Think green thoughts

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is not my cat, Merle cannot Riverdance. What Merlin does best is keep me company while I read, and keep the dog from going stir crazy. He also occasionally deigns to catch a mouse. This is what I pay him for. (For the record, I realize that last sentence ended in a preposition.) Anyway, Merle earned his kibble this week by catching a mouse. At 3a.m. He was so proud, he brought it to me to admire. Unfortunately, I was peeing at the time! I had to choose between screaming and jumping on top of the toilet or waiting until I was done peeing to jump on the toilet. Option 3 was continue peeing while trying to get my feet as high in the air as possible. This is not as easy (or attractive) as it sounds.Luckily the screaming (the mousie was not QUITE dead) scared him out of the bathroom.

Then Paul and I (he can't sleep through someone yelling, "ACKK! Mouse!". Go figure.) had to locate, chase and divest the cat of his prize. He hates this. We cannot, however let him keep the mouse because he is a messy eater and it is almost impossible to get dismembered mouse out of the carpet.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in preschool, too. The kids made hats and learned about leprechauns. When they went to wash their hands before snack, I stayed in the classroom and put down little green footprints and made a mess of the place. "Oh, no, a leprechaun has been here causing mischief!" After we all clean up, I confess that it was me because leprechauns are not real. They are shocked, SHOCKED, that I would do such a thing. "Mrs. Ose, dat is not funny," said one of my little friends. A couple of years ago we put on some Irish music to listen to while playing. I looked over to find a 3 year old doing a full-on Irish jig. A real one! Turns out she and her family all take Irish dance classes and perform in public.

Today is my brother Chris's birthday. Our mom used to make him green food all day, orange juice, pancakes, etc. Sadly, Chris thought food coloring had a bad taste and only pretended to eat it. My birthday is on Memorial Day. When people would comment on us both having holiday birthdays, my dad would tell them, "Well, we had to drown 5 of them to get 2 with special birthdays." My dad has an um, UNUSUAL sense of humor. So, Happy Birthday, Bro! You turned out amazingly well!

Here is a recipe for "Irish Cream". Don't bother using nice whiskey in this, it won't matter. You can tell it's an older recipe because it uses real eggs, not worrying about Salmonella. I think the whiskey would kill it anyway.

Irish Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk (regular size, not small)
1 pint whipping cream
3 Tbls chocolate syrup
1/2 Tbls vanilla extract
5 Tbls water
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups whiskey

Throw this all in the blender (amazing how many of my recipes say that), mix and chill. Shake before serving. I'd store this in the refrigerator, too, and don't save it too long, cream and eggs won't last forever, even with whiskey. Slainte!