St. Patrick's Day/St. Joseph's Day

O.K., it's Saturday and I decided to go to a party last night rather than having people over for St. Patrick's Day. I had a blast drinking and dancing at a friend of a friend's birthday party complete with a disco ball and a cake the size of New Jersey. The pork for "Bacon and Cabbage" is still corning in the fridge which is just as well since recipes often mention you can marinate it for about 3 days refrigerated. We'll have our Italian St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, St. Joseph's Day which is actually more perfect than perfect since that was always a big Italian-American holiday back in Chicago.

When I was a Catholic school kid, I wore a uniform every day except on particular holidays. If March 17th was a school day, I and the other Irish-American kids took advantage of the relaxed dress code to wear green t-shirts. If March 19th was a school day, the Polish- and Italian-American kids took the same opportunity and wore red t-shirts. In the ethnically divided working-class suburbs of Chicago these little heritage celebrations often ended up in name-calling and schoolyard brawls. Let's hope tomorrow's dinner turns out more peacefully.

P.S. My cuor di bue tomatoes are sprouting!!