Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today being St. Patrick's Day, I, of course, had to make something somewhat festive. When I was a kid my mom would make everything green. She would make cookies and bread and dye the dough green, so we'd have green sandwiches and green cookies. In the morning she'd dye the milk green (those were the powdered milk days, so it only made the milk even nastier than it already was - why is it that no matter how cold powdered milk is, it always tastes like warm milk? Ug...gross!). Then for dinner we'd always have corned beef and hash. I'm not such a corned beef fan, so I avoid it at all costs (much to my husband's dismay!). So this year I pretty much made the same thing as last year, switching things up a little. The jigglers were green this year and I bought bread rather than made it. I didn't like the Irish Soda bread much, so I was going to attempt some Beer Bread (Sprite works great in replacing the beer!), but didn't end up having the time. So here's my menu:

For Dinner:

• Oven Baked Fish (I used Wild Alaskan Cod this time...mmm)
• Colcannon (via Martha Stewart - see recipe below)
• Green (Lime) Jello Jigglers
• Garlic & Asiago Bread (from T.J.'s)
• Homemade Ginger Ale (See Recipe below)

For Dessert:

• Pistachio pudding with homemade whipped cream

Here's the recipes for Colcannon & Homemade Ginger Ale:

Colcannon

(photo and recipe via Martha Stewart)

• 1 1/2 lbs russet potatoes
• 1 savoy cabbage, tripped pale-green leaves finely shredded (4 cups)
• 1 leek, pale-green and white parts only, cut into 1/2" dice
• 1 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• Coarse salt

Preheat broiler. Peel and quarter potatoes, and place in a medium saucepan; add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to saucepan. Mash with a potato masher or pass through a ricer; cover pan to keep warm.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, combine cabbage, leek, milk, 2 Tbsp butter, and nutmeg; season with salt. Cover, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cabbage and leek is soft but not browned, about 15 minutes. Stir into potatoes.

Spread mixture in an 8" square baking dish. Make a small well in the center, and place under the broiler until lightly browned on top, about 5 minutes.

Remove from broiler. Place remaining 2 Tbsp butter in well. Serve immediately, spooning melted butter from well onto each serving, if desired.

Homemade Ginger Ale

(photo & recipe via Berlin's Whimsy)

• 2 cups rough chopped fresh ginger (about 3 large pieces)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• Large bottle of sparkling water
• Fresh limes (each beverage requires one half)

To make the Ginger Syrup Mix:

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the water and ginger pieces until barely simmering. Simmer for five minutes, turn off heat, cover and let steep for one hour. Drain the ginger water over a fine mesh strainer into a measuring cup. Discard the ginger pieces. Pour the mixture back into the same saucepan, add the sugar and gently heat this mixture until the sugar dissolves. Let cool and store this Ginger Syrup in the fridge.

To make a Ginger Ale:

In each tall glass, add ice, 2 parts ginger syrup, 1 part fresh-squeezed lime juice, 3 parts sparkling water. Stir and taste. Adjust amounts to your liking (I added more sparkling water).

A Feast for the 4th

We had an excellent feast for the 4th of July.  Some friends came up for the weekend and we ate our hearts out (most likely literally...or rather now our arteries are major clogged).  I really wasn't in the creative mood, so I turned to who other than (yes, you guessed right I'm sure) the Pioneer Woman.  She is just the best (if you can find me someone better, let me know).  Here's what was on the menu:

Jalapeno Poppers (I'm SO addicted!)

• fresh jalapenos
• cream cheese, softened
• bacon, sliced in 1/2 or 1/3 depending on size of bacon & jalapenos

Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise.  With a spoon, remove seeds and membranes (if you want it a little hotter, leave a little in).  Smear softened cream cheese into each jalapeno half.  Wrap jalapeno with bacon piece.  Stick toothpick through the middle.  Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375° oven for 20-25 minutes.  You don't want the bacon to shrink too much, but after 20 minutes if the bacon isn't brown enough, turn on the broiler for a couple minutes to finish it off.  

PW's Potato Salad

• 5 pounds potatoes (she uses russet, I used red)
  
• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
  
• 4 Tbsp prepared mustard
  
• 5 green onions, sliced
  
• 8 small pickles (she uses sweet, I used dill)
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp paprika
  
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
  
• 4 hard boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

Cut potatoes in halves or thirds, then boil until fork tender. Drain. Mash potatoes or run them through a ricer or food mill to make them extra fluffy.  Fold potatoes together with mayo, mustard, green onions, salt, pepper.  Fold in pickles and eggs, then taste for seasonings, adding more salt, mustard, or mayo as needed.  If need more moisture, can add a little pickle juice from the jar.

