{"id":3475,"date":"2014-03-10T08:27:18","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T12:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=3475"},"modified":"2015-02-26T13:13:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T18:13:20","slug":"a-st-patricks-day-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/10\/a-st-patricks-day-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"A St. Patrick’s Day Feast"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend we had an early St. Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a> party with a few families we\u2019re close with.\u00a0 The first Christmas we were back I wanted to do an \u201cIrish Coffee\u201d dinner but we didn\u2019t plan well enough and it didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 This past Christmas I wanted to try again but, again, we didn\u2019t plan ahead and we ran out of time and that\u2019s when I proclaimed to hubby \u201cLet\u2019s do a St. Patrick\u2019s Day thing.\u00a0 No, we\u2019re going to do it for St. Patrick\u2019s Day!\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be our thing, a yearly St. Patrick\u2019s Day party.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be a thing!\u201d\u00a0 And, so it is.<\/p>\n

\"0308141743\"<\/a>While my original vision was to do a big Irish themed dinner, we couldn\u2019t settle on whether we should do an adult\u2019s only dinner or do a family afternoon.\u00a0 So we decided to do both.\u00a0 We started with a family afternoon where the kids swam, played, did crafts, and went on an impromptu tadpole catching adventure followed by a nice Irish inspired dinner for those families who wanted to stick around.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve known for years that I wanted to stick to a traditional Irish dinner being sure to honor the culture which took us in for over two years, not falling into the American vision of what Irish is\u00a0(just say “no!” to corned beef and hash!),\u00a0I have to admit I did go the \u201cAmerican way\u201d for the afternoon snacking.\u00a0 I decided to do a veggie tray, fruit tray, cookies, juice and candies all in green and our guests brought green cookies and cupcakes!<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>\u00a0I made mint spritz cookies in the closest thing I had to a four leaf clover shape.\u00a0 My veggie tray included: snap peas, broccoli, green peppers, celery and cucumber with ranch dressing.\u00a0 My fruit tray consisted of: green apples, green grapes, kiwi, and honeydew melon.\u00a0 I did the same juice I did for Valentine\u2019s Day<\/a> but with kiwi instead of strawberries (sparkling water with pureed fruit) and while the flavor was good, I should have strained out the pulp as the kiwi ended up much pulpier than the strawberries were.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0004\"<\/a> For the dinner, I made my \u201cfamous\u201d (within my family anyways) fish soup, homemade Irish brown bread, shepherd\u2019s pie, banoffee pie and a green salad.<\/p>\n

The biggest hit with the crowd was definitely the shepherd\u2019s pie.\u00a0 I have the admit, though, that I don\u2019t use a traditional recipe from Ireland, I actually use a recipe from a local South Florida Irish restaurant (recipe can be found here<\/a>).\u00a0 The key to a good shepherd\u2019s pie, though, is the lamb.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try to leave it out, it\u2019s not nearly as good (and if you do, it\u2019s actually a cottage pie, not shepherd’s pie!)<\/p>\n

My fish soup also went over well (and Honeybun requested \u201cthe entire pot!\u201d).\u00a0 It\u2019s a recipe I developed myself and is super easy but delicious\u2014I don\u2019t measure ingredients and usually just throw in whatever amounts I have, but here\u2019s a guess to amounts for 4 servings!<\/p>\n

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