St. Patrick’s Day was always a big holiday for us, but growing up it felt strange to me because I went to an Italian Catholic School and most of the kids were Italian. Of course there a few Irish kids, but I always felt like I was missing out.
I remember we used to always celebrate St. Joseph’s Day with Zeppole’s that I thought never tasted very good, and yet, come St. Patrick’s Day, there was a only quick review of the saint.
At home though, was a very different story.
My mom would listen to Celtic Sojourn on PBS and The Irish Tenors, and she always made Irish Soda Bread. It always broke her hand mixer with the tough dough, and to this day I’m not sure if that was normal or not! But her Irish Soda bread is the only one I eat and ever want to eat. My dad would help by slicing the vegetables and prepping the corn beef dinner.
Our house smelled so good, we were the envy of the Italian neighborhood (or at least that’s what I used to tell myself). We would always wear some sort of Kelly Green – my parents always drank Guinness and talked about how they wanted to visit Ireland. We would always praise my mom for her well cooked meal and she’d tell my sister and I stories of our grandparents visiting Ireland. It was the one day she could listen to her favorite music with minimal complaining from my sister and I.
My dad always made a chocolate cake with green frosting and added a small dose of peppermint to the frosting to give it a little kick. It’s one of my favorite cakes. We’ve always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day together- it was the one day it seemed my dad never had to work and was as if everything was absolutely perfect.
As adults, we still always gather and we’ve now found a safe corned beef for my niece and nephew with severe food allergies. My sister is now in charge of making the cake because the one year I did it, I added too much peppermint and the cake would slide with every turn my dad took driving to my sisters house. We joked it was the leaning cake. She also makes a tastier egg free cake than I do. But we still spend the day together, and it still seems just as perfect!
