Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who are celebrating this very traditional holiday here in the US.

I always have the pleasure of attending St. Patrick’s Day party, hosted by my daughter and her husband.

If you are still searching for party food ideas, I will contribute with links to my previous posts of  “green” food recipes for this occasion.

You can also check out my Pinterest board for “Party Foods”, for lots of new ideas and recipes.

 

Perfect Non-alcoholic Green Punch for those who prefer to keep it that way, or for ALL designated drivers.

Not only green, but really filling and delicious, is this Broccoli/Bacon/Cheese salad.  Everyone’s favorite…really!

 

 

Green Beans Vinaigrette is another wonderful salad for St. Paddy’s Day.

 

 

I like to prepare  a  Corned Beef, cabbage and boiled potatoes meal for my family, around St. Patrick’s Day, just to be a good sport, and support those who are more into it.

 

You know how the Irish feel about their potatoes…hence these Irish Potato Pancakes.  Sooooo yummy!!

I am always looking for your comments and suggestions of party foods you like to prepare.  Thank you.

Enjoy your party!!

  

Another exciting birthday party to write about.

My grandson just turned TWO, and since he is really into all the alphabet games, puzzles, and books, his parents chose the Alphabet Theme for his birthday party.

His mom was very creative with the birthday cake, as you can see in the picture above, and below.

Besides being delicious, it was very specially made with lots of effort to create a checkered design.

She chose his favorite colors of blue and green, and a special insert had to be used for separating the different color batters, while filling the cake pans with it, to achieve the checkered effect.  Don’t you agree that it looks wonderful?

The six layer cake was frosted with homemade vanilla butter frosting, and decorated with colorful sugar alphabet letters.  She also baked large alphabet letter sugar cookies, which the children were able to decorate with edible food color markers.

In addition to the cake, there were lots of miniature cupcakes  (skinny recipe), with just a dab of cream cheese frosting, and dinosaur sprinkles.

The Birthday Boy is also fascinated with dinosaurs, so many of his birthday cards and gifts supported that interest.  He will be busy playing with all of these until a new interest springs up by the next party.

 

Besides  his special Birthday Cake, he had a second cake to be used on his “official” birth date (in 3 days), and it sure came in handy as he shared it with his parents and grandparents, just before going to the museum in NYC to check out the display of some HUGE dinosaurs.  Nothing can beat that!!

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the cake was spelled out with actual wooden letter blocks. Cute and creative, to say the least.

Since the party was in the alphabet theme, the whole party room was decorated with letters, and each letter had an appropriate picture of the birthday boy’s activities from the past year.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a favorite one of mine:

I refer to this particular picture display ” Like Father Like Son”, since the black and white picture is of the father of the Birthday Boy, at the age of two, also trying on big shoes , as his son did the same this year, with his dad’s shoes.

Isn’t this just so adorable and precious?

   
It was a beautiful sunny day, so lots of play activity centers were set up outdoors; a perfect place for the little ones to have fun.

They loved the swing and slide center, the soccer ball and goal net, and most of all, the numerous cardboard boxes with alphabet letters printed on them.

 

These cardboard boxes had large alphabet letters painted on all sides, and the kids had so much fun playing with them.

I am sure these will be used again in the future months, as fun spelling sessions, as well as building blocks, and scrabble games.  Very creative, inexpensive, and fun idea.

 

The adults and kids  had lots of fun playing the “Cornhole” game, swimming in the pool, and being entertained by the show at the outdoor “ABC Theater” (yes these are the stage curtains, trying to stay down on a windy day).

Very talented cast, garbed in their spur of the moment costumes, entertained everyone with the  reenactment of a popular fable about The Great Big Turnip (Reepka – in Ukrainian), narrated by the  Mom the of the Birthday Boy.

It was lots of fun for everyone, and the little ones were very attentive, while munching on their special snacks prepared for the occasion.

The party favors for the young crowd consisted of cute alphabet letter baskets filled with numerous favors, plus homemade crayola crayon letters, which spelled out the name of the recipient of the favor.

There also was large bowl filled with an assortment of sweet treats for those who were allowed to enjoy them, as some parents are very conservative about their kids sugar intake.

