Happy St. Paddy's Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!! Since we lived in Ireland for a year Adam and I like to think we're part Irish now, so this day is extra special to us. :) I've been going over recipes for days, trying to decide what to make that is Irish but that in all honestly, won't taste too Irish (hey, just keeping it real, Irish food...not so great, sorry Tom!). So, since this lovely holiday falls on a Thursday we're going to have some folks from church over on Saturday to celebrate. Here is my menu lineup:

Irish Stew

Beef and Guinness Pie

Honey Marmalade Mustard Corned Beef

Irish Soda Bread

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Irish Cream Caramel Sauce

Here's to hoping it tastes good even though its Irish!

B looked so cute today, she is wearing a green shamrock shirt to school today, of course I don't have my wits about me much in the AM to think to take a picture but if I remember later today I'll upload it to this post.

Dinner last night was good! Several folks have asked what I made so here was dinner last night:

Herbs de Provence Chicken - I don't really ever eat chicken that has bones in it, or skin, but this looked so good I made an exception (although, I didn't eat the skin and stayed far away from any meat touching the bone). I thought it was good but it wasn't as flavorful as I anticipated, but the herbs de Provence made my house smell soooo yummy so it might have been worth it just for that. And I like using my cast iron skillet, for some reason it seems hard core or something.

I bought 3 cheese bread at Panera and heated that up -YUM, we had cesar salad and my homemade specialty potatoes (which basically means I cut them in small pieces and smoother them w/ evoo, salt and pepper and bake at a high temperature for a long time).

Dessert: Key Lime Pie. This was very tasty but mine didn't look at all like the pictures AND ohmyword did it take me forever and a day to juice a million teeny tiny key limes to make up 3/4 of a cup (it actually didn't even make 3/4 of a cup, after a little over half a cup the large bag of key limes I bought had all been used to I had to just use plain lime juice that was already in my fridge). So, all that to say, definitely worth making but if you live in a place that actually has something like a Trader Joes or a store with some fancier products than we have here in Waco, I would hands down buy some pre-made key lime juice (and maybe our store has some...I'm not sure but I would be surprised). Anyhoo, delish nonetheless!

As for B and the dentist, it was a success!!! Adam and I both went with her, they said only one parent could actually be with her and she chose Adam (I was so relieved, he's much better at distracting her and being less...hyper/paranoid about each thing). Anyway, I could stay in the waiting room and peer through a window to watch and Adam and I texted the whole time "is that a dentist or hygienist? what are they saying? Is B okay? Is she freaking out? Are they being nice?" I'm sure Adam thought I was ridiculous but since it was her first time I so wanted her to have a good experience so she wouldn't be scared the next time she had to go. Anyway, she came out all smiles, a new toothbrush in hand, and said it wasn't bad at all! My mom always rewarded us with ice cream after the dentist so I decided to carry on this tradition. :) All in all, a busy but good day!




I hope you all have a great St. Patrick's Day, wear green and don't get pinched! The Winns HEART IRELAND!!! xo