Happy St. Patrick's Day! This has been a holiday I've enjoyed for a while but have lost some interest in it over time. I've always like Ireland: the music, the history, the culture, the beauty. So when one likes something, why not find out about some the most famous things of that place. I remember when I was in college I did a report for church history on Saint Patrick - learning much never taught in schools (at least public schools). Over time, life set in and St. Patrick's Day became a day to remember lest one of my darling children pinch me if I forgot to wear green! Just for the record, I am wearing green today -- I'm thankful for 7 year olds who don't forget such things. Also for 16 year olds whose favorite color is green and loves any excuse to make it a part of her day!
In a sort of celebration for St. Patrick's Day, Michelle at Big Black Dog placed on the schedule for HBin5 two types of bread that had green in them. I had been forewarned by reading others’ posts in the group that the bread doesn't turn out green. But having green ingredients is festive enough. One type is the Avocado-Guacamole Bread and the other is the Pesto Pine Nut Bread. The pesto bread intrigued me because basil is my favorite of herbs. Yet, I did not want to go out and buy enough fresh basil to make pesto. I also did not want to buy jarred pesto because I've always wanted to make my own, but never had a purpose to. So I decided this summer to make it when we have fresh basil in our garden. I had also debated for a while about the avocado bread. Guacamole is not my favorite thing in the world. I tend to take guacamole off of whatever I may order that it comes with. Do you know how disturbing guacamole looks hidden underneath a napkin at a restaurant? I do pity one waitress long ago who had to encounter that. Still, I hadn't given up all thoughts of making the bread. After reading posts in the group that said the avocado flavor didn't come through at all, and since avocados don't cost much, I decided to go for it. I was slow in getting it made, but I did do it! We had it for supper last night. I was happy with the texture and flavor. I probably won't make it again just for the fact alone...why? I like other breads in the book so much, why go to the effort? But I am glad that I did make it! All the kids ate their piece of bread at supper last night, but didn't ask for more. I didn't tell them what was in it until they had tried it. I am thankful they all ate what they had, but I didn't expect much more. I have picky kids... Anyway, here are the pictures of this loaf:
My mom and I are cooking for church tonight and we have a green dessert and lemon/limeade to celebrate the day. I am sure that Saint Patrick would be honored to be remembered for generations past his life, but I am not so sure he would like to think of people pinching in his name or wearing green because of him or eating corned beef and cabbage (which I don't like anyway...). But it is fun to have a reason to do something a little out of the ordinary.
We had our bread baking day at church about 2 weeks ago. It was so much fun! We had 12 people show up to learn to bake bread. I brought my camera to take pictures, but forgot to use it! There is talk of doing this another time. I think next they would like to learn to make something special like pizza or other types of bread rather than just the boule. But for starters they did great and we had so much fun together!
