Gá mé Cócaire Nua!

That's the closest Gaelic equivalent to "I need a new crock pot!"*

I use my crock pot often.  The handle on the lid was melted in a tragic soup re-warming incident, so I've been wanting a new one for about a year.  But I make do because I have better things to spend fifty bucks on.  Well, I made did, I guess, until today.

I got up rather late, so I just threw the corned beef (I am a good Irish girl, of course I'm making corned beef!) and the water into the crock pot and left, hair half dried, to take the kids to school and go to work.  I came home at lunch time and it was no longer under water (it's supposed to simmer, right?) so I added water.  Then after lunch had been eaten I added the potatoes and carrots (because I finally had time to clean and peel them).

I'm not sure if it's because I keep messing with it, or if it's because the heating element is ka-put, but my corned beef is kind of ... not cooking.  Rather than simmering merrily away like an old man in a hot tub, it's languishing like a toddler in a lukewarm bath.  It's getting a wee bit pruney. 

I have cranked it up to high and said a prayer to St. Patrick (because he is the patron saint of salty meat, or something, right?).  But Dublin, we have a problem.  I need to shake my shillelagh if we're going to eat on time.

My soda bread looks delightful, though.  I made this recipe from Cooking Light.  I guess we won't starve.

As I was googling around trying to figure out how to spell "shillelagh" I found some cute Irish sayings:

"A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle."  Does that still count if the food is half cooked and we all get food poisoning?

"You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was."  (This is either an Irish saying or a quote from Abraham Lincoln.  The internet is divided).


"May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future."  (I used a variant of this in my toast at Barbara Dahling's wedding...  I said, "When you look back on this day, I hope it's the day you loved each other the least..." meaning that I hope their love grows throughout their marriage...  Yeah, I must have delivered it wrong, though, because half the crowd thought I was being nasty!  Whoops...)


And this one, which I think is especially fitting, as I think of all of you as my friends, whether I've met you or not...  "May your home always be too small to hold all your friends."

I think this is my favorite though:  "May you live one hundred years, with one extra year to repent!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Remember there are two sorts of people in the world - those who are Irish, and those who wish they were Irish! 

* Google Translate says Gá mé Cócaire nua = I need a new cooker!  It actually looks like it might mean "Get me a new cooker," which is a little more pushy, but we're going to go with it.