I will be baking over the next couple days - Saturday evening is the "Last Party at Mary's House" - the end of an era.

My beloved mum-in-law died last July, and the time has come to sell the house in which she raised her children and lived for the last 50+ years. It is a bittersweet "celebration," and there will be Irish stew - not corned beef and cabbage - and plenty of booze, and my contribution - shamrock-shaped cookies and lemon shortbread cookies stamped with shamrocks as well.

She was as Irish as the day is long, and most family parties for the last 3p+ years since I married in have been held in that home.

So this St. Patrick's Day, please raise a toast to Mary Margaret (Gallagher) Watts, and to Paul - her son and my husband - and the cofounder of this website - and to all things that we'll now hold in our hearts, not our hands.