Happy St. Patty's Day

My friend Kathleen over at Cuisine Kathleen hosts a yearly St. Patty's Day Blog Crawl. Its always lots of fun and I wouldn't dream of missing it :-) Its always a challenge for me though because I really don't have an Irish heritage or even many green things in my house. So I like to turn it into a kind of Green scavenger hunt. Be sure and check out all of the other fun posts at Kathleens.



What better place to hunt for GREEN than the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. There was a "Once Upon a Time" theme and the Wind in the Willows display had some really interesting glass green grasses.



I fell in love with this cute little green moss


At the Alice in Wonderland exhibit, Alice found a nice grassy green lawn chair to sit on!


How about some beautiful green orchids?


Vertical growing was seen in several of the exhibits. Green growing up!



Now this is taking "Going Green" to a whole new limit. I wonder if there is a putting green on the roof?


I loved these lush green steps


Apart from the fantastic display gardens there was a lot of fantastic window shopping and plenty of cool green things.




I'd love to have one of these washed green figures on my garden fence


More green glass - this time bamboo


These fat funny green leaves seemed to be a big attraction at the Monrovia display


There were even green houses on display.


This big green ball was a great find on my scavenger hunt


And this green gate..which was part of the gate competition would be beautiful leading into an Irish cottage


More green glass...this one a fountain


I was tempted to bring this green flutterby back to my garden


Ahhh now we're getting really warm or..er...green!


And finally I found the green prize...sending a virtual one to Kathleen for being such a fantastic host.



So I always have great intentions of doing an Irish spread or setting a beautiful green table, but somehow my big plans never quite pan out. So instead of the whole shabang we get a few wee bits o' green from my kitchen and a tiny leprechaun of a table setting for two. I was going for kind of a Green with a pot of gold at the end of a Rainbow kind of thing. What I ended up with was a bit of a mess lol!



I tried my hand at a green 4 leaf clover napkin and learned a couple of things. Square napkins are not always square and its looks a lot easier on the video!


I saw this bouquet at the grocery store and fell in love with the little green mums



The exact same color green as the inside of my new rainbow bowls


Under everything is my Mom's tablecloth that I confiscated when she brought it out for my wedding. Please pardon the dark photo. It is really a lot lighter cream than shown below..see above! Plus green leaves!


And finally the Pot of Gold along with two cute green grass patterned glasses I found at Goodwill.



My Green Food Contributions...hardly Irish, but Green none the less. How about a pot of green and gold otherwise known as Mangoes and Kiwi!



I was planning on doing an avocado dressing and salad, but when I peeled this smooth skinned Bacon Avocado it was so creamy and good I ate it at the counter as fast as I could slice it!


The next Green from my kitchen is about as close to Irish as I made it this go round and that's only because I had some Guiness left over from last year...Beer Braised Collard Greens


The greens cooked up really yummy though.


Inspired by recipe found HERE at Budget Bytes.

Beer Braised Collard Greens
2 T olive oil
1 med onion chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
12 oz beer
Chicken bouillon or base plus 2 cups water or 2 cups broth
1 large bunch collard greens, washed, stems removed and chopped
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
black pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a large pot and allow to come to boil with lid on. Once boiling stir will and reduce heat to low. Simmer until greens are desire tenderness. Collards can cook for a very long time without getting mushy. Mine went for 2 hours but would have been good well before that. Stir every 15 mins or so.

And finally my crowning GREEN Glory....GREEN GOOK (also known as Watergate Salad). I'm not sure if anyone else calls it Green Gook. I think my family made that up lol. This was a staple with Sunday dinners at my family when I was growing up. Some versions call for marshmallows. We mostly skipped that. Its been years since I've had it and I have been thoroughly enjoying it! It's not the prettiest dish, but it certainly is Green!



Green Gook - found on the Pistachio Jello Instant Pudding box & suited to my taste

1 can (20 oz.) DOLE Crushed Pineapple, in juice, undrained

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding

1 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans

1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping or equal amount of whipped cream

Mix all ingredients. Stir well. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving or eat it right away like me.

Kathleen...sending thanks for being such a great friend and hostess. It was another fun time this year!

An Irish Prayer

May God give you

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

May the strength of God pilot us,

May the wisdom of God instruct us,

May the hand of God protect us,

May the word of God direct us.

Be always ours this day and forever more.

I'm having a Great Cooking Magazine Challenge this weekend on Sunday March 20th. Please join me with your magazine clipping inspired recipes! See this LINK for earlier events.

I'm also joining in for Table Top Tuesday & Janmary's St. Patrick's Day Bloggy Carnival.