Irish Adventures In Cooking

So, today is St. Patrick's Day, the most favorite day in the Irish calendar.  It is day for playing, eating, drinking (lots of drinking) and making merry.  I started preparing  my traditional St. Patty's Day dinner:  corned beef hash.  I also decided to try and make some soda bread to go with it.  The bread baking baking was uneventful.  Not bad for a first effort.

 The house smelled wonderful.  I could feel the heart's blood of Ireland flowing through me.  Uilleann pipes played in my head.  Then I tackled the hash.  Now, I do this every year.  It is usually very easy.  But the little people were playing with me today.  First off, I couldn't find my usual brand of canned corned beef (I am not a gourmand, after all.) so I bought another brand that came in a can that promised to be easy to open.  Just pull the tab.  Anyone of Irish blood knows all about pulling tabs.  Well, one sore finger, a can opener, a chuch key, a splattered sweatshirt and some  needlenose pliers later, I got the thing open. 

Easy open, my ass.  Maybe for a velociraptor.  If I'd had a chainsaw I would have used it.    After all that effort, I couldn't give up.  I finally got the hash going and I finally had my dinner.  It didn't even taste right.  Oh, Hormel, why have you forsaken me?  But, the soda bread was delish.  And the smoke alarm didn't even go off.  I must be getting good at this cooking thing.  Either that, or the battery's dead.