Sunday, March 15, 2026

Happy March and St Patrick and St Joseph Days!


I have been fortunate to take many trips to Ireland over the years...

...my first trip was in 1972 when I was a teen.
 

I am half Irish, so Ireland has always been a place of both my heritage and dreams. 
You can see where I've traveled in Ireland on this blog label--47 posts in all, along with this label's 9 posts.


One of the most memorable trips I made in Ireland was visiting St. Patrick's grave in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. You can view the post about this visit here.


Over the years, I've celebrated St. Patrick's Day by preparing many Irish American meals of Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread. My recipe for Irish Soda Bread is on this blog link, and a gluten-free version of Irish Soda Bread is on this blog link.



Another place I have been fortunate to travel to over the years is Italy!



I also first visited Italy as a teenager in 1971 and fell in love with it!


My husband was born in Calabria, Italy, and emigrated to the US as a young child with his parents in the 1950s. He became a naturalized citizen in 1974. It has been wonderful visiting his hometown many times, where some relatives still live.  Some of our visits to Italy can be seen on this blog label--17 posts in all!


Although I've shared some Italian recipes over the years--click on this label to see them-- I've never shared the recipe for the special pasta I make for St. Joseph's Day, celebrated on March 19th. 
Since St. Joseph is known to be the foster-father of Jesus Christ, March 19th is also the day when Italians celebrate Father’s Day.
There are two different recipes I use to make St. Joseph's Pasta, also known as Pasta con le Sarde. I use the Italian Sons and Daughters of America recipe, which is closest to the way my Calabrian Mother-in-Law made it.  I have also used Cucina Italiana's recipe, which is Sicilian-style, although I leave out the raisins.
 Both are delicious! Both recipes incorporate toasted breadcrumbs as a topping, instead of cheese, as the breadcrumbs resemble the sawdust of St Joseph's craft of carpentry. 


March is the month of both holidays and also the month of the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and traditionally has changeable weather. One day it was in the 70s here along the Colorado Front Range, and then we had significant snowfall the next day! After many windy, dry days with wildfire Red Flag warnings, it was good to see the snow!
There are predictions that by the end of this week, we will have unseasonal warm weather up to 90 degrees!

I hope that where you live, the weather has been good, and that you are also enjoying the month of March





Posted by at 19 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Sunday, March 8, 2026

A Quick Trip to New York to Celebrate a Special Family Birthday!


 At the end of February, my husband and I flew to New York to attend a special birthday celebration for a member of my family.



We stayed in a hotel in an area called Gravesend, Brooklyn, not far from Coney Island. As you can see, one of the many snowstorms that have beseiged the east this winter was still evident on the streets. The subway trains in this part of Brooklyn run above ground on elevated train tracks, and my husband and I remimisced how an exciting scene from the movie The French Connection was filmed in this very area under the elevated train!


The next day, we headed for Suffolk County, on Long Island, New York, to attend a surprise 80th Birthday party in a restaurant for my older brother, James!

I was the only sibling able to attend, and he was very touched that we were there, along with family and friends. It was so good to see my brother and my sister-in-law, my nieces and nephews, husbands and wives, and grand nieces and nephews and their significant others.



We stayed overnight at my brother's house, and the next morning we had breakfast at a local diner that decorates for every holiday. This time all decked out in green for the upcoming St Patrick's Day!


On our way back to Brooklyn the next day, I was intrigued by all the vines I saw growing up many of the trees along the Southern State Parkway. I did not remember ever seeing this in the many years we lived in Brooklyn and traveled out east on Long Island. Could it be Kudzu? From what I read on this link, Kudzu has traveled up along the east coast from the south to New York.  
When we entered the borough of Brooklyn and drove along the Belt Parkway, I snapped the photos in the collage above of the tall buildings in the distance in Manhattan and a subway terminus yard in Coney Island.



We spent a few days in Brooklyn, visiting family and friends, and enjoying so much delicious food!

 

It was nice to spend time with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who are my husband's older brother and older sister, who reside in Brooklyn.  My sister-in-law taught me how to make stuffed baby eggplants the way they do in their hometown in Calabria, Italy, using a mixture that includes mashed potatoes in the stuffing. I promise to show how they are made when I make them again. They are very delicious and a favorite of our daughter.



All too soon, it was time to fly home to Colorado.
 After living here for the past thirteen years, we realized how much we love seeing the Front Range and the Rocky Mountains on our drive back from the airport. 



The day after we arrived, the Denver area had a good snowfall after a very dry and warm February. We hope March, which is usually the snowiest month along the Colorado Front Range, will bring more! I think this mule deer doe, resting in my backyard that day, was also happy to see the snow!


Posted by at 32 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)