 

Last,but not least, is the display of the pre-party appetizers, which included fruit platter, Nirchi’s Pizza from Endicott, NY, Buffalo Hot Wing Chicken Dip, veggies and chips, Ukrainian smoked sausages (Kabanosy) from East Village Meat Market in NYC, Eggplant and Mint Bruschetta, Tomato Bruschetta, Red Beet Carpaccio, Grilled Shrimp with Zucchini and Avocado salad, freshly baked Frico Chips, numerous other kids snacks, and lots of refreshing drinks.

Our family parties are known for more than enough food to please everyone.

After the cake, there was more food served for dinner…..but I failed to capture it on camera (I must have been all partied out….).

It was a fun party, and I applaud the parents of the Birthday Boy for doing such a wonderful job with the party

planning, and final execution of these plans.

I hope you enjoyed my short synopsis of the Alphabet Theme 2nd Birthday Party.

 

If you like egg salad, but don’t care for the mayo in most of them, you will enjoy this recipe.

I personally like small quantities of Hellmann’s Light Mayo in my salads, but some of our family members do not like mayo at all, so I am on a lookout for mayo alternatives.

Today I created a light version of egg salad with Avocado and Greek Yogurt.

I used Light Style Pepperidge Farm 7 Grain bread, which has only 45 calories per slice.

What a great sandwich it turned out to be. Yum!

This recipe yields 1 sandwich.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 avocado, cubed
• 1 Tbs. Plain  Greek Yogurt (or Light Sour Cream if you don’t like yogurt)
• 1 1/8 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tbs. chopped chives
• 1 tsp. chopped dill weed (or cilantro if you prefer)
• 1 tsp. chopped red pepper (or tomatoes)
• Pinch of sea salt
• Black pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. Place 2 eggs in a sauce pan filled with enough cold water to cover the eggs.
2. Bring to boil and cook until done (check out this link for perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs).
3. Peel cooked eggs. (I like to crack the hot egg shells with the back of a spoon, then cover them with very cold water, to cool them off for few minutes, which makes the shell practically fall off the egg during peeling).
4. Cut eggs into small cubes, and set aside.
5. Cut out 1/4 of an avocado, peel and cube as well.
6. Add avocado to eggs.
7. In a small bowl add the Plain Greek Yogurt, chopped Chives, Dill, chopped Red Pepper, vinegar, salt and black pepper.
8. Mix all together.
9. Fold into the egg and avocado mixture.
10. Serve on your favorite bread, with lettuce leaves, or sliced tomatoes, or both.

Enjoy.

This summer has been quite hot, thus more challenging to keep the veggie and flower garden hydrated enough to keep it alive and productive.

We already enjoyed fresh strawberries, raspberries, and herbs from my garden, so today I harvested my other veggies as shown in this picture.

Since I do not use any chemicals in my veggie garden, it is very pure and organic.

So you ask – “what will you be doing with all of these veggies you harvested”?

I will list each harvested vegetable individually, and link it to my favorite recipes posted previously, for your cooking convenience and pleasure.

If you like my posts, and/or pictures, please share them with your family and friends, through the above links to Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Stumble Upon, and Twitter.     THANK YOU:)

I also started  my own Pinterest board, if you like to visit, please click on this link:  http://pinterest.com/vmkz/

 

 

This is my small garden, which keeps me happily busy, and produces all of these fresh veggies for our family.

 

These lettuce leaves are from Black Seeded Simpson seeds, by Liberty Garden.  The leaves are very tender and mild in taste.  I gently pick off the individual leaves from the main plant stem, so the stem continues to grow and produce new leaves.  A white milky fluid seeps out when snipping them away from the stem.  Perfect lettuce leaves to use in Tossed Salad, of Chef’s Salad.

Red Beets are a must in my garden, as my Eastern European recipes require these for soups and salads.  They have grown  from Detroit Dark Red, Moses’s Strain seeds, by Ferry-Morse.

Some of my recipes prepared with red beets are:  Ukrainian Traditional Christmas Borscht, Quick and Easy Ukrainian Borscht, Botvinka Soup (Borscht), Red Beet Vinaigrette (Easter Burachky), Exotic Red Beet Salad   (my favorite).

 

These Green Beans come in several varieties. You can select the bush kind, or the climbing type.

