Friday, March 19, 2010

A "Green" Sort of Day

I love celebrating holidays, even the ones that aren't super popular. I love St. Patrick's Day, not only because it is a wonderful time to celebrate the man who brought Christianity to Ireland, but also because we do everything "green" that day. We've got a smidge of Irish in us that we proudly display. Holidays give us an excuse to do something out of the ordinary.

So, our day started off with a drop of green dye in the toilet bowl. I told Josiah that he could add one drop everytime we flushed the toilet. This worked for about one hour. Unfortunately, he forgot to put the dye out of Hailey's reach and she grabbed it and dumped the whole thing into the toilet and all over the toilet seat (now I have permanent green spots on my toilet seat). It could have been so much worse. She only got a little bit on herself and one little spot on the wall, whew! I remembered why I don't normally have dye in the house, LOL!Next, we followed along with my mom's tradition of making green pancakes, but instead of using green dye, I made avocado pancakes with avocado butter. Before you say, "that sounds disgusting", like my son did, you have to try it! They were delicious and the kids were singing my praises. I used my basic "Fly Off The Plate" whole wheat pancake recipe, only instead of adding butter, I used a blended avocado to make green pancakes. Then I blended half an avocado with two tablespoons of butter, a dash of vanilla and sweetened it with raw honey. Oh my gosh, was it good! Josiah wanted a shamrock shaped pancake. Here is my pathetic attempt. You can't really tell by the pictures, but the pancakes turned out kind of sage green colored. The avocado butter was a brighter green.For lunch, Josiah wanted 10 minute pizzas with green olives that he bought for the family for St. Patty's Day. I know it isn't very Irish, but hey, it was green ;)Here is our favorite Irish dish that we look forward to every year, Corned Beef and Cabbage. I've got the best recipe for this. Click on this recipe link. I know it isn't very healthy to buy pre-packaged corned beef, so I was searching on-line for a way to make corned beef myself. When I get our 1/4 of a beef next year, I'm going to ask for a brisket cut and try making it myself.

After dinner, Michael and I had found an amazing deal on green cabbage, so worked together to make 2+ gallons of naturally fermented sauerkraut. It only took us an hour to make it with both of us working on it, using my Cuinsart food processor to slice the cabbage. Let the ferment begin! Again, I realize sauerkraut isn't Irish, but cabbage is, LOL! I know my new blogging friend from Ireland, Sarah, is probably laughing at our American Irish cliches, I don't blame her ;) If you have a chance, check out a Sarah's real Irish blog, heartsdesire. She's a darlin'!

Hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! Leave me a comment and let me know what your St. Patty's Day traditions are. Maybe I can get some more ideas from you all.

God Bless,
Jackie


23 comments:

Patty said...

Sounds like you and your family had a wonderful day. I never would have thought about green toilet water!

Hope you have a great day.

Sarah said...

Lol Jackie...I had to laugh at the green toilet water! Glad your kiddo's had fun with it too! You guys certainly thought up much more fun and ingenious ideas for St Patricks day than I did.

Your pancakes sound really delicious, I love anything that has vanilla in it! Great shamrock shaped one too :)

Thank you for the link and sweet comments Jackie!

God Bless

Grandmabeckyl.blogspot said...

How fun for St. Patrick's day! More people were into wearing green this year than last year. Some of my co-workers found something in store to wear, like a green chip clip or a green tag that came off an item for the warehouse. Funny! I had orange and green (a bit) on. Fun! Your food sounds delicious, I'll be right over! :0)

Angela said...

Your children are just so adorable...What an amazing day your family had..the food all looked SO good. Oh my I'm hungry now,,lol

Amy said...

The green toilet water is really funny.

We did corned beef, red potatoes, and cabbage. It is one of my favorite meals.

Have a wonderful weekend.

La Familia Garcia said...

We had green eggs for breakfast (and I posted about it too!). I love their silly smiles in those pics!

Mary said...

LOL -- your little red-headed leprechauns sure loved that!

RaD said...

We only had green hats, but we should have watched our Veggietales with St Patrick's story on it, but I about it.

I love the green toilet water! What a fun idea!

Lisa said...

No traditions here, except maybe wearing something green. LOL
Your kids sure are adorable!! :)

Mich said...

Sounds like a fun day! Or should I say "yummy!" day?!!!

Happy weekend!

Unknown said...

Great green day, Jackie! :) The toilet water...haha! CUTE! I've made green milk before too. :)

Stacie, A Firefighter's Wife said...

Sounds like a busy and very productive day! Great deal on the cabbage!

I still say "yuck" to avacado pancakes!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh gee.. what a bunch of cabbage you've got there.. it's still 50 cents a pound here.. (ouch.. still waiting for the price to drop)

Looks like a fun day and I'm proud that you took the time to show your children what good food is all about.

with love,
Olivia

motherofmany said...

We started corning our own briskets and it is SO MUCH better than the store stuff. The flavor just can't compare. I don't even worry about having a brisket cut. If we want corned beef, I just use a roast.

Love the avacado pancake idea. I'm gonna try that one soon.

Freckles and Frogs said...

oh fun!!!! love the green toilet water! I hope that wasn't the dye I told you to get! We do have dye stains on our kitchen walls from too many crazy projects!

The avacado butter sounds yummy! as do the green pancakes!

Anonymous said...

I love the avocado pancake idea! I am always looking for something to accent our higher carb gluten-free flours.:)

Anonymous said...

Okay, Jackie, I forgot to tell you, I LOVED the toilet...that is hysterical. My boys would love that one! LOL

Unknown said...

Oh yes! We tinted the toilet water green, but I put it in the tank so that each time they flushed it would be green again. Somehow our milk also got tinted green. HMMM!

Chris said...

You are cracking me up with the green toilet water! Be my luck it would turn my bowl green and wouldn't be able to get it gone! LOL, all the foods looks good! I am starving by looking at it!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Motherofmany,
Thanks so much for the corned beef tip. I didn't know you could use other cuts. I was wondering if you could post or email me your corned beef recipe? Thanks so much for chiming in :)

Frogs and Freckles,
Yes, it was the dye you told me to get. So now you know that it is all your fault that my toilet seat now has green spots on it, LOL! It was worth it to see the look on my kids faces. Next time, I'm going to put it in the tank. Lesson learned!

Tina said...

Green in the toilet bowl! Gotta love it! I'll have to remember that one. (I'll tell you another fun thing to do - I've never done it for St. Patrick's Day but for a fun prank - unscrew the little cap on the faucet where the water comes out and put a few drops of food coloring and then screw it back on. The next person to use the sink gets colored water. Fun. :)
I'll have to try the avacado pancakes - one day when my family's all occupied and not looking at how I'm making them. :) It sounds good to me.
Thanks for the fun post.
In His love,
Tina

Freckles and Frogs said...

Sorry about the die! but at least it was for something fun!

christy rose said...

We don't usually celebrate St Pats Day except we usually have corned beef and cabbage some time in that week. we had it on Sunday the 14th this year. And yes it was prepackaged. Maybe next year I will think advanced enough to try it the healthy way. :) You inspire me!

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