As my partner is Irish, Paddy's Day weekend is usually a big celebration. It starts with a family brunch, a massive fry up by his Mother of pork sausages, black pudding, eggs, gamon steaks, mushrooms, tomato and other various added bonuses such as haloumi (not so traditional, but I will never say no to a freshly grilled slice!). Soda bread is sourced, or depending on time, freshly baked and served with lashings of butter, fresh a OJ and a steaming pot of tea.
By the time we leave our clothes are bursting at the seams and all we really want to do is slide into a food enduced nap. But, the party animals we are, we have people due to arrive in 3 hours and we have to clean the apartment, decorate and prepare the nights food & beverages. I have started a tradition at our party of jelly shots and each time I promise to be more organised and do layers and fancy flavours. This still has not happened, so I do a trio of lime (green), orange and lemonade (white). I make a batch of vanilla cupcakes, iced with green frosting and dunked in white & orange sprinkles. Meanwhile, B-Man is draping streamers and shamrocks from the ceiling and doorframes, and taping leprechauns to the walls. We finish off by setting up a bench with fun and festive paraphenalia - beer goggles, badges shouting "Kiss me I'm Irish!" and "Póg Mo Thón!", ginger beards, shamrock tattoos, leprechaun hats etc with a big pot o' gold spilling out amongst it. We make drunken plans to head into the parade and after a 4am finish, rarely make it in.
This year, unfortunately, we have been too busy. With little to no time to plan it let alone host it, we have settled for a very quiet Paddy's Day. Luckily though, we did not have to forfeit Brunch, which was amazing as usual and I managed to find an hour and a half to bake a Passionfruit Sponge for dessert.
If we play our cards right, we might get up to the pub for a cheeky Guinness or Jameson's.
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