St. Patrick’s Day Ideas
We take full advantage of every holiday around here. Last year, we hosted a last-minute St. Patrick’s Day dinner party for another family from our kids’ school with Guinness potpies, rainbow fruit trays, and Lucky Charm sprinkled ice cream. Unfortunately, St. Patrick’s Day does not fall on a weekend this year, but I took some Irish-themed recipes for a test-drive and here is what I would make if I were hosting again this year:
Drink
Black and Tan
- 1 Guinness Stout Beer
- 1 Irish Lager Beer (such as Harp)
Carefully pour half the lager beer (I used Harp) into a tall beer glass (let foam mostly subside). Place a large tablespoon, dome side up, an inch or so above the lager beer, with the tip of spoon pointed slightly downhill. Slowly pour half the Guinness over the spoon. Stout should sit on top of the lager. Key is to pour the Guinness SLOWLY. Allow to stand a few seconds so two distinct layers of beer form.
Appetizer
Green Vegetable Tray with Green Goddess Hummus
- Sliced Cucumbers, green bell peppers, pea pods, celery, broccoli
- Guacamole (I used ranch dressing for kid-appeal, but I would recommend using guacamole instead to maintain the green theme)
- Cookie & Kate’s green goddess hummus (this recipe is SO GOOD!)
- Shamrock Chips
- You will need Mission Garden Spinach Herb Wraps for green shamrock chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Use a shamrock cookie cutter to cut out “chips” from the wraps
- Place chips on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and spray both sides of chips with Pam cooking spray
- Sprinkle chips with salt or, I prefer, Trader Joes’ Chili Lime Seasoning Blend
- Bake chips for about 6 minutes until chips are crisp flipping halfway through
Main
Corned Beef Tacos
Freutcake’s Corned Beef Tacos*
- 10 oz shredded cabbage purple & green mix
- 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 heaping Tablespoons sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper
- radishes sliced
- corn tortillas
- shredded Mexican cheese
- Corned beef, shredded. (See recipe below. I used a slow cooker method to cook the corned beef as described below but Freutcake recommends an Instant Pot method for corned beef that only takes 90 minutes! Let me know if you try it.)
- Cook Corned Beef
- Make the dressing: in a bowl or glass measuring cup, combine vinegar, sour cream and mustard. Whisk until smooth.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- In a large bowl, toss together shredded cabbage and dressing.
- Char tortillas over a low flame on your stovetop, flipping carefully with metal tongs to warm.
- Fill tacos with shredded corned beef, cabbage slaw, and top with shredded cheese and a few sliced radishes. Serve immediately and enjoy warm!
*For a more kid-friendly menu option to go along with this dinner, I used the shredded corned beef inside cheese quesadillas made with the green Mission wraps I used for the shamrock chips and the Mexican shredded cheese.
Corned Beef
- 3 pound Trader Joe’s Uncured Corned Beef Brisket
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 ¼ cups beer
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cloves
- Peel and thickly slice onion, placing it in the bottom of a 6 to 8 quart-quart slow cooker. Add cloves, garlic, and bay leaves to the onions.
- Remove the corned beef from its packaging in the sink and reserve the spice packet (Trader Joe’s corned beef is marinated in brine. If using another source for the corned beef, the included spice packet will need to be reserved and used). If there is a substantial fat cap on top of the beef, place the beef on a cutting board and trim most of it, if you’d like. (The fat will not completely render away during cooking.) Be sure to leave at least a thin layer of fat on top, about 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick, to keep the meat moist.
- Transfer the corned beef into the slow cooker with the fat cap facing up. Add the beer and the spices from the packet, if applicable. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
Dessert
Mint Affogato
- 2 scoops mint chocolate chip ice cream
- 1 shot Bailey’s Irish Cream
- 1 shot hot espresso (I use Medaglia D’Oro instant espresso coffee to make this step faster and easier)
- Sprinkle with dark chocolate flakes
- Place two scoops of ice cream in a glass.
- Pour over the shot of Irish cream, followed by the shot of espresso.
- Sprinkle on the chocolate flakes and serve immediately.
- Makes 1 serving
Lucky Charm Marshmallow Treats
I took both boys to the store with me last week (my God is that hard) and there was a giant display of Lucky Charms on the end of an aisle. Naturally, they caught Joey’s eye and he asked for a box. He hasn’t had any of the sugary cereals yet and I didn’t have the energy to argue with him about it so I said okay. Thankfully, he forgot about them after we got home. Chris on the other hand, found them and helped himself to two bowls.
Anyways, I decided we should turn what was left of this already sugary cereal into even more of a treat for St. Patty’s Day. Joe loves to help me in the kitchen; he was pretty excited when I asked him to help me make a treat – then I pulled the unicorn-covered Lucky Charms box out of the pantry and blew his mind. I roughly followed this recipe and topped with Shamrock sprinkles. If you don’t want to make these, you can just sprinkle the lucky charms over mint ice cream for the kids too.
