St. Patrick's Day Party for Little Leprechauns - and their parents!

Okay, I'm a little late in the spring party planning process this year. I missed Mardi Gras and Easter falls on the first day of our school system's Spring Break. That leaves me with St. Patrick's Day. I've never been a big fan of green beer and potatoes so I've never considered throwing a St. Patty's party before. But, I'm in the mood for a party - and I am Irish- so here goes!

Danielle is still talking about the leprechaun that visited her preschool class two years ago. She was so amazed that he pee'd green - and didn't flush the toilet!  Who wouldn't want to catch such a diabolical fiend?

Naturally, that means that I'm going to have the kids build leprechaun traps.

It's a great use of recycled materials and a good experiment in engineering. I'm going to supply empty boxes, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, tape, glue, string, cups and gold plastic coins for bait. I've made a few little extras like these tiny twig ladders for the kids to use.

I'm blaming a leprechaun for my dirty floor!

Then its up to each child how to construct their own trap. I think it'll be fun to see the different versions.

I'll also have the kids hunt for spilled leprechaun gold (more plastic coins). Disney Family Fun has other craft ideaws including cute coloring and activity pages.  I also want to read "The Night Before St. Patrick's Day" to the kids.

For the adults we have pub games (pool, darts and air hockey) and beer - but it won't be green

Menu

It's St. Patrick's Day so we'd better discuss the drinks before the food. I plan to serve:

• Beer: Killian's Irish Red. They currently (2013) have a promotion where you can get 2 free Killians' pint glasses if you submit your UPC code to this site. A nice free addition to the party ambiance if I can order them soon.  Tough luck for Kevin - he'll have to buy some beer now ;) NOTE: Supplies ran out by mid-February - order early if you want the free glasses for another year.
• Cocktail (for non-beer drinkers like me): Honeydew Martini - Midori, vodka & Cointreau or other orange liqueur
• Punch for the Kids: Trish Yearwood's Green Punch (basically it's lime Koolaid mixed with pineapple juice & soda) - must be drunk through an Irish Mustache straw!

The Meal
I don't want to serve only Irish food (after all, its not very good). I don't want to serve only green food either. I've settled on potato chips, artichoke dip and Irish flag colored (orange, white & green) veggies for appetizers.

If I'm feeling ambitious I'll make a potato soup and some beer bread. I love beer bread - it's so easy to make!   I'm also serving mini grilled cornedbeef and fontina sandwiches and,for the kids, fish and chips.

I once had a boss who made Irish Soda bread every year. I tried this simple version (minus the caraway seeds...) I made it mainly to use up some left over sour cream that I had in the frig. It came out a bit like a moist biscuit with some raisins in it. Not what I remembered, but not bad. I'm not a big raisin fan so I went a little shy of the stated amount and I probably should have added the caraway seeds for more authentic taste. I just didn't feel like buying them for an experiment.

Nice, dense, moist "bread" - notice the absence of raisins in this slice...

For dessert I'll serve rainbow cupcakes for the kids and Andes chocolate mint thumbprint cookies for the adults.

To make the rainbow in the cupcakes you'll need to add food coloring to basic white cake batter divided into 6 small bowls. To make:

Purple use 9 red  drops + 6 blue drops
Blue use 12 drops of blue
Green use 12 drops of green
Yellow  use 12 drops of yellow
Orange use 12 yellow + 4 red drops
Red use 18 drops of red

 

 

Basic Beer (or Club Soda) Bread 

·         3 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 Tablespoon baking powder

·         2 teaspoons dried herbs (optional)

·         12 ounces beer or club soda

·         2 Tbsp melted butter

Heat oven to 375°. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder & herbs. Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined. Spread in a greased 8-inch loaf pan, pour melted butter over and bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool 10 more minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.