First and foremost Happy Easter to you all. I know I'm a day late but I wanted to still post something about Easter. It's one of those times of the year where family gets together celebrates the reason for the season and put together some of their most treasured family traditions.

For me our traditions are simplistic. We do not have some crazy Easter egg hunts or any huge family gatherings with more than 7 people. For my family the traditions are simple but they run deep, at least for me.

Our celebration includes good food, fun and family.  The first thing that is always the same is that we have ham.  This is a fight (a nice friendly one) every year because my step-dad think it should be turkey but us polish people (my mom and I) believe that we should have ham and well the cooks always win so we have ham. :)

Also like many others we dye Easter eggs.  We have tried all the new-fangled kinds of dye but we always end up do a traditional dye job our our eggs.  Then we simply eat them.  No hiding and forgetting that one egg that will smell up the house for days after.

Something else that is always the same (traditionally speaking) is that we always play board games.  It is something that we all love doing, except for my boyfriend at times because he seems to think that my mom and I are plotting against him in a battle of house rules vs real rules. Hey what can I say, my mom and I our very opinionated people and like things to go our way. Hehehehe

So we eat at about 2 o'clock every year and then we just sit and binge on games, candy and snacks.  All the while yelling at each other that they are cheating or not playing right or laughing or secretly plotting on how you are going to beat everyone!

What are your family traditions?  What makes Easter just a little more special for you and your family?

Happy Easter everyone!

"Amerirish Corned Beef"

Every year I have a tradition of making corned beef on St. Pat's Day and this year was no different. I started the tradition originally about 13 years ago when I met my boyfriend.  His entire family is Irish and I thought to help bring a part of his family into our little family this would be a good tradition.  Some years I go big with lots of treats too but some years (like this one) I am just to busy and stick to just corned beef.

But I wanted to share it with you, especially since some of the side items came from a little adventure my daughter and I had last weekend at the Heirloom Farmers Market here in Tucson.  We found huge carrots and amazing little white potatoes.  The carrots though were so big and plump they were bigger than my hand (and my hands are huge!)

Any who...

I made this corned beef in my crock pot (like I do every year) but this year I changed it up just a bit.  I would normally follow my same recipe but this year I couldn't because I didn't have a bottle of Guinness. *GASP*  So instead I used a bottle of Bud Lite...hehehehe.  I am calling this the "Amerirish Corned Beef".

I have to say that this was the best corned beef dish I have ever made! I ate pretty much the majority of the meat and definitely most of the amazing carrots!  And when I say most I mean out of the crock pot I ate most of it by myself, hehehehe. My boyfriend also loved this meal and said he would never have known I didn't use Guinness!  Check my recipes page for the recipe :)

After this amazing meal I made the kiddos a treat (which I wasn't going to do but my amazing boyfriend ran to the store special for me to make it).  I made the kiddos a rice crispy skill bar but I used lucky charms.  I owe a big thank you not only to my boyfriend but to a co-worker who inspired me to make them.  She actually blogs too and you can see here over at the Bubbly Brunette.

So to this St. Patrick's day, Cheers and I hope everyone was safe and happy!