Cold Spring, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Corned Beef & Pesto Flat Iron Steak, Blog Hop Mystery???

Cold Spring-

It's been raining/snowing off and on all day. Snow and rain and cold. Then some brief sun with amazing blue skies. A good day to be inside! Luckily we're seeing signs of spring, bulbs coming up, crocus up, and other flowers/ground covers greening up-

Daffodils

The sun is peeking out, but more cold is on the way. The rest of the weekend and next week- lows in the 30's, high in the 40's. Several weeks ago I took off our flannel sheets, but left on the heavy comforter. Still too cold at night. The hens have really been using the "sun room" on the coop, too wet and muddy for them. Dave wanted to take it down, but I disagreed BIG TIME. It's too early, we still have to get thru this month, then April. For the backyard we got a great deal today- six  METAL (not cheap plastic) solar yard lamps for $20.00 at Costco-

Will clean up soon, sad looking garden

The cheap plastic ones don't hold up well with the 100 degrees in the summer, then down to possible zero degrees in the winter. They crack, split and wind up as trash after a year or two. These new ones are HEAVY, aluminum, copper and glass. We spread them around the back yard for some extra light. Nice! I think they'll last a very long time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm part Irish so I love the showing/wearing of the green! Here's at look at some of the things in our home-

Mini Irish flags with the spring sheep

Front entry garland

Celtic wall hanging, a personal fave

Living room table, love my little pillow

Corned Beef & Pesto Flat Iron Steak-

Perfect day for corned beef that's currently cooking in the crock pot. I always make in on this holiday. I LOVE Irish potatoe soup, but it's too much carbs and Dave can't do much dairy anymore. I bought  a square cut, added lots of fresh garlic, black pepper corns, and the spice mix included. To serve I add taters, cabbage and carrots. Add some hot horseradish, mustard, and it's yummy. I bought an apple pie at Costco for dessert, since there's lots of little projects today. Tomorrow we're babysitting both River and Oliver. Two toddlers in the house = lots of eyes on. Not a day to get chores done. Great article here-Ultimate Corned Beef & Cabbage with a little history thrown in.

I scored a couple of flat iron steaks a while back and froze. I made this basic recipe before (used my own pesto) Basil Pesto Flat Iron Steak It has tons of flavor, cooks fast, and great for a work night. A little salad on the side with buttered pasta. It's super juicy and has tons of flavor. This website has lots of great ideas for cooking beef, just scroll down thru the whole page-  Livestrong.com

 Blog Hop Mystery???

Does anyone know what happened to The Simple Saturday Blog Hop? It seems to have disappeared off the planet. I emailed a couple of the hosts, with no response. Sad to see it go, but is it still out there? Thanks for any info if you have it! I always loved participating and seeing what others posted.