Day 32, Irish fare and the story of Saint Patrick's life over dinner

We talked together this afternoon about the Irish potato famine, and about related topics---starvation, emigration to America, rich landowners and oppression of the poor...

We looked up some info online about Saint Patrick.  There are 2 remaining letters written by him, one of them a defense of his lifework, which included biographical information.

He lived very early, earlier than I had imagined.  He was stolen from his home in England to become a slave in Ireland. 

 Years later, after his Christian faith was strengthened in the loneliness and hardship of slavery, and having learned the language and culture of the Irish, Patrick, acting upon a vision from God, escaped on a ship back to his family.  Later, he acted upon another vision in which the voice of the Irish were calling for him to come.  

 He returned to Ireland where, using his knowledge of the Irish language and customs of the Irish druids, he spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ until, in his lifetime, almost all of Ireland had converted to Christianity.

Here was our Irish cuisine of the day.

boiled cabbage, cooked in the broth of the pork roast

chopped by a left-handed twin

who wore a special Irish headdress

Plain and simple as it was, I thought they wouldn't much care for the cabbage, but I could have made twice as much.  They were all asking for seconds.

There it is, not much color, boiled cabbage, potatoes, and pork in gravy

We added another table to make enough room for 13.  Grandma got the head of the table tonight.  She is part Irish.  We would have made her special Irish Dill Bread if our oven had been going.  She had to content herself with white fluff from the store instead.

We colored up the applesauce.  Wow, that was the greenest applesauce ever!

Cherries we canned from the orchard this summer added more color and flavor!

There are always plenty of dishes to do at our house.  Extras tonight with all the goblets we used...

Leftovers were plentiful.  Sarah and I will eat them tomorrow, because we can't eat the tomato sauce in the spaghetti for lunches

There was pork and gravy leftover as well.

After supper Rodger and I got lunches ready for tomorrow.  He peeled the carrots.

I cooked noodles and spaghetti sauce.

I mixed them together.  Macaroni noodles are easier to eat at school than long noodles.

It smelled good around the house tonight, plus lunches are made!  Whew!

 I was afraid to add up the price tag, suspecting that we had gone over again, but we slipped through under budget, even with the raspberry acai juice on the menu.  We had 3 extra bucks, with three extra people.

 Today's total:  $12.15

breakfast menu, Grandma style:  western omelets, toast and pancakes

Cost:  $3.32

14 eggs:  1.17

toast,  free from the store, really!  (I guess everybody who came into the store was given a free loaf to try a new brand which Albertsons is introducing.  I got handed one at the checkout counter.   I'm so happy, because my oven isn't functional, and Grandma loves toast.)

diced celery:  free from last week's bride

Onion:  .10

batchand a half of pancakes:  1.45

jam:  .30 

Lunches:  hamburger soup leftovers from last night, already paid for in yesterday's totals, fry bread, peaches

Cost:  $1.80

12  containers soup and 1 of potatoes and gravy:  no charge, paid already

fry bread, two loaves worth:  .60

1/2 cup oil for frying:  .20

toast for Grandma:  free from Albertsons

peaches:  2 quarts:  1.00

Supper menu:  mashed potatoes, pork roast in gravy, boiled cabbage, applesauce, canned cherries, raspberry acai juice

Cost:  $7.03

7 lb potatoes, mashed:  .70

2 lb pork sirloin roast:  2.00 what a deal

1 head cabbage,2 lb:  .78

flour 1 cup for thickening:  .10

gravy flavoring, 2 oz:  .35

1.5 qts applesauce: .60

1 qt canned cherries:  1.00

acai juice:  1.50

And a happy time with Grandma was had by all.

  Peter even helped with the dishes again.