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18 March 2011

how the seventeenth of march turned out for us...









 What I (and we) did:
  • Wore my green with a plush clover I made with felt, fabrics and a gold button. The button was a nice touch for me because it looked like a coin but also represented a cross to me (with the arrow pointed upward). I also wanted that old school feel of pinning a piece of green onto your clothing like when I was a kid so I used a safety pin to attach it. The bird pin is from Zapol Designs and the Butterbeer badge from Celeste Frittata (wait, I mean from Harry Potter, of course) ;) 
  • Made sure Nat had her green on but still gave her a few playful pinches before taking her to school.
  • Played Flogging Molly's Pandora radio station in the kitchen while I worked. Lots of fun music for the day!
  • Baked zucchini oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. I put the oatmeal in a food processor for smoother texture and substituted walnuts for the granola. So very yum and will definitely be making more of these soon!
  • Cooked mustard glazed corned beef with cabbage and potatoes (for the first time)! Had to be resourceful with items I already had so subbed the whole grain mustard with spicy brown, the cider vinegar with apple cider vinegar and butter gold potatoes for the red potatoes. I am not a huge mustard fan but the glaze/dipping sauce was really amazing (thanks to brown sugar too)!
  • Made a green fruit and veggie smoothie as a refreshing and tasty snack for Natalie, Rick and myself (as requested by Natalie since last week)!
  • Gathered up a hodge podge of greenery to make as my centerpiece. I adorned the vase with a hankie I got a the dollar spot in Target and placed two spoons I had decoupaged. One with a paper clover and heart that I wrote love on and the other with an actual clover from one of our potted plants.
  • Placed more kissing blarney stones on the table. Another gal with fuller lips and two more gentlemen. One, especially, I have named 'The Abbott' because it reminds me of the character of the same name from the amazingly illustrated film, The Secret of Kells (if you haven't seen it yet, you need to).
  • Gave a shout out to my Millan family via facebook about where our heritage before Puerto Rico may have come from. We could have descended either from the surname Aemilianus (Roman) or McMillan (Scottish) and be from any where of the following places: Ireland (yay St. Patrick's day!), Scotland, England, Germany, Spain or even Russia. It's pretty neat since I always joke with my dad  about him  really being secretly Irish. He has a freckles, had red hair the first five years or so of his life and took a liking to fighting and drinking (insert apology here for the stereotypes).
  • After the evening was done with cooking, Nat's softball game, dinner and a handful of cookies, I read this amazing post from Pastor Mark Driscoll on who St. Patrick really was and what he was really all about titled St. Patrick: One of the Greatest Missionaries who ever lived.
What I still want to do:
  • I didn't get to share with Natalie yesterday about the real story of St. Patrick (see above link and previous post). I still want to to let her know the day is more than just a fun and partying sort of day.
  • Make Irish Soda Bread, Irish Soda Bread cookies and other delicious desserts and food (like Irish Stew). Also Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread and  Pea and Coriander soup from the Food Network's special, Bobby's Ireland.
  • Continue to bring fresh greenery into the house. It livens it up and feels so refreshing and 'Spring' like!
All in all, we had a very fun and....


and I hope you and yours had one too!

4 comments:

Mama Teaching 3 said...

Everything was so cute!!!!

Violet Folklore said...

Um, OKAY, you are super handmade mama of the century over there! Seriously Andrea, my mind is blown. I put a green dress on both myself and Mycelia and called it a day.

My good friend Christy is half Puerto Rican and half Irish- she is a hoot! We can go from booty shakin' hip-hop at one bar to fiddle-playin' bluegrass at the next with no stop in dance floor activity :-)

Love & hugs to you guys.

Amber Dusick said...

Good grief, that is quite a list. Blending the oatmeal for better texture is pretty genius. Those cookies look amazing and the painted stones are adorable.

Unknown said...

mama -- thank you so much!

amber violet -- i bet you have a blast with her!! great combo ;)
this was the first time i went all out and i really enjoyed it! hoping to make it a tradition for sure!

amber d.-- every cookie that calls for oatmeal just has a better texture when done that way. at least, for me it does. thanks about the stones too. i love decorating rocks!