ST. PATTY'S DAY FEAST

4 posts in 4 days
you're welcome!

So as you may have known yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  You may have also known that I also received my mother's love for holidays.  So it should come as no surprise that I would want to celebrate this day.  Growing up mom always colored our milk green.  In the words of one of my brother's "Green milk is yucky." Yes, they are 24 & 26 and still use the word "yucky".  I didn't color our milk green, but I did want to celebrate with food.  

Clayton had seen a Green Salad recipe on the KUTV 2 morning news the other day.  So we did an all green salad, Salmon and Irish Soda Bread.  

I had my doubts about the salad, but it really was amazing.  The "salad" portion is just Romaine lettuce and any green veggies you want.  We used peas, green pepper, broccoli, green onions, cucumber, and celery (was going to use zucchini and asparagus, but didn't have time).  If you ask me it was the dressing that made this salad special.  Since I like you here is the recipe:

AVOCADO DRESSING

1 large ripe avocado

grated peel and juice of 1 lime

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp honey

salt and pepper (too taste)

4 TBSP milk

Halve avocado and scoop flesh out into blender or food processor.  Add grated lime peel, lime juice, garlic, honey, salt, pepper, and 2 TBSP milk.  Think with remaining milk if necessary.

Here is the website it came from

Trust me it is D.E.L.I.S.H

On to the Irish Soda Bread...

I am a virgin when it comes to making this bread.  I didn't even have a recipe.  What do you do when that happens?  You head to allrecipes.com or food.com of course.  I love those websites because you can read reviews/comments and get ratings.  Anyway I was trying to decide between 3 recipes.  I hate decisions and wanted someone to choose for me.  Then I saw IT and knew that IT was the ONE.  It's all in the name...all in the NAME.

Grandma McAndrews' Irish Soda Bread

Clayton said it best..."If our last names (McMurdie and my maiden name of Andrew) were to have a love child it would be McAndrew."

Recipe was found Here

Someone on the website said that they topped it with brown sugar.  I tried that, but don't think that I will do it again.  I think overall the bread turned out pretty tasty...but then I don't have anything to compare it too. 

Don't mind the overripe bananas in the background.  They will be finding a nice home in bread within the next few days.

We finished up the night watching madness unfold in the

NCAA 2011 basketball tourney.

BYU won (little too close for comfort)

USU lost (that is the last time I pick the Ag's to make an upset)

Other "Idiot of the Night" Awards go to ...

* St. Johns for losing to Gonzaga

* Penn State for losing to Temple

* Michigan State for losing to UCLA

* Vanderbilt for losing to 12th seeded Richmond

As you can see from the family's ESPN Tournament Challenge group below I am not doing so well.

(you can click on the image to see my pathetic standing better)

Still early though...