I decided rather last minute, like this afternoon, that I was actually going to try to make a special dinner for St. Patrick's Day. And since our day is ending when America's day is beginning, that means there is still more than enough time for you to decide to do so as well.
I had read
some posts on Life as Mom that sounded like easy ideas, and when they actually still had good beef roast meat when I went to Walmart on Saturday afternoon, I thought why not. Patrick was quite an awesome guy, even if the modern associations of luck and drinking aren't so cool. I am a tiny bit Irish, and my husband is almost 1/4 Irish, which makes the boys about 1/8 Irish.
Also I vividly remember my mom giving us green milk on St. Patrick's Day as a kid, and thinking it was the most awesome thing ever, and that she was so cool to give us green milk. I think I'd like to be remembered that way someday too.
So, I made some
Irish Stew, and even threw in the
green peas, so it had orange, white, and green, all of the colors of the Irish Flag. Andrew loved, loved, loved this stew. He ate about 8, albeit small, helpings, and would have kept eating all night if we didn't put it away.
I made some
Irish soda bread. I used all white flour, because I was out of whole wheat. It was great though, and it tasted like buttermilk biscuits. Nate thought this bread was amazing.
Then I let Aaron help me make mint chocolate chip cupcakes. Aaron thought it was awesome that blue and yellow made green in the batter. We need to do more with color mixing I guess. I also let him help add some chocolate chips which our sweet parents sent us from America and our gracious guest carried all the way here for us. I even let Aaron eat a few chocolate chips plain, another thing I always remember my mom doing when we made cookies. Andrew was napping, but he got to enjoy cupcakes later.
Then I let him mix turn some milk green too. Both the boys thought that was an amazing treat.
I picked some clover and put in on the table, and we talked a little bit about Patrick and
the legend of his explanation of three in one using clover. There can't be a perfect picture of this concept on this earth, but it is a cool illustration.
This was a very fun, easy, and low key last minute celebration.