Soak It, Spice It, Smoke It, Slice It

So what do you do if you have five pounds of corned beef, but only need four pounds for your St. Patty's Day dinner? Make pastrami!! Oh, and you'd better bake a loaf of traditional rye bread too:

St. Patrick's Week

Since St. Patty's day falls on a Wednesday this year, we'll be busy at church, and unable to manage a big meal. So instead, we invited friends over for dinner tonight, and cooked up a traditional American St. Patty's Day feast.

Dinner in the City, Movie in the Suburbs

For a very delayed Valentine's day celebration, Cori and I braved the St. Patrick's Day parade traffic and headed into Chicago to visit Rick Bayless's new restaurant, Xoco, for lunch today. Xoco serves Mexican fare in a "street food" style. For lunch, their primary offering are tortas, wood-fire roasted sandwiches.