Me Lucky Charms in a Sea of Green

March, for me, can be a bit of a big deal.
But I have recently been reinformed that it is the month for girl scout cookies, so a big deal for other people as well. How could I be a girl scout for 2 or 3 years and not remember that?
Anyway, when I got online to see what girl scout cookies they had come up with this year my curiosity eventually lead me to a website on how to make your own Samoa cookie (my favorite), so I thought, why not give it a try.

The recipe begins with a shortbread cookie dough. These will eventually be bars and not round cookies, but who cares if it tastes like a Samoa right?

While the shortbread cooled. I began on the coconut. The recipe says, "brown the coconut"
HA do I even know how to do that? The toaster browns things for me, how would I do this on my own in the oven?.....

Hmm, I put it on a pan and stuck it in the oven... could it be any easier?
So while that browned, I began on the caramels. From watching Alex make turtles (another favorite) I know it's better to melt them on the stove than in the microwave, so I took on the challenge.
I have a tendency to get distracted while I'm cooking. It becomes difficult for me to multitask. Good thing I could focus on caramel. When the coconut came out of the oven it was PERFECT :)
I wish the rest could have gone so smoothly.

MMM I LOVE CARAMEL

Mixed with the coconut and spread over the shortbread it looked delicious.
Then that had to cool as well.

This is where the tricky part comes in and you decide if it's worth it.
I had to melt chocolate for dipping..... not so tough? Where's Julia Child when you need her?
I followed directions for the microwave, when that didn't work, we tried a double boil, when THAT didn't work, we got another bag of chocolate chips and handed it to my mom, where she graciously took over when she saw the frustration and maybe the beginning of tears appear on my face.
Even with a crumbly cookie, this is what we had in the end.

Our version of the Samoa. It took a lot of time to let everything cool between cooking it and using it and there are definitely things I would do differently if I ever chose to make these again. But I would for sure agree it was worth the experience, once the frustration left ;)


Next up in March was ST. PATRICK'S DAY
I love this Holiday. I love everything about it's Irish heritage and the celebration of the color green. This year was exceptionally special because it was on a Thursday, also my favorite day.
We began the morning with traditional green milk and Lucky Charms (or marshmallow mateys)For lunch it was sandwich, green beans and key lime yogurt.
I don't know how it could still shock people, just how into this holiday I get.
For dinner, we had Spinach wraps

with chicken, celery, and avacados

It was FANTASTIC!!

I was pretty impressed that this year we ate all green and didn't have to color anything!

From my head to my toes I was completely green and made sure my patients at work had some green to show for it too.
Thanks for the shirt Bee n' J, it was just the thing.
Everyone asks if I'm Irish, my answer is, "Irish at Heart"

Happy St. Patrick's Day and if you only like it for the fact of celebrating something, that's the positive thinking of the Irish!!
Green on!!