St Patricks Day 2012

Yesterday, I celebrated my first St. Patricks Day married to my wonderful Irish husband :).  We wanted to do something special to celebrate, so we chose to have a traditional Irish breakfast on the morning of St Patricks Day!! :)  We invited none other than the original "Hagen's" :) - Grammy, Papa & Bryan. 

We thought long and hard about what we would have on the menu and did tons of research on what it would be like to have a breakfast in Ireland, perhaps at a bed & breakfast.  The bed & breakfast idea became my inspiration for the whole meal.

I tried to imagine what it would be like to have breakfast here:

 

What would the food be like?  The service?  The table?  What kind of napkins would they use??

Maybe not exactly what it would look like but I tried to come close.  I wanted to keep it simple.

A few weeks ago I received a Groupon for Tommy Moloney's, which is an Irish butcher from NY.  I did my research and decided this was the best place to supply the goods for our Irish breakfast!! 

Here is what we did.

Set out as "pick-on" foods (very important in hosting ANY event - I learned this from Grammy - who is the guru of hosting)

- Two types of Irish Cheeses
- Wheat Crackers
- Pepperoni (ha ha not so Irish - but whatever I have more experience as an Italian) :)

On the menu for breakfast

- Over-easy Eggs
- Bangers
- Small Boiled Potatoes
- Irish Soda Bread
- Black Pudding
- White Pudding
- Baked Beans
- Cookies from Pallotta's Pastries

For drinks we had the usual juice/water/milk/beer (ha ha) and we set up a coffee bar on our new buffet.  The coffee bar was my favorite part.  We had out, various coffees, and teas (one box of tea imported from Ireland), in Kevin's really cool wood caddy, Bailey's Irish Cream, Jameson, brown sugar, white sugar, and milk.  We got everything set up the night before :) It went very smooth for our first time hosting a holiday :)

Honestly it was such a fantastic day - everything about it was wonderful. 

Once the meal was done and everyone left it was just Kevin and I celebrating our 6 month wedding anniversary and enjoying the weather.  We went for a long walk and had dinner at the Chowder House.

This morning I woke up and ran 5 miles as my "long run" today.  I felt amazing.  I know there are good and bad days for running but lately I have had a lot of good days.  It is a great feeling, I really think my running is improving.  I ran a consistent 10 minute mile for 5 miles!!!  I hope the momentum stays forever (or at least the rest of the season - till next winter).  I seriously cannot help but think its because of my new shoes - if you haven't already read my blog where I talk about my new shoes check it out "training" .  They are so light and easy to run in.  Tomorrow will start my "hill training" every monday.... eeek wish me luck - I will keep you posted!!

XOXO