St. Patty's Day, Traditions

We are big time St. Patty's Day fans in our house because first of all, it's our wedding anniversary and second of all, we come from a strong Irish background on Grandma B's side. So we had the traditional Corned Beef dinner with a sweet Irish BBQ Sauce and Pistachio Salad and Irish Soda Bread and Blarney Stones for dessert. Blarney Stones are a homemade white cake cut into squares and frozen and then frosted with a thick gingerbread cookie-type icing and rolled in salted peanuts and refrozen. I was afraid to make the Irish Soda Bread because baking bread scares me. Yeast just does not like me. But I've been thinking the problem is that I have not been kneading my bread enough and this is why it does not rise all pretty and fluffy like I want it to. So this time I left it stuck in the Kitchen Aid with a bread hook until it had a "gluten window", which means when you tear a piece off and stretch it the bread does not break right away, but forms a thin "window" in the middle that is almost transparent. It seemed to work, and by the time it was done rising and baking it was quite fluffy and beautiful.

The one on the right has a Gluten Window

For something fun this year we decided to make Leprechaun traps, using the examples in this month's Family Fun Magazine. Here's the link: http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/ff0309-to-catch-a-leprechaun/ff0309-to-catch-a-leprechaun3.html. They have several really cute Leprechaun trap ideas. Bob painted the rocks and pots and glued them together, and then he and Buzz made some rainbows for the backdrops. We left them on the table overnight and in the morning, the Leprechaun had run through them and rearranged them and left Leprechaun tracks! He also managed to turn our milk green... Sneaky little bugger!

Leprechaun traps before bedtime on March 16th

Leprechaun traps before breakfast on the morning of March 17th... Sneakers!! :)

The boys decided to take their Leprechaun traps to school and got to show their friends and in Buzz's class, a Leprechaun even ran through his trap and swiped his pot of gold!! It was fun and the kids' friends had fun too as one of the teachers gave them golden painted beans to take home as a remembrance.