Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!


In celebration of one of our FAVORITE authors, we started the day with green eggs and ham.  At dinner we continued our celebration.  We started with Dr. Seuss activities downloaded from the Target website, then as each course was introduced, the family had to guess what it was (the name) then we read about it from the appropriate book.  


Our menu consisted of Pink Ink, Grin-ich Spinach, Who Hash, Roast Beast, and Red Fish Blue Fish.  So, we read excerpts from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Sneeches and other tales.  The spinach comes from the story about the pants that walk around in the dark.  As a child, this story contained my personal nemesis.   I had regular nightmares about meeting those pants.  

Quick decoration was easy.  I focused on lots of red and blue from the Cat and the Hat.  With lifts and levels, I positioned stuffed Seuss characters with their books.  I surrounded the table with Maisy Daisy pots of a single daisy.  


After dinner, a fun idea is to read and act out The Sneeches.  The stars are made of green construction paper with yarn to go around the neck.  The machine is our crawling tube connected to a colorful box.  Sylvester McBean wears a cool hat and a bow tie, and I narrate.   

Pink Ink
Frozen Strawberries
Milk
Sweetener (I use vanilla Stevia)


Blend in blender till pink and frothy.


 Grin-ich Spinich  (Garlic Sauteed Spinach)
1 1/2 lb. baby spinach leaves
2 T. olive oil
2 T chopped garlic (6 cloves)
1 t. kosher salt
3/4 t. ground pepper
1 T. butter
lemon

Rinse and spin spinach.  
In a large pot, heat olive oil and saute the garlic for about 1 minute (not till it browns).  Add spinach, salt, and pepper.  Toss well.  Cover and cook for 2 minutes till wilted. Uncover, turn heat to high and cook till all spinach is wilted.  Top with butter and squeeze of lemon.  

Roast Beast (Roast Beef/ Blue Cheese Roll Ups)
 4 triangles Light Cow Cheese or 1/3 c. softened butter
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 lb. thinly sliced med. rare roast beef
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch watercress, stemmed
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin

Cream cheeses together with a fork in a small bowl.  

Lay roast beef slices on flat surface.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Spread 2 teaspoons of cheese mixture along the short end of the beef.  Pile on the rest of ingredients.  Roll the beef into a tight cylinder.  Wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate till serving time.  To serve, halve the rolls, crosswise.



Who Hash
2 grated sweet potatoes
1/2 chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. olive oil
2 t. thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat  a large skillet,  add olive oil.  Cook onions till carmelized.  Add garlic, sweet potatoes, and seasonings.  Cook till brown on one side, then flip, continue till all is lightly browned. 

Fish Snack
Berry Blast Jello (blue)
gummy fish

4 comments:

  1. I was planning on celebrating with blue jello too and checked out lots of books from the library. Love the other ideas. Cami was a grouch (aftermath of sick) I guess I could still celebrate a birthday late.

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  2. Awesome idea. I will have to do it next year.

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  3. Such fun, wish we were closer

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  4. So much fun! I love Dr. Suess and did nothing to celebrate the day. I'll be saving this for next year.

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