Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My friend Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen is hosting a virtual St. Patrick's Day party today and I am late to for sure! I've been trying to get myself together all day but I seem to have a lack of green and St. Patrick's day decorations so I had to throw on my St. Patty's shirt and look in unconventional places :-)


Randy was no help. This was his way of avoiding a pinch today. (I pinched him anyways!)



My calendar offered a little bit of inspiration...but somehow it didn't seem Irish enough.


And it is that time of the year again...minty green! But no this won't do either.


I still needed more inspiration!

I even searched at the nursery my parents and I visited today.

They did have a good suggestion!



These were cute.


If I had a few extra gold coins I would have bought these for the party.


Once home I resumed my search around the house for more green.

How about my little Shrek bride and groom! Are ogres Irish?
Probably not....



A little left over Mardi Gras green...




How about some Southwestern Green?



What about this kind of green?



Or these outside



Maybe some moss? Kinda Irish...



Nahhhh.... Okay how about this. I think we are getting warmer!


Yes I definitely think we are getting somewhere. I even found a "shamrock" hiding in the spider plant.



And look! An actual St. Patty's day decoration! We are really on a roll.


But what to cook? I had one of this while I thought about it....


How about Corned Beef! And Cabbage! and Potatoes! and Carrots! Eureka! So in the crockpot it all went. I "just happened" to have a trio of potatoes for the occasion. The purple ones look kind of scary. :-)


While that's cooking I figured we needed dessert. These Irish Oatmeal Shortbread cookies seemed to fit the bill. They come from a great little website called Diana's Desserts. Click here for the recipe.



And look at this cute guy I came across in my quest.




While the rest of it cooked I decided we needed bread too, so I whipped up some Rye bread using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes recipe. I thought we could use some more clovers!



And look what I found in the fridge to go with these little cuties......MMMMM. I have more Irish hanging around than I thought :-)


So for better or worse I guess it all fell into place. The veggies were tasty.


And the meat was tender.


Plus we had a couple of extra places set at the table and my parents to share the meal with.


And cookies left for dessert!


Thank you Kathleen for hosting such a fun event. I hope you'll do it again next year!!