{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
EBTKS
Thrifty Things Friday
Thursday Favorite Things
Weekend Wonders
Feature Yourself Friday
Alphabe-Thursday
Say G'day Saturday
Create & Inspire
Anything Blue Friday
Sunday Showcase
Wow Us Wednesday
Whatever Wednesday
Make It Pretty Monday
Blog Stalking Thursday

What I Whipped Up Wednesday
Tablescape Thursday
The Cottage Market

Pin It

{Recipe} Green Velvet Cake Pops

Green Velvet Cake Pops!

These were gobbled up at our Irish Night party.  

My talented daughter made all of the desserts for me so that was a huge help!

She's a bit of a baking snob purist and doesn't like to use cake mixes.  

{I *made* her use cake mixes at her Cupcake Wars Party, much to her chagrin}

What's green velvet, you say?

It's just like red velvet which is a chocolate based cake with deep red food coloring. She used green food coloring(Wilton Kelly) and used this recipe for the cake.  She is also an icing snob purist, so she made her own buttercream icing. Not complaining!

If you want to learn how to make cake pops, you can see our technique here.

After rolling the cake balls, she inserted lollipop sticks and froze them.

The next day she dipped them in white chocolate candy melts and added green sprinkles.  Then she put them back in the freezer to harden up.  They can be stored in the fridge or at room temperature in an airtight container until you are ready to serve them.

Like I did, with her delicious Irish Potatoes and some green candy.

Linking up with:
Wow Us Wednesday
Thursday Favorite Things
Weekend Wonders
Feature Yourself Friday
Create & Inspire
Sunday Showcase
Whatever Wednesday
Blog Stalking Thursday

Pin It

Photo-A-Day March 2013

Here's another month of my Instagramming challenge photo results.

Did you participate?

 Day 1. L is for...

Laces (that are not easy to tie and tighten!)

Day 2. I made this.

My wine cork pool noodle wreath

Day 3. Key

The window of an old time hardware store. 

 Day 4. Lucky

My burlap "Lucky" banner

Day 5. Under

 My daughter was under the weather and under the blankets.

 Day 6. Chair

My favorite one. 

 If you want one, check out this blog.

Day 7. Fear

 Of heights (sometimes). Cliffs of Moher, Ireland trip.

 Day 8. Favorite

 Gryffindor, of course! I'm re-reading Harry Potter.

Day 9. Faceless Self Portrait

My hand looks huge!

Day 10. I want...

... and got Chipotle for dinner!

Day 11. Important

An apple a day!

 Day 12.  In The Distance

College Girl's empty (and oh so neat) room, reminds me of her distance from us whenever I walk in there.

Day 13. Sound

The sounds of shoppers, music and fountains in the mall

Day 14. Tasty

So nice to come home to hubby cooking dinner!

Day 15. Explore

At the National Air & Space Museum on our Washington, DC trip.

Day 16. 9:00

Trying my first Sprinkle's cupcake at 9pm in DC.

Day 17. Green

Flyers being handed out on St. Patrick's Day in DC.

Day 18. Shoes

Some pretty famous shoes at the Smithsonian American History Museum

Day 19. A sign

A sign of Spring!

Day 20. Clean

Very exciting dish liquid.

Day 21. Working

Working my new hair cut!

Day 22. About You

My very rough sketch for the gallery wall.

Day 23. What you do for fun

Throw an Irish Night the week after St. Patrick's Day (see my tattoo and leprechaun name tag?)

I promise to get that post up this week!

Day 24. Up

Someone was very excited to see the Ironman 3 poster hanging up.

Day 25. In your drawer

My 'good' flatware (Martha Stewart for Kmart)

Day 26. Something you did

Shopped and bought these fun earrings

Day 27. Pair

A pair of Easter flowers for the moms.

Day 28. In the mirror

For some reason, this didn't get saved to my phone so I took a screen shot from I/G.

Day 29. Good night

Dyeing eggs and watching Li of Pi was a good night!

Day 30. Relax

Relaxing with some Psych after a busy weekend.

Play along in April, won't you?

Linking up with:

Anything Blue Friday

Pin It

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 3.31.13

Happy Monday!  We had a busy (and fun!) weekend, how about you?

Water

Dying eggs on Friday night while watching Life of Pi.

Empty

We saw Jesus Christ Superstar on Thursday night.  Can you tell we were early?

Fresh

The fruit salad that I made for Easter Brunch.

Weathered

The theater where we saw JCSS is old and slightly weathered.

Ordinary

This was an ordinary day for me last week so I had time to pull out some of our Easter decorations.

Linking up with:

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Pin It