As you can see from the title of this post, we have a lot to cover today, so let’s just dive right in.
When it comes to holidays, I’ve never found one that I don’t enjoy. Halloween is a sweet-lovin’ bakers’ dream, Christmas is usually accompanied by the acceptance that it’s okay to gain 15 pounds of sweet treat weight and Valentine’s Day is synonymous with chocolate bingeing.
However, for the past 9 years, St. Patrick’s Day has always been high on my list of favorite holidays. I lived in two cities (NYC and Chicago) that celebrated St. Patty’s day in a big way. Surprisingly, Chicago’s festivities actually seemed bigger than NYC’s celebrations. Any town that dyes an entire river green for one holiday clearly takes it seriously…
It is entirely possible that St. Patrick’s day seemed liked a bigger deal when I lived in Chicago, because I was in my early 20’s, and nothing made me happier than drinking green beer at 9am, eating greasy foods and running around with my tipsy friends all day.
Oh yeah – look at that festive little girl dressed in green, sporting a green tongue and getting drunk off a spiked Big Gulp without a care in the world. Ahhh, the innocence of youth. When I lived in NYC, I still celebrated St. Patty’s day, but certainly not with the reckless abandonment of my Chicago days.
Alas, I digress. From my minimal research, it doesn’t appear that Omaha is quite as enthusiastic about this institutional holiday as my former cities. The good news is that I’m now older and more mature, so I don’t need to throw back a bunch of Guinness to celebrate St. Patrick’s day.
Nope, instead I’ll just bake up green pistachio cupcakes, smother them in homemade marshmallow frosting and top them off with Lucky Charms.
Because that is clearly a more grown-up thing to do.
