{Entertaining} Irish Night

We hosted some friends and family for "Irish Night" while College Girl was still home for a minute. I was in party withdrawal from not hosting a birthday bash for her so this was a good excuse to throw a get together.   If you want to send out paper party invitations, check out Shutterfly for any of your stationery needs.

When our guests arrived, we asked them to find their leprechaun name and fill out a name tag for themselves.   

I found this on Facebook, not sure of the source but it was fun!

We had a few props around for photo ops (I didn't take enough photos of course!).

I bought mostly white flowers (with a few green and yellow thrown in) and added some cute St. Patrick's Day picks that I found here.  

Lots of fun and free printables on that site!

The house was already decorated for St. Patrick's Day and I added these shamrock lights I had found on clearance.  

It was chilly enough to have a cozy fire going.

I like to change out the kitchen chalkboard so I added an Irish saying (and some crude artistic embellishments).

The main focus of the party was food (isn't it always?).  Miss Middle School made her now famous Irish Soda Bread Muffins.

I made Irish Oatmeal Leek Soup and...

Shepherd's Pie-three ways (turkey, veggie and vegan).  I loosely follow this recipe (minus the mushrooms) for the shepherd's pie, replacing ground beef with ground turkey.

Veggie substituions: I use Smart Ground beef replacement and Annie's Worcestershire Sauce.

Vegan substitutions: Same as Veggie but also mash the potatoes with vegan butter and almond milk and top with nutritional yeast.

The hubs asked if he could help with anything so I gave him the fruit rainbow. He did a great job, no?

I picked up some green candies (mint M & M's, Jelly Bellies and gum balls) and some gold chocolate coins to give the dessert table some color and sparkle.

All of the sweets were set up on the buffet in the dining room.

 We also served Green Velvet Cake Pops and Irish Potatoes (all made by my daughter).

Another fun addition was little cupcake liners filled with Lucky Charms.

The dining room table held most of the food. I kept the shepherd's pies warm in a chafing dish. We also had Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon and roasted asparagus.  Our friend (and amazing chef) brought Colcannon (mashed potatoes and cabbage) that he had made for us last year.  We also had other yummy additions from our guests like salad, wonton wrapper appetizers, sausage & broccoli rabe, sushi and wings.  If you're looking for St. Patrick's Day recipes, check out Pinterest or Food Network.

My thrifted basket held rolls and Irish soda muffins (more of the cute picks that I printed out).  There was some good Irish cheddar with crackers too.

We served a variety of Irish beers.

and these Grown Up Pudding Shots.

Wine and soda too!

I found these fun mustache straws at Target.

My friend texted me this picture of herself. too cute!
I like how you can see the party happening in the reflection of the window.

We played Irish music to set the mood. I have a few cds but you can also find a good selection on Pandora.  I think everybody enjoyed themselves. I know we did!

Linking up with:
Tuesdays Around The World
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Thrifty Things Friday
Thursday Favorite Things
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What I Whipped Up Wednesday
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