Enjoy some Irish music for St. Patrick's Day

Well, the corned beef has been purchased. The homemade root beer is brewing (I don't drink "real" beer). All I need is a little Irish music and to watch John Wayne's, The Quiet Man - simply one of the best movies filmed in Ireland. You can get The Quiet Man on DVD at Amazon for under $10. Not a bad deal considering I probably paid twice that when it first was released a few years back.

My favorite local Irish group is Whiskey Before Breakfast. I believe they take their name from an old tune "Whiskey Before Breakfast." I could be wrong on that, but I thought that is what they had said when I saw them perform one time.

Enjoy a sampling of their music with one of their tunes - Rocky Road to Dublin.

They are playing all over the Kalamazoo area tomorrow. It looks like they have quite the busy day ahead of them. Here is a quick rundown of their schedule:

• Kraftbrau Brewery, Kalamazoo - 9:30am to 11:30am.
• O'Duffy, Kalamazoo - 11:30am to 1:30pm.
• The Livery Brewery, Benton Harbor - 4pm to 8pm

Anyway, enjoy this short clip (2.5 minutes) of some wonderful Irish music just in case you don't make it out anywhere tomorrow.

If the player does not appear you can watch this 2.5 minute clip directly at YouTube right here.

By the way - my favorite way to eat corned beef is on a fresh Kaiser roll with some Thousand Island dressing. Yum!

Check out the 'Do Something' blog for some positive ideas

Via the Detroit News Dosomethingblog.com has a single post asking for comments on doing something positive. According to the Detroit News, the Do Something blog is the creation of PR firm, Beach Communications.

People across Michigan know something is wrong with Michigan. Politicians have not acted quickly enough or in a manner that we can agree with and this gives folks a chance to voice their positive ideas. This is their chance to have a public forum, of sorts, where their voices can be heard.

Reading the positive comments and ideas helped me get in a positive frame of mind. It is far too easy to be pessimistic about things like gas prices (should I quit posting the average price of gas?), our economy, or our state government.

Lets be positive and creative and see what happens.

Have a Great Friday!

The best chocolate chip cookie recipe . . .

. . . I have ever used. Ever since college when I tried to bake my first batch of chocolate chip cookies (instead of just eating the dough) I have been searching for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. It seemed that every time I baked a batch of cookies there would be something not quite right. Was it the oven, the cookie sheet, me, or the recipe?

Evidently, it was the recipe.

I finally used my great aunt's recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I have had this recipe for years, but for some reason it had slipped through the recipe cards and I never used it.

Unless I ever find a better recipe for chocolate chip cookies, this is the recipe I'll be using from now on. This recipe makes about 4 dozen (good-sized cookies - I don't waste time making tablespoon-sized cookies) cookies and we are already down to the last dozen (in fact I am munching on a couple as I type this - gotta watch out for crumbs in the keyboard).

Great Aunt Florence's Chocolate Chip Cookies:

What you will need:

• 2/3 C. light brown sugar
• 2/3 C. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 small pkg. chocolate chips (I just dump in as many as I want)
• 1 C. Crisco
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 C. flour
• 1 T. boiling water

Combine the first seven ingredients and mix well. Add flour and water and beat well. Now, I am not sure why the water should be boiling, but I used boiling water and had great success so that is how I guess it should be done.

Drop whatever size you want (recipe says teaspoon, but I prefer more of a dollop) on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Be sure not to over bake!

There really is no bad chocolate chip cookie. Unless it is a burnt chocolate chip cookie!

Happy Baking! :)

Check out our Spring Gift Basket brochure

Spring is in the air and we have just finished our Spring 2007 Gift Basket brochure and uploaded a PDF copy to our website. It is three pages long and includes a good chunk of the gift baskets we offer. Included with the gift baskets are snippets of Michigan trivia and facts to enlighten (perhaps) you and some to make you smile. View our Spring 2007 Gift Basket brochure

You can print it out and share it with your friends, relatives, bosses, casual acquaintances, people you pass on the street, and even coworkers. What a deal! :)

Have a Great Day! Enjoy the warm weather. We might still have some winter come back later in the week.

Remember this when you eat your corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day

A little known fact for you to spout out at the dinner table on St. Patrick's Day - Over 46,000,000 pounds of cabbage are harvested annually in Michigan.