PW's Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

Dressing:

• 1 (7 oz) jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Salad

• 16 oz corkscrew pasta
• 1 jar olives (she used Kalamata, I used plain ol' sliced black olives)
• 1 pint ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
• Several basil leaves, chopped or julienne
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Prepare dressing by blending sundried tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, and vinegar until tomatoes are chopped.  Blend while drizzling in olive oil; continue blending until mixed together.  Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and rinse with cold water until no longer hot.  Pour 2/3 of the dressing over the pasta, add olives, and toss together.  Add remaining ingredients, tossing together and adding more dressing until the salad is coated to your liking.  Serve on a big platter with an extra sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

and these Tasty Burgers of My Husbands Own Creation

I really can't tell you exactly what was in the patty.  Basically into the ground beef he mixed in chopped bacon, goat cheese, Worcestershire, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cayenne, salt, and pepper (he's the mixing king!).  Then grilled them on up on the bar-b.  I topped mine with sliced avocado, fresh tomato, and caramelized onions.  Oh baby, it was tasty!

Green Smoothie Recipes

I thought I'd post a few our family-favorites! You may need to add less greens in the beginning (especially for the kiddos) and more fruit, but as you do this more and more, they will be able to drink more greens and like them! I sometimes sweeten their smoothies with a little agave nectar or raw honey. However, that's not really necessary if you use very ripe fruits. I hit the sales on super ripe bananas or day-old strawberries and freeze them in large batches. Frozen grapes are really good for smoothies too.

Smoothie #1

• 3 bananas
  
• 1 cup of papaya
  
• 4 big handfuls of baby spinach
  
• 2 cups of water
  

Smoothie #2 (similar to #1, but very still a hit)

• 3 bananas
  
• 3 huge handfuls of baby spinach
  
• 2 cups of water
  

Smoothie #3

• 2 bananas
  
• 6-7 strawberries
  
• juice from 2 oranges
  
• 2 handfuls of romaine
  
• 1 cup of water
  

Smoothie #4

• Half a head of green leaf lettuce
  
• 2 bananas
  
• juice from 2 tangelos
  
• 1/2 a bag of frozen mangoes
  
• 1 pear
  
• 1 cup of water
  

Smoothie #5

• 6 ounces of orange juice
  
• 1 cup of pineapple
  
• 1/2 cup of coconut milk (this is the best if you get a Thai coconut and use the water and meat, but the canned stuff works too)
  
• 2 handfuls of romaine
  

Smoothie #6

• 1 stalk of celery
  
• 2 cups of blueberries
  
• 1 banana
  
• 2 cups of water
  

Smoothie #7

• 6 to 7 romaine leaves
  
• 1 cup of red grapes
  
• 1 medium orange (peeled, but whole, not juiced)
  
• 1 banana
  
• 2 cups of water
  

Smoothie #8

• 2 large grapefruits- juiced
  
• 6-7 frozen strawberries
  
• 1 cup of peaches
  
• 2 handfuls of lettuce
  

Smoothie #9

• 4 ripe pears
  
• 4-5 kale leaves
  
• 1/2 bunch of mint
  
• 2 cups of water
  
• (I would add sweetener on this one!)
  

Smoothie #10

• 2 bananas
  
• 2 large collard or chard leaves
  
• 1/2 pack of Trader Joes frozen "Mangolicious" blend (has frozen mango, raspberries, and blueberries in it)
  
• 1-2 cups of water or orange juice
  

**You can substitute water with any juice you like. The amount you put in depends upon the consistency you like. My kids like it thick like ice cream...I like it almost as thin as juice.

