St. Patty’s Day in Seattle

This past weekend was action packed!  Started with a beautiful dinner party on Friday evening, then late night preparations for our St. Patty’s brunch, the annual St. Patty’s Day Dash on Saturday early AM and finally the St. Patty’s brunch/extravaganza late AM throughout the day!

Maggie and I started Friday night making just over 100 Green (lime) and Orange (peach) Jello Shots.  Jello Shots are always a fun time…and I mean always :0)  There are a bunch of ways to make them but I stick to the simple – 2 cups boiling water, 1 large Jello flavor of choice (my favs are the berry & melon fusions), 2 cups vodka (I prefer Stoli- not top shelf but definitely not the worst) and 2 oz cups with lids (I get them at Cash & Carry in Ballard).

For the table centerpiece, we made Lucky Charm Marshmallow Treats (inspired by fellow pinterests) but cut them into squares and put them on skewers.  I then bought a flat of cat grass  from Whole Foods in SLU and stuck the skewers in the grass…a little trick I learned on the Today Show :0)

Our rainbow fruit platter was also assembled by skewers for easy eating…strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, honeydew and grapes.  For the clouds, we used mini-marshmallows and cool whip (with green food coloring).  Turned out really cute and will definitely do this again!

When guests started to arrive, we served a new concoction- a Sparkling Shamrock- made of lime sherbet (one ice-cream scoop), champagne and one drop of green food coloring.  Was an awesome mimosa alternative and will probably do this for the 4th of July (raspberry sherbet with blueberry garnish)!  We of course had green beer but that was more popular after all the champagne and jello shots were gone ;0)

We had a pretty hungry group so we immediately started serving green waffles (belgian waffle mix with food coloring), eggs in a green pepper frame, bacon and a corn-beef potato hash my dad made (also had green & yellow bell peppers) – YUM!

I shopped for all the decorations at Champions on Denny Way…my go-to store for all celebrations throughout the year!  Reasonably priced, consistent service and they have pretty much everything you can think of.  I bought beads, hats, noisemakers, shot glasses, streamers, shamrocks, toothpicks, flags, etc.  I also bought about 10-12 bundles of daffodils and had them around the house along with bowls of candy- rolos (pot of gold) & twizzlers (rainbows)- and the Green & Gold Candied Popcorn I made a couple days prior.

A big THANK YOU to family and friends who helped in the kitchen…and with cleaning :0)