I usually plant the bush kind – Garden Bean- Greencrop- (Bush Snap) by Burpee.  I also tried the climbing one, which needs to be staked – Garden Bean- Burpee’s Tenderpod.  These pods are not as tender, and not stringless (not my favorite).

Cooked or steamed Green Beans are always a great accompaniment to a main meal, in a casserole, or as a Green Bean Vinaigrette Salad.

Most of you are probably not very familiar with the above leafy vegetable.  No, it is not Spinach, it is Sorrel.  It is not readily found at your corner grocer either, that is why I plant my own.

The closest you will come to it, is it’s byproduct, which you will find in a Kosher section, packaged in a glass jar, labeled as Shchav.  However, in my opinion, it is not as tasty as my recipe for Sorrel Borscht – Shchav.

Zucchini and Squash are also easy to grow, and produce in abundance.  Besides Zucchini Bread, this veggie is great in a delicious Zucchini/Tomato Casserole, or Zucchini and Goat Cheese Fritters.  My mom loved zucchini and squash sliced,  and sauteed with onions and garlic, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Italian Seasonings.   Zucchini or squash are excellent, additional ingredients, in a vegetable soup, and great for grilling.

Tomatoes and Basil, are taking the center stage here, since they both are so versatile in usage in myriad of recipes. Every year I am trying different varieties of tomatoes, and this year I planted Early Girl, and Rutgers.  The Early Girl is doing very well, and producing lots of large fruits, but next year I will have to give a second chance to the Rutgers variety, since this year they are not doing as well.

 

It was very difficult to select only few recipes for this veggie, so I decided to share: HomemadeTomato Soup, Party Canapes (best party food ever), and Pesto Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese Spread, also my favorite.

Last, but not least, are the Yukon Gold Potatoes.  If you have been reading my posts, you already know that last year I had some FREE potatoes growing in my garden, but this year I actually planted these myself.  I chose this variety, because they are the most expensive to purchase at the grocer, and they are very tasty.

Potatoes to Eastern Europeans (and the Irish), are like pasta to the Italians…we can’t live without them!  Hence, the myriad of recipes this veggie is used in, but I will only link to three, as this post is already quite lengthy.

If you were patient enough to read the whole post, you finally stumbled upon the most popular recipes for: Varenyky (Perogi), Irish Potato Pancakes, and Potato Balls (Knedle).

Now you know about the veggies I harvested, and have some of the links to my favorite recipes associated with them.

Please share your gardening and cooking stories in your comments.  Thank you.

Growing cucumbers presents a challenge for me, since their season seems to be way to short, compared to the rest of the plants I grow.

I remember my mom’s cucumber season used to last so much longer than mine does.

Soon after I begin to pick off the grown cucumbers, and even though there are still lots of new blooms, the vines begin to dry out slowly, and the plant eventually dies.

I really would like to hear from all the gardeners out there with some advise on this issue.  Please help.

This year I tried a different variety of cucumbers, just to see if I will have more luck growing these for a longer time.

I selected the Greencrisp Burpless Hybrid Cucumber, by Burpee.

 

So far the plants are doing very well.  However, I noticed that they like to climb, rather than sprawl on the ground, so I purchased a support trellis, which they utilize fully, as you can see from the above picture.

This is my first harvest this year, and even though they resemble the English Cucumber  (which you can find at the grocer usually wrapped in a plastic sleeve), the outside layer is covered with needle sharp stubby pricks, making them kind of difficult to handle.

I used a veggie scrubbing brush to scrub these off under running water.

They are excellent for slicing to use in:

• Veggie Platters (I love my cucumber slices dipped in hummus)
• Tossed Salad
• Ukrainian Cucumber Salad with sour cream (my favorite)
• Cucumber Vinaigrette Salad
• Homemade Tzatziki Dip

My granddaughter loves to eat them plain, as shown above.

These cucumbers are practically seedless, their skin is very thin, so you really may choose not to peel them at all.  They are much tastier than the regular cucumbers, and have a nice crisp texture.  Totally delicious.

I highly recommend this variety for the above recipes.

For pickling  (check put this link for easy pickling method), I prefer the smaller variety of cucumbers.

I plant Picklebush Cucumber, by Burpee, to use for pickling, even though they are also very suitable for the above recipes.