I feel like we’ve been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all week around here!
I dressed Maelle up in her ‘Daddy’s Lucky Charm’ shirt on Monday, anticipating an Irish-themed dinner of corned beef and cabbage with Andrew’s parents. They’ve been babysitting Maelle for an hour on Mondays after dinner while we Zoom a parenting class through our church. Unfortunately, just as I’d finished all my grocery shopping, Andrew’s mom called to say his father was feeling sick. Poor guy couldn’t escape our bug, after it hit Andrew’s mom and our nephews! I decided to cook our Irish meal anyway, and the in-laws begging off may have been a blessing in disguise, as the two-pound corned beef I bought shrank quite a bit after cooking; I’m not sure I would have had enough to go around!
Just to clarify: we are not Irish. Not even close. BUT, I’ve always thought the holiday was fun–perhaps its my love of green?
I really enjoy decorating the house for St. Paddy’s day and Easter, and I even had shamrock nails for extra festivity! I’m obsessed with Color Street nail strips, and have been having SO. MUCH. FUN. doing my nails every week.
We always have the Nyes over for dinner on St. Patrick’s Day, and on the menu was Martha Stewart’s Beef-and-Stout Stew over Egg Noodles, because I couldn’t find my tried-and-true recipe (also a Martha Stewart). The stew was a hit, but I missed the rich, tomato flavor from the tomato paste in the other recipe. I’m usually very organized; I have no idea where that recipe went! I KNOW it was in my binder… I also made my usual Irish-American Soda Bread from King Arthur Flour. Andrew loves it–it may be the only ‘quick-bread’ he likes.
For dessert, I wanted something festive and to incorporate all the leftover green key lime-flavored M&Ms sitting in my candy dish. A quick Google search yielded a recipe for mini key lime cheesecakes with pastel M&Ms in the crust. Other than the fact that Andrew won’t eat cheesecake, it was perfect! I made them anyway, knowing I had a table full of people who would enjoy them with me.
The bits of lime-flavored candies in the crust made it extra sweet and crunchy.
Who could resist this little leprechaun??
On Saturday, I got an overdue haircut. I’ve been getting purple in my hair since the summer of 2018, so going on THREE YEARS now. Hard to believe it’s been that long. I’m not even really sure what prompted me to try it, but I fell instantly in love and have been doing it ever since. I think the key is to choose a color that fades well, and purple is perhaps–in my opinion–the only one that does. Putting the color only on the underside of my hair is a peek of purple, but also understated and ‘hideable’ if necessary. You also can’t see my roots growing out, which means I can go longer between touch-ups and keeps it looking nice.
My stylist is the best and makes sure I leave with my hair curled and looking amazing. If only I could make it look this good every day! I tell everyone that my hair appointments are the best two hours of my week!
We also received Maelle’s kitchen helper! She’s getting so curious about what’s on the kitchen counters and I enjoy having her help me with special baking projects. That is something I never anticipated; before becoming pregnant, I thought I would LOATHE kids in the kitchen with me, but I don’t. Quite the opposite, actually–I want to involve her in what I’m doing in the kitchen. She’s already ‘helped’ me make cupcakes!
Did you ever have ‘kitchen helpers’ or towers for your kids to participate in the kitchen?
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