The earth is about to dust off its snowy mantle and begin the wearin’ o’ the green! When I was a teen growing up on the beach in So Cal, my friends and I would be preparing to brave the chilly ocean breezes to start our summer tan rituals. Now in Utah, I’m trying out my new winter coat that I bought on sale Friday and hoping the tulips and daffodil bulbs weren’t fooled by the temperate weather we had 2 weeks ago (and are regretting their emergence into another small blizzard.) Alas.
With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, I’m feeling my favorite Irish Prayer
Did you know that there are old stories about 2 Jewish princesses that were taken by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah out of Jerusalem before it fell to the Babylonians? They were Zedekiah’s daughters and great-granddaughters of Jeremiah. The stories say he took them to Egypt for safety; all of Zedekiah’s sons were killed in front of him except Mulek who escaped to America. As Egypt was about to fall, they sailed up to Spain where one eventually married into the royal family there. He then took the other to Ireland and she married the chief high king. Her name was Tamar Tephi and the sacred burial ground of Tara was built for her and her husband when they died. The interesting thing about this story is that when a DNA study of population of Europe was complete, the people with the most closely matched DNA were in Spain and Ireland. Perhaps this helps explain why the people of Ireland were interested in the message of Christianity, it came from a branch of the House of Abraham, their ancestors in the Holy Land. Remember it was the Stewart (Stuart) King James that had the Bible translated into English. I believe he was a descendant of ancestors from Israel. The lion and the unicorn in British heraldry represented the tribes of Judah and Joseph. I also read that the British Union Jack had two meanings; one was the kingdom united under King James, the other was the reuniting of the Biblical patriarch Jacob’s family.
For entertainment we’ll watch our fav Irish movies Darby O’Gill and the Little People and The Secret of Roan Inish to help us get our Irish pride on, or read again Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization.
Spinach salad with fresh strawberries, feta, caramelized pecans with Gerard’s Light Champagne dressing
Corned beef with a brown sugar mustard glaze
Steamed cabbage in a butter Dijon sauce
Roast asparagus and carrots
Baked onion potatoes
Lemon cherry scones
Cream cheese frosted shamrock shortbread with pistachio ice cream
And the leprechaun cottage and garden of tiny vegetables
Lá Shona Fhéile Pádraig!