Well, it felt like spring yesterday, but now it’s snowing (again!), so I’ll try not to get too excited. When I brought the CSA share home on Thursday, it was getting pretty cold outside, but we had gorgeous sunlight coming in through the kitchen window.

In the pickup: 3 pounds of potatoes, six York apples, six Red Delicious apples, a pound of green beans, a pound of kale, a pound of Brussels sprouts, 2 pounds of onions, a bunch of beets, eight oranges, a dozen eggs, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough).

Potatoes and kale! It’s like the CSA knew that I wanted to make colcannon for St Patrick’s Day. I mashed in the sweet potatoes that we got last week, too, so it’s extra healthy with all the sweet potato nutrients. The kid wasn’t a big fan of the kale, though. Pity. On the other hand, he put away a surprising amount of cabbage.

(Aside: at two years old, the kid is a letter-of-the-law kind of guy. I told him there would be cupcakes for dessert, but only if he ate the last two bites of his dinner. He promptly gobbled up a bite, chewed it for a bit, and then spat it back out onto his plate. “Uh-uh. You have to swallow,” I said. The look he gave me clearly stated that swallowing hadn’t been part of the deal.)

For St P’s this year I boiled corned beef according to the package directions and threw in chopped cabbage for the last fifteen minutes or so, just to get it cooked but not overcooked. I made colcannon as above, and (for a timely birthday party) smitten kitchen’s Guinness chocolate cake, as cupcakes, with a cream cheese frosting (some with a dash of Bailey’s, some without). Turned out well, except I bobbled a pan of the cupcakes coming out of the oven, and the poor things were still hot and fragile and kind of collapsed in on themselves. Oh well, I frosted them anyway. When it comes to moist, tasty chocolate cupcakes, no one is terribly picky, least of all a two-year-old.

Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone!