A little St. Patrick’s Day Fun for the Family - take that Pinterest!
It’s the one day of the year where everyone, and I mean everyone is Irish. St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday that meant totaly debauchery when you were in college, takes on a whole new meaning when you have children. You move from what bar are you hanging out in to the magic of leprechauns and pots of gold. Since I am graced with the name Kelly, St. Patrick’s Day is a big holiday in our home. Here’s a few fun things we tend to do on the day of the green.
Start your day with an Irish Song - right now every store has an Irish song CD at a discount. I simply put my Pandora station to Celtic Music to start the day, then traditional Irish songs the rest of the day.
Those pesky little leprechauns do crazy things in our home on the day, they really are the tricksters. They love to turn the milk green, so a bowl of cereal in the morning or a glass with your breakfast is nice surprise. Amazingly, somehow the eggs in the pan also have a green tint, I say that the leprechaun was talking to the hen a long time ago.
If you hit them early, most dollar stores or Target has chocolate coins around St. Patrick’s day, I always pick up enough for my child’s class. Then the leprechaun goes to work! It is amazing that every year, when my son’s class goes to lunch, the leprechaun sneaks into their classroom and creates total mayhem. Last year, he put a bookbag hanging from the ceiling. He took the teacher’s chair and put it in the closet. He switched out pencil boxes of the students, he even left part of his gold, luckily chocolate coins on each of the desks of the students! The teacher usually reads a story of a leprechauns to complete the day.
The best part of his visit to the school and the home? He leaves little pieces of himself around the home, small spots of glitter. Short sheeting the bed. AND he even uses the toilet. Did you know that leprechauns pee is green. (You can make his foot prints by coloring the side of your hand green and stamping it around the room.) Oh, don't forget to short sheet the beds and add a little glitter.
Need an Irish Lunch - How about Shamrock Quesadillas - We use Spinach Tortillas, load them with either Irish or Mexican favorites and use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out the pieces of the shamrock. You can also simply cut the tortillas and then fill and fry in a pan. If you really want to be creative you can make a St. Patrick’s Day Pizza - pizzas with shamrocks cut out of green peppers, and a rainbow out of yellow, red, and green peppers. Yeah, I know, my kids probably wouldn’t eat it either.
Having the traditional Irish dinner - actually, you’d be serving Salted Pork and Cabbage, but here we use Corned Beef (sounds so much better) Here’s my go to recipe for the crock pot -
1-3 lb corned beef
Onion
4 potatoes - we like russet but whatever
Cabbage
Baby carrots
1 can of Guinness
Layer everything in the crock pot - the vegetables on the bottom, the corned beef in the middle, the cabbage and the spices from the corned beef on the top. Pour in the Guinness and beef stock or water and cook on low for 8 hours.
We add some Irish Soda Bread - my grandmother’s recipe
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup boiling water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
Cover raisins with boiling water; let stand for 5 minutes. Drain
Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk the egg, buttermilk and butter. Mix together until just moistened. Fold in raisins.
Bake in a loaf pan at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
We finish our day with a good Irish movie - I recently watched one called The Runway on Netflix, beautiful scenery and a great story. Or the oldie but goodie - Waking Ned Devine. Two great movies that give you a taste of the Irish life.
Since I am not the best baker, here's a great site for some dessert ideas for school or home:
So get your Shamrock on and have some fun with the family. Erin go Brach!!
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