Our Lucky Day

What a fun day. We scoured our closets for green apparel. Ryan didn't want to be a conformist, but I convinced him to wear the green t-shirt for the breakfast picture anyway. He wore a brown shirt to school, but had the St. Patrick's day green issue covered with his classy green rubber band "I Can Do Hard Things" bracelet from youth conference a few weeks ago. Whew! No pinchin' him! ;)

The day began with a breakfast of green eggs & ham at 5:45. Thank you Dr. Seuss!

Amy spied the box of Lucky Charms that the Leprechaun left in the pantry, & was MUCH more excited about that than the green eggs. Hmmm, wonder why?

I surprised the kids with an all green lunch--green water, sour cream & chives crackers, celery sticks, green beans & cucumber slices, green pear sauce, green grapes, green iced sugar cookie & a few green chocolate candies. I'm glad my high schooler is secure enough to be able to handle such things. :) I wish I had taken a picture.

Amy's kindergarten class discovered a leprechaun had visited ssroom while they were at lunch. The kids found cutout shamrocks, green & gold Hershey kisses, & gold coins scattered everywhere. The curtains were tied in a knot and some chairs were on desks...wow, it was one exciting place to be!

Our dinner was DELICIOUS!!

Here are three wonderful dishes I fixed for dinner. (I love recipezaar.com)

Simmered Cabbage # 100417 I have cooked cabbage many times, but this is defenitely the most flavorful I've ever made.

25 min / 5 min. prep

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1/2 head cabbage, chopped into approx 1 inch squares or pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth (I prefer it with the chicken)

1. Heat oil and butter in large heavy and wide saucepan or saute pan; add cabbage, salt, pepper, and stir over low heat for 5 minutes.
2. Add broth (I usually add a bit of sherry, too) and bring to boil, cover and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often, for about 15 minutes or until cabbage is tender.
3. Raise heat to medium, uncover and let juices reduce to about half (be careful not to let burn).
4. Taste and adjust seasoning, serve hot.

Supreme Garlic Mashed Potatoes # 19259

These potatoes were soo yummy. I couldn't bring myself to put more than the 1/2 c butter. Wow, how could I enjoy them knowing they had that much butter?

30 min / 10 min prep

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
6-8 potatoes, washed,peeled and cubed
1/2-1 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk, or more if needed
3 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
paprika
parsley
Directions
1Boil potatoes and the garlic cloves together.
2When tender, mash with potato masher and add butter.
3Mash some more, add sour cream and enough of milk to desired consistency.
4Season with salt and pepper.
5Top with a sprinkling of paprika and parsley flakes.

Ryan has been asking for corned beef for months.... it never really excited me before because I just thought it was way too salty. Well, after trying this recipe, I have changed my mind.

Best Corned Beef on the Planet # 151187

1 1/2 - 2 1/2 Hrs / 15 min prep

Ingredients

2 kg piece corned beef (silverside works well too)
2 oranges
2 tablespoons golden syrup (I used Canadian corn syrup)
40 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
pepper

Directions
1. Take the corned beef/silverside out of the plastic wrapping and wash it off in cold water. (makes it less slippery and easier to handle).
2. Take the whole cloves and stick the little spike part of each clove well into the meat. (sometimes you need to make a little hole into the meat with the point of a veggie knife in order to get it in). Stud the entire piece of meat evenly with cloves, using more than 40 of them if necessary).
3. Put the golden syrup into the bottom of a large tall saucepan (I use a big soup pot).
4. Put the meat into the pot, add the bay leaf and pepper, halve the oranges and squeeze them to get some juice out over the meat, drop the squeezed oranges into the pot as well.
5. Cover with water and simmer for 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on how big the piece of meat is -- even a small bit does really well on low for 1.5-2 hours. Top up the water if necessary.
6. Take out and rest the meat for 10 minutes. Pick out what cloves you can (they are really there for flavour, not to be eaten) Cut across the grain. (if you do it the wrong way your "slice" of meat will fall into 1000 tiny pieces so just turn the meat around and cut at right angles to your first cut if that happens.).
7. Cut it into thin slices. Serve with mustard sauce if desired.

We topped off our meal with pistachio pudding and a shamrock cookie.

Did any leprechauns visit your house?