St. Patty's traditions-old and new

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite food days of the year. Can you guess why? Corned beef, of course! I l-o-v-e corned beef. Def one of my top 5 all time favorite foods. Luckily, hubs is completely on board so he encourages the twice yearly consumption (the other day being new years day). This also had its downside as he makes me share the leftovers. Boo. Anywho. This year I served organic cabbage (steamed lightly) and the. most. amazing. whole wheat Guinness bread. OMGosh. This is amazingly delicious and I highly recommend you plan to make this ASAP.

I lifted the recipe from thischickcooks.net, a really fun whole foods cooking blog that I follow. Here is the recipe this chick uses, but it looks like she snagged it from allrecipes.com:

Guinness Bread

1 cup regular rolled oats, plus extra to sprinkle on top

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup melted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

12 ounce bottle Guinness ( its a stout beer)

Preheat oven to 425. Grease an 8 inch pan (I used my cast iron skillet). Mix together dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl combine wet ingredients  Pour the flour mixture into the beer mixture and stir just until mixed. Pour the batter into the baking pan and sprinkle the top with oats.

Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 20-25 minutes. Turn the oven off and let the bread cool in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Source: Allrecipes.com

I followed this recipe verbatim. And guess what happened? A large portion of the cake ended up on the 'floor' of the oven and actually burst into flames. PANIC ATTACK ensued. (a moment of silence for all of the deliciousness that was diminished to ashes...). Next time (and there wil be a next time!), I will bake in a regular loaf pan. It would probably even work as muffins, but the baking time would have to be adjusted.

I love trying new recipes, and hubs and I def agree-add this one to the yearly traditional St. Patty's Day meal!

Crafty Tuesday

I have been a busy little bee lately in the crafting department. Invites for sis's BP, her shower, making her guestbook, working on my own cards, baby project for my new "niece" Anna Elise (can't wait to meet you little miss!) and creating a few gifts for sis along the way. I can't show some of the stuff until after her wedding, but for now-here are some cards I have made:

The cutest thing since sliced bread...

at least, WE think so! :)

Java loves to crawl on our backs, shoulders, necks...he is a climber and a snuggler! I love to curl up to read a book with him tucked into my side! He is SO PRESH. And he is a really, REALLY good dog. I don't want to say it too loudly...but...he is pretty much potty-trained, and has been for about 10 days now (he has been home with us for 3 weeks). He knows the routine, he sleeps through the night, he doesn't destroy the house or tear stuff up...so far, the biggest issue we have with him is his nipping when we are playing. He has his first (of 6) obedience classes starting next week, so we are hoping to learn how to get him to stop with that. Otherwise, we are pretty darn happy with our little addition!

If he knew how much publicity he was getting on this blog, he would be digging it-he is an attention hog, for sure!