Happy St Patty's Day!

First let me say how happy we are to have Milo home! He got neutered yesterday and had to spend the night at the animal hospital, but he is home and doing well! He did earn himself a cone last night though, but he is looking awfully cute in his St. Patty's Day bandanna!

Today's activity was supposed to be an opportunity for Maddie to use her scissors but she cut a piece or two and handed them over to me to finish up.


I drew a shamrock on a sheet of white cardstock for Maddie to glue on and then gave her a few strips of green paper and her scissors.


She was happy to glue all the bits of paper on the shamrock though. And then of course she asked for the glitter!


Beautiful!

I figured I would also post the recipe I am using for our St. Patty's Day dinner. Personally I can't stand corned beef and cabbage so that was a no go in my house. Instead I found a recipe for Irish Beef Stew on Kraft Foods; one of my absolute favorite recipe sites! I can't tell you how tasty it is until tomorrow though!



Irish Beef Stew

Prep Time: 15 min

Total Time: 1 hr 30 min

Makes: 6 servings

2 Tbsp. oil

1-1/2 lb. trimmed boneless beef round steak, cut into 3/4-inch thick chunks

2 Tbsp. flour

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) beef broth

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 env. GOOD SEASONS Garlic & Herb Dressing Mix

3 medium potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 pieces

3 cups hot cooked noodles

HEAT oil in 5-quart saucepot on medium-high heat. Coat meat with flour. Add to saucepot with onion; cook and stir until browned. Stir in broth, tomatoes and dressing mix. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes.

ADD potatoes and carrots; cover. Simmer an additional 30 minutes. Remove cover; simmer 15 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

SERVE over noodles.

REVIEW: Absolutely Delicious! I will definitely be filing this recipe away to use again. I did make a few minor changes though. I added some fresh chopped garlic, and about a quarter cup of Guinness beer while I was browning the meat. I also ended up cooking it about 20 minutes longer than suggested to make sure that my veggies were perfectly cooked! I also didn't add the noodles, I thought they would be a little too much for this recipe.