Ian M.
New member
Just to kick off the thread, Fallon and I got elected to cook the Labor Day dinner for the whole family - all three of the McCourt kids and assorted families and a pretty large number of Fallon's family, as well. That's just what happens if you miss the family meeting and aren't there to defend yourself! Including my Dad, at whose home this is all taking place, there's supposed to be a grundle of people there. The menu follows:
Barbecued meat loaf
Marinated roasted potatoes (made with my own personal concoction of "stuff" to marinate them) and I never know in advance how the marinade is going to turn out!
JoeC's magnificent Zuchinni gratin (all for me!!)
A delicious corn pudding that's been kicking around Fallon's family for about three generations.
A super garden veggie salad that Fallon's mom makes with her own secret dressing recipe, that's simply to die for!
unlimited homemade sourdough bread that Fallon makes and boy, is it ever good!
Desert, just to please all the little kids - tons of watermelon - complete with a seed-spitting contest, winner gets all he/she wants of the melon. The contest is my brother Sean's idea and the kids just love it!
And a "heated" game of cricket on the back lawn that frequently ends up with bats being used for "other purposes" and a cleaved skull or two if nobody puts the skids to the McCourt kids! But what's the fun of competing if you don't play to win - at all costs? And of coarse it's incumbent on me to mention the fact that a whole lot of my side of the family are Irish - some first generation, and you know what can happen when you get a bunch of Irishmen together to play games! Let's just say it gets "lively"! After the game, music played by the Irish contingent on some serious Irish instruments - and that crowd are darn good at it, too. Just as long as nobody sings.......................
Dad told us that his contribution to the festivities is going to be a couple kegs of Guinness which he "imported" from an Irish bar in Boston. Yay!! Now that oughta help with the threat that someone might sing!
What I've never been able to understand is how come my family and loved ones aren't willing to settle for good, old, all-American hot dogs, burgers and potato salad on Labor Day! Sure would make life a bunch easier! But at least we're secure in the knowledge that we won't get tapped to do this again for at least three or four years.
Ian
Barbecued meat loaf
Marinated roasted potatoes (made with my own personal concoction of "stuff" to marinate them) and I never know in advance how the marinade is going to turn out!
JoeC's magnificent Zuchinni gratin (all for me!!)
A delicious corn pudding that's been kicking around Fallon's family for about three generations.
A super garden veggie salad that Fallon's mom makes with her own secret dressing recipe, that's simply to die for!
unlimited homemade sourdough bread that Fallon makes and boy, is it ever good!
Desert, just to please all the little kids - tons of watermelon - complete with a seed-spitting contest, winner gets all he/she wants of the melon. The contest is my brother Sean's idea and the kids just love it!
And a "heated" game of cricket on the back lawn that frequently ends up with bats being used for "other purposes" and a cleaved skull or two if nobody puts the skids to the McCourt kids! But what's the fun of competing if you don't play to win - at all costs? And of coarse it's incumbent on me to mention the fact that a whole lot of my side of the family are Irish - some first generation, and you know what can happen when you get a bunch of Irishmen together to play games! Let's just say it gets "lively"! After the game, music played by the Irish contingent on some serious Irish instruments - and that crowd are darn good at it, too. Just as long as nobody sings.......................
Dad told us that his contribution to the festivities is going to be a couple kegs of Guinness which he "imported" from an Irish bar in Boston. Yay!! Now that oughta help with the threat that someone might sing!
What I've never been able to understand is how come my family and loved ones aren't willing to settle for good, old, all-American hot dogs, burgers and potato salad on Labor Day! Sure would make life a bunch easier! But at least we're secure in the knowledge that we won't get tapped to do this again for at least three or four years.
Ian
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