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