St Patricks Day Blogging Carnival 2010

Welcome one and all to my St Patrick’s Day Blogging Carnival!
Starting a wee bit early because so you have plenty of time to leave a comment or link up a blog post because in doing so you might win a prize in my St Patrick’s Giveaway…..read on…..

For new visitors first a little bit about me – I am a 40-something Christian mum of 3 who has been blogging 3 years. My passions include my faith,  family,  photography, digital scrapbooking, creating jewellery and of course blogging! (Yes….. I have a very tolerant family!)

So what does my family do here to celebrate St Patrick’s Day here in Northern Ireland?

Sorry to disillusion you…….. but not that much!

I have discovered some great traditions around the world through blogging but they were all new to me. We don’t pinch people for not wearing green, play tricks and blame it on leprechauns, we don’t turn our rivers green and I have yet to find a leprechaun waiting with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Are you devastated?

We also don’t live in a cute cottage (although there are still a few around, preserved for the toursists),

I don’t own a donkey and I don’t like Guinness (in fact I prefer hot chocolate from Starbucks!). My kids would prefer an Abercrombie & Fitch hooded sweatshirt instead of a hand knitted woolly jumper and we have NEVER eaten corned beef.

I do however have a red-headed son, and a ginger cat, so there are still some ginger-genes in our family.

Only in recent years have I started to attend the St Patrick’s Day parade in Belfast – and that was mainly as blog fodder! In fact, our kids don’t have the day off school, so they don’t even get to come with me. I will upload this year’s parade photos later this week.

So I thought I would share some traditional food and for my your sake a I sacrificed a few calories to cook an Ulster fry.

To create an authentic Ulster Fry then potato farls, soda farls and wheaten farls are essential.  A farl is the name of roughly triangular shaped portions traditional bread which would be cooked on a griddle.

For my your fry I included bacon, sausage and egg. I omitted the mushrooms, baked beans and grilled tomatoes.  Also I drew the line at Black Pudding and White Pudding, even for you, my bloggy friends.  A quick google search should be the only explanation necessary – not for the faint-hearted!

To see some amazing St Patricks Day home decor and cooking check out Cuisine Kathleen and the many blogs who have linked up.

So on to the GIVEAWAY PRIZES

I have gathered a collection of  mini irish cookery books, a linen scrim, a hand crocheted linen hanky made locally, some Cadbury mini chocolate eggs (apparently Cadbury’s tastes different around the world – so you  can let me know!) and an irish scene on a blank greetings card (by yours truly), and who knows what else I might find! Gina at Weeds & Wildflower Designs has generously donated TWO vouchers for her digital scrapbooking store, each for $10 – thanks Gina.

If you would like the chance to receive a prize, then link up an Irish related post on your blog and please include a link to this carnival. If you do so you get a DOUBLE entry into the giveaway.  Please don’t add the MckLinky to your blog, but instead come back here and post your link.

If you don’t have a blog, or a relevant post, you can still leave me a comment in this post, sharing something “irish-y” – maybe it is your impressions of our country, an irish dish you love, a song, a place…..anything really!

Giveaway will close 10pm GMT on Sunday 21 March 2010. Be sure you leave a way for me to contact you if you are one of the randomly chosen winners.