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!

Keeping it REAL

I have been putting a post together in my head regarding the food choices that hubs and I make and our philosophy on food. We are very passionate about the 90/10 rule (eat REAL food 90% of the time, and for the other 10%-leave it open to eating in restaurants, people's homes, etc.), as well as a balanced diet high in protein. We eat a lot of grass-fed beef, organic/free-range chicken/eggs, wild fish (never farmed...I just threw up in my mouth a little thinking about salmon force-fed corn and soy...barf!), whole grains, organic fruit (in moderation), loads of organic veggies, raw dairy when we can get it-organic full fat when we can't. I love to bake but have cut back on that tremendously-and when I do, it is with coconut flour, coconut oil, and the good ingredients I listed above (use sucanat, maple syrup (from Gpa V's farm!) or raw honey for sweetener. Any who...I came across this blog post today from one of my most favorite sites for recipes-Heavenly Homemakers, and felt that they did a better job summing up my thoughts that I could. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!!

REAL Food...click here!

Pinterest Recipes

Today, I want to share some recipes that I have made off of Pinterest. For those of you that have Pinterest, you can check out my board titled "Recipes I have tried," but for those of you who don't (MMF and MOM!) here are the links to the recipes as well as my critics review.

Thai coconut Curry Shrimp-you find the recipe here. This was delicious and a nice change of pace from the usual, although it was slightly spicy. Next time I will only use about 1/2 T. of red curry paste.

Mongolian Beef-YUMMY! Even better than what you can find at most restaurants, IMHO. Find the recipe here.

Creamy Mushroom and Roasted cauliflower soup. A great way to use up some delicious organic mushrooms and cauliflower from our organic produce co-op. This is a great comfort food dish, and a chunk of crusty bread would be a great accompaniment! Check it out!

Finally, our dessert! Salted Caramel Pretzel bark. I made this for a party I hosted a few weeks ago, and to say it was a hit, well...that would be an understatement! The recipe is not correct though...the butter/sugar mixture needs to be boiled for 7 minutes, not 3, in order for it to properly harden when set. Make it yourself, it's super easy-see for yourself here!

And that, ladies and gents, are just a few of the recipes I have tried off of Pinterest. I saw someone's FB status the other day-look at the 3rd recipe I have tried from Pinterest. Really? 3? Amateur. As of today, I have made 31 recipes off of Pinterest. 31! The 'unhealthy' stuff I have made for parties or to take to church, or delivered to new moms in the area, and the healthy stuff for me and G. Some have been flops, but others (like the four I shared today) were awesome!

Snow? In Seattle? Whaaaatttt?

Mom says that lots of people have been asking how we survived the snow/ice storm that attacked the Pacific Northwest last week. We did fine, and were lucky to not lose electricity, unlike some areas of the state where people have been without power for 6 days! Graham worked from home 3.5 out of 5 days last week, and the only time I left the house from Sunday morning until Friday evening was on foot. The roads weren't horrible (we have certainly experienced worse!), however neither one of us wanted to deal with Seattle-ites who aren't used to driving in this stuff. We got about 3 inches on Sun-Mon, most of which melted Tues, then another 3-4 inches on Wed, and then about 1/2-3/4 in of ice on Thursday. Of course the ice was the worst, and the scariest. People were freaking out, but you know what freaked out MORE? Trees. There were trees snapping and falling over and crashing into houses and blocking roads ALL OVER THE PLACE. Even the trees couldn't deal with the extreme weather. Here are some pics that we took (sorry there aren't more...I am bad at taking pics!)

the beginning...

3 hours later.

It all melted (more or less) by Sunday morning...back to rain this week :)

Here he is!

Our puppy-at about 3 weeks old! We get him on Feb 18!

That's a face only a mother could love :)