"When Irish Eyes are Smiling"

This past weekend, I celebrated a bit more Irish than I expected for two weeks before Saint Patrick's day. Saturday morning I joined a friend in Old Towne Alexandria for their St. Patrick's day parade. The streets were lined with people, many of whom were happy to repeat the answer to the question on everyone's mind: why so early? The answer is that if it was two weeks early, then Alexandria could book more bands to march in the parade. If that was the reason, it worked. There were at least 10 bagpipe groups marching, from MD, VA and the district. Police groups, fireman groups, local Irish American groups; you name it, they got together and played bagpipes. There were also several Irish Step Dance schools, a few Irish sports groups, a couple of boy scout groups, two accounting firms, and the local 501st showed up. That's stormtroopers for those of you not up on your expanded universe references. That's right, stormtroopers, and Boba Fett and Vader, many of whom were wearing green accesories.

I also ate corned beef this weekend. We roasted it in the oven. Much better than boiled. but not the best way. The best way to eat corned beef is smoked. It turns out much like pastrami. the smokey flavor and the saltiness from the corning process work so well together.  If you've got a smoker, I highly suggest you buy a corned beef when they go on sale later this month. then smoke that brisket like in 'aint no thang.

"The Candy Man"

Visited Pennsylvania this weekend. We did a cemetery visit and then drove into nearby Hershey PA "the sweetest place on earth". The weather was great, the traffic left much to be desired. We really wanted to eat at someplace kind of nice, but we didn't know the area, so I remembered that most if not all of the non-chain places in Hershey were located as something called the Hotel Hershey.

We parked, took in the awesome view of the park and chocolate factory in the valley and checked out the hundreds of tulips on display before we headed inside. We walked into the second floor right into the tiled fountain lobby. So much cooler than the lame normal lobby we found later downstairs. We were a little under-dressed, but not too bad. As we started looking for restaurants, Colleen looked the hotel up on her phone (An act I still think of as vaguely magic and wonder how much it costs her per second). I found a place that was billed as American casual right as Colleen informed me that we were in a Forbes four star, AAA 4 diamond resort. We almost backed out being light on funds but decided to splurge and have fun.

After an excruciatingly long 45 minute wait, where we were not offered the suggestion of the bar or the adult game room with pool tables, we were seated. The tables were close together and the volume was high for a place with no perceivable music playing. Our server was fantastic though and made the evening. We each ordered a drink, and settled on entrees. I was having steak and Colleen salmon. When they arrived I was blown away by how great everything was on my plate; steak, mashed potatoes, onion rings, sauteed mushrooms, it was perfect. After two or three minutes of rapture I finally dug my head out of my... potatoes and realized Colleen was not enjoying her meal.

So we switched! She was right, her salmon was weak sauce, but I ate it. It wasn't bad, just not fancy dinner out good you know? So she finished my meal and I hers. Then we heroically decided to each order a dessert and share them. We both each of them, but the chocolate pie with a caramel smear was the standout.

So if you find yourself in Amish country, or nearby and want to have a fancy meal but not white table cloth fancy, in a family friendly atmosphere, then by all means: Harvest at the Hotel Hershey. Get the hanger steak, the chicken wings looked good too but we didn't partake, the rye bread made with maple syrup was nice, and finish it off with the chocolate pie.