St. Patricks day dinner a few days early

I cooked St. Patrick's day dinner on friday night, seems appropriate for Chicago, since the city has been celebrating all weekend as well. I have been making this dinner every year since this recipe was first published in Sunset magazine back in 1994. The majority of my favorite recipes have come from Sunset. I am so glad I found a link to the article here, so I don't have to write it all out. This is an absolute favorite in our house and it smells heavenly while it is cooking.

What makes this so incredibly good is the addition of lots of extra seasonings, malt vinegar and Guiness stout, mmm......

You can't skip the colcannon, basically mashed potatoes with sauted cabbage and green onions

Yummy soda bread loaded with raisins, currants and caraway. I love this meal, we eat the leftovers for breakfast with eggs for days.

Mmmmm....

Nina loves cranberries, she eats raw cranberries all the time, so she did a Google search for desert recipes with cranberries and found a recipe for cranberry pie!

She made it last night and it came out so good, nicely tart and such a pretty color. We were also thinking it would be really good to make a pie that combines apples and cranberries using this recipe.

Now I have Posole bubbling away in the slow cooker, perfect for a cold rainy day and to warm us up after I pick up my sister Deb at airport this evening. We have talked about having Thanksgiving together for years, so this year we are doing it.