The possibilities are endless really. You can add greens to any of your usual smoothie favorites. It will change the color, but if you do it in a small amount, it shouldn't take away from the flavor much. You can substitute in these recipes for any greens you like. The greens we use the most are kale, collard greens, chard, spinach, romaine, and bok choy. I try to use the dark leafy greens that my kids won't eat on their own, cooked or otherwise. I sometimes also add ground flax or nuts/nut butter for added protein. Most of these recipes will yield a quart of green smoothies (32 oz). Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Holli W.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Other than wearing green so I wouldn't get pinched, I've never been big on celebrating St. Patrick's day.  My mom used to bake green bread and die our milk green and all that fun stuff, but thats about it.  I guess I just never really knew why we celebrated it in the first place.  Now that I have kids old enough to care, I'm big on holiday celebrations, so today I thought I'd find the real reason why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day (and since I'm not Catholic or a beer drinker, it might be a good idea).  Here's a few of the facts I found, so I'll pass them on to you.  You can go here or here or even here.  There's fun facts like the color of St. Patrick used to be blue not green (I personally think the green came from Ireland being so green...took a lot to figure that one out!) or that the shamrock was St. Patrick's way of teaching the people about the holy Trinity or that St. Patrick was said to have rid Ireland of all snakes (did you know that Ireland has NO snakes?), but really they think that the snakes meant Druids, who's symbol was the snake.  Anyhow, St. Patricks Day is (obviously) big in Ireland, but it seems that it came to the good ol' USA with the Irish settlers here.  I guess its a good thing I've got some Irish in me (I think) and that I like Ireland - I'd really LOVE to visit there some day and even though I can't understand 1/2 of what they say, I LOVE their accents! ;)

Alright, enough of the trivia and on with the food.  Of course I had to throw in some green food for the kids, but I wanted to make some good ol' Irish food.  I opted out of the Corned Beef & Cabbage because (gasp) I can't stand corned beef.  I know, I know.  My husband loves it, but everything about it just grosses me out.  Soooo, instead we had the following (oh and I didn't mention that we had green eggs for breakfast):

• Oven Baked Fish
• Colcannon - a traditional Irish potato dish.
• Pot O' Gold Jello - lemon (yellow) jello jigglers made in ice cube trays and stacked like gold bars.
• Irish Soda Bread
• Ginger Beer for my hubby (I can't stand the stuff).  It's not Irish, in fact its Caribbean, but the bottle was green and it gave us the feel for the Irish beer tradition without actually drinking beer...silly us!
• Sprite for the kiddies - those mini green cans were perfect!

For dessert we enjoyed:

• Shamrock Truffles from Bakerella of course!  I couldn't find Double Stuffed Mint Oreos, so I just used Mint Joe-Joes from Trader Joes and they turned out excellent!
• Leprechaun Pudding - Pistachio pudding topped with homemade whip cream.

I hope all of you had as tasty of a St. Patrick's day as we did!  

Mango Lassi

My hubby and I are big fans of Indian food.  Every time we go I HAVE to have a mango lassi!  Lassis are yogurt fruity drinks and they're SO stinkin' good!  Tonight I decided to make my own.  I looked at a few recipes, but essentially just did my own thing.  So here's what I came up with and it was SO delicious!  PS - don't know if this is real authentic Indian, but its worth a try anyway!

• 1 cup frozen (or fresh) mango cubes
• 1 cup Vanilla non-fat yogurt (I used Trader Joe's French Village)
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• about 1 cup water
  

Place all ingredients in blender; blend.  Taste - if its too thick, add more water or juice.  If it is too sour, you can add honey or sugar if you want.  Enjoy!

Lemon Berry Smoothie

My son has been asking for a few days now to make smoothies, so I finally did it.  It was really easy and I just used what I had.  This was a "throw it all in and blend it and hope it tastes good" kind of a recipe.  They did turn out really good and my boys loved them!

• Frozen lemon juice (I used 2 ice cubes worth)
• Frozen berries (I used Boysenberries - about 2 cups)
• Milk
• Sugar (about 1/4 c)

Put frozen lemon juice, berries, sugar, and some milk in blender; blend.  Add milk as needed to get smoothie to be the right consistency.  When it is all blended, taste and add more sugar if needed.  Serve and enjoy!

Julie R.

AG, CA

Fresh Lemonade

We have a plethera of fresh lemons we picked this week that I needed to use up, so we made fresh lemonade...very refreshing!

• 1 quart water
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup FRESH lemon juice
• **Sparkling water (NOT tonic water, like Perrier)

Mix first three ingredients together.  Fill a tall glass 2/3 to 3/4 with lemon mixture then fill with sparkling water.  

An interesting variation is to puree some fruit (raspberries, strawberries, mango, etc) with a little superfine or powdered sugar and put that in the glass before adding the lemonade and water.

** If you don't have sparkling water, add an extra cup of plain water to the pitcher.

Julie R.

AG, CA