasoning.

Then cover the Roast with the other 1/2 a Table­spoon of Ital­ian Seasoning.

Add in to the pan 1 cup of chicken broth. And your 1 1/2 cup of red wine. Pour 1/2 cup of the wine over the roast & the rest into the pan so it soaks into the veg­gies. It’s divine this way.

Cover with alu­minum foil tightly.

Place in your oven which has heated to 325 degrees and cook for 3 hours. At this point it should be soft enough to cut through with a but­ter knife.

Now you could also do the sear­ing of the roast in one pan & trans­fer the roast to a roast­ing dish & com­plete the rest of the steps this way, using the lid of the roaster to cover. OR do every­thing in a dutch oven, using the lid of the dutch oven to cover. I have a cast iron skil­let & don’t want to deal with extra dishes, so keep­ing every­thing in one dish is eas­i­est for me. Less mess, less steps & more time for enjoy­ing the day.

And if you make this dish for your meat-loving hus­band he will love you for­ever. I’m just saying.

Tech­no­rati Tags: din­ner, home­cook­ing, home­made, meat, one dish, pot roast, recipe, sim­ple recipe