Thursday, March 19, 2009

St Patrick and St Joseph

This is a neat week for our home. Tuesday we celebrated my Irish (through my Mulcahey Grandmother) roots with a St Patrick's Day dinner that featured Corned Beef and Cabbage, Irish music and dancing (Ok, technically the dancing was NOT Irish it was just the 3 of us bouncing around like rejects from a River Dance Audition.) Oh, and Guiness. But only 2 of us had that!!

This evening we celebrated my husband's Italian roots with a St Joseph's day dinner. (I guess any Catholics could celebrate St Joseph's day but I'm Catholic and had never heard of this before meeting my husband nor have I known anyone besides Italian Catholics to celebrate this. )

After pre-school, my girl and I headed over to Rubino's, the local Italian Specialty Food Store. As soon as you walk in this place you can smell it. That Italian food smell made up of cheese and pastry and spices and olive oil. I simply LOVE that place. They have the BEST home made sausage I have EVER tasted. TO DIE FOR. My favorite-Parsley, Wine & Cheese.

We purchased sauce for our Pasta Con Sarde. (and this was the actual kind we got!) St Joseph's Day Bread, Sausage, and Mini Canoli(Cheese, not cream!) Typically we have these St Joseph's day pastries called Sfinge and Sfogliatella but I didn't feel like driving to the Italian bakery in town too. The Cannoli were just fine!

After we did our shopping we sat at these little tables and had a slice of pizza for lunch. They have a HUGE array of lunch options from sandwiches to hot meals, to a special I saw today, Aunt Hattie's Tripe! We had a blast just sitting there eating and talking and watching people. I usually get the sauce early on account of my mother-in-law scaring me into thinking they might run out. (I took her some in Florida) but I think we may have started a new tradition of getting the sauce & accompaniments on the actual day-Making a special outing out of a simple meal of tradition.

Sometimes after saying grace before a special dinner or holiday we pause and each say "something nice about the holiday." as my daughter says. Tonight my husband said something about how we were celebrating Jeasus' earthly father. I said something relating to carrying on family traditions and my girl piped in with "I'm thankful that we get to eat this yummy bread!"

It was good!

7 comments:

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

I'm going to go there today or tomorrow! I haven't been there in so long and have no idea why since I pass it whenever I head to Target (which is a couple days a week).

Thank you for reminding me about that gem!

Christine said...

It's so funny how you can drive by something and just forget to make a stop. Your reminder about Aman's in the winter was just like that for me!

They actually have really great prices on things at Rubino's as well as being a great little shop.

Enjoy!

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

I think we're also getting subs there for our Friday night takeout tonight...When Tom worked downtown and Midtown was busy for lunch (imagine that), he used to get their subs every couple days...

PS--love the new background for the blog!

Christine said...

Friday Night Takeout! That's a nice idea! We have Fun Food Friday here a lot which is munchies, cheese, olives, etc...

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

We had subs Friday (meatball) and I went back this morning to get some goodies (choc. ship cannoli, mini cream puffs and eclairs)...cheeses and to try the sausage. I love how good it smells in there and wish I, too, could have giant cheeses hanging from my ceiling :)

Christine said...

Yup, it's the smell!! LOVE it!

You'll have to let me know how you like the sausage. A lot of times in the summer we'll get a bunch for the grill and serve them on crusty Italian rolls if we are having people for a picnic. They usually go fast. The artichoke is also a favorite around here as is the garlic and oil.

I'm still plotting my week around being in the Coldstone vicinity sometime after Tuesday! My girlfriend told me they have some kind of oatmeal cookie flavor that sounds good although that cake batter is still calling my name!

Renee said...

Sfinge are delicious! They have them at Festa Italiana in Milwaukee-- a summertime festival that is tons of fun. Now I'm hungry!