photo courtesy of Mr. Odd

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Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well.

I can’t believe that it is St. Patrick’s Day already and we are right around the corner from Spring; although here in the northeast, it feels like winter won’t go away with frigid temperatures and snow. 

Hopefully the weather will get warmer for the St. Patrick’s Day parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC.

For St. Patrick’s Day, I am becoming “a little bit Irish” and making the traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage with carrots and potatoes.

This year instead of boiling the cabbage with the corned beef, I made fried cabbage with bacon, onions and garlic. We liked it much better than boiled.

The non baker in me, even made an Irish Soda bread.

(All recipes at the end of the blog).

I set my tablescape and celebrated a little early this year because St. Patrick’s Day falls on Friday; and if you are like me and follow Lent, there is no meat on Friday so I celebrated on Thursday night to enjoy the corned beef.

I know there is dispensation to eat meat on Friday this year, specifically for this holiday, but I just can’t do it. I have to follow my Lenten rules that I have been following since I was a child.

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It is very hard to make a completely different tablescape for “annual holidays” so you might see some familiar items on my table from past years along with some new purchases.

So let’s get started.

I love my juniper green lace shamrock tablecloth overlay so I am using that again. This year, instead of a white tablecloth underneath, I am using gold.

My placemat is woven in various shades of green around the border and a solid kelly green center.

To compliment the gold accent from the tablecloth, I am using a gold charger.

The dishes are my annual St. Patrick’s Day choice. Moss green dinner plates and a darker pine green salad plate.

I’ve added another layer of dishes and it is a paper dessert plate with a rainbow, shamrocks and a pot of gold. The shades of green on the paper dish match the placemat border.

For napkins, I am using pine green bandannas with kelly green and white shamrocks; and lime green woven napkin rings.

(You can use items for more than it’s original purpose.)

The glasses are my Marshalls find back in the day. Clear glass with shamrocks and this year I added some white and green shamrock straws.

 The flatware is pearl white.

Now for the centerpiece. The main focus of the centerpiece is my Leprechaun.

The little”unfriendly” Irish fairy that hides his pot of gold; but this leprechaun looks friendly enough for the table.

Next to him are two emerald green garland shamrocks that came on stands.

(Usually they are a front window decoration).

And next to the shamrocks are small potted four leaf clovers, for some “good luck”.

(Of course they are artificial because I kill all live plants)

All together I think they make the cutest centerpiece.

There is a lot of GREEN on this table in all shades, with Leprechauns popping out all over the place.

For some table accents, I scattered kelly and pine green glass and gold nugget table confetti along with some glittered shamrocks.

Each guest receives their own pot of gold at the top of their place setting…

(You could use gold chocolate coins in the cauldrons too.)

I saw these fans in the Oriental Trading catalog this year and I just had to make the purchase.

 Kelly green paper shamrock personal fans.

Dangling from the chandelier are three darling Leprechauns.

With the table set, I am now ready for my corned beef and cabbage dinner. As I said, this year was fried cabbage with bacon instead of boiled. Good choice.

I am happy to say that I did find a recipe in the New York Times for Irish soda bread and gave it a try. It came out a little flatter than I expected but I think that my pan was just a little too wide. All in all not bad for a first try. I’ll get a different pan next year.

The suggestion in the recipe was to serve the bread with apples and Irish cheese. I bought apples and some Irish Dubliner cheese and went one step further and purchased Kerrygold Irish butter.

And that finishes my St. Patrick’s Day tablescape for 2017.

I hope you have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day !

Have a green bagel, wear green clothing, watch a parade and have a great day!

photo courtesy of Virginia is for lovers

(Remember, ALL recipes at the end of the post)

Until my next post, make everyday a celebration!

Diane

Place Setting

Table Details

Gold tablecloth from Party City

Juniper green lace shamrock tablecloth overlay from Amazon

Green placemats from Homegoods

Gold charger from Pier 1

Moss green dinner plate from from Amazon (by Gibson- pattern: Green Aruba)

Dark pine green salad plate from a long time ago…Had them too long to remember the pattern or where I purchased them

Pearl white flatware from Amazon

Pine green shamrock bandannas from Oriental Trading

Leprechaun danglers from Oriental Trading

Lime green woven napkin rings from Bed, Bath & Beyond

Shamrock glasses from Marshalls

Shamrock straws & St. Patrick’s dessert plate from Oriental Trading

Kelly green paper Shamrock fans from Oriental Trading

Kelly & pine green glass and golden nugget table confetti from Pier 1

Glitter shamrock paper table scatter from Party City

Mini black cauldrons with pots of gold coins from Party City

Emerald green glittered shamrocks on stands from Michael’s Arts and Crafts

Four Leaf Clover plants from Michael’s Arts and Crafts

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Recipes

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 8 1/2 hours

Optional cooking time: 2 hours LOW – then 2 hrs HIGH – then 1 hr LOW)

Ingredients

6 red potatoes or fingerling potatoes, halved

4 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 (4 to 5-pound) corned beef, rinsed

3 large bay leaves

1 tsp ground thyme (or 1 sprig of fresh thyme)

1 teaspoon black pepper corns

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard or dark mustard with horseradish

8 ounces beer (any unflavored kind will do; you can substitute water here, as well)

2 cups low sodium chicken stock or water

1 medium head of cabbage, cut into 2-inch wedges

Directions

1. Place potatoes, carrots, and onion in the bottom of a large slow cooker pot.
2. Rinse the corned beef and lay it over the vegetables. Add in bay leaves, pepper corns, and Dijon mustard.
3. Pour beer and stock over everything. Make sure liquid covers most of the corned beef; if not, add more water or stock. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours.
4. Add the cabbage to the slow cooker and cook until cabbage is just tender (about 30 minutes).
5. Remove the meat to a cutting board, cover with foil and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
6. Slice on the diagonal against the grain
7. Serve with the veggies and extra mustard

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Fried Cabbage with Bacon, Onion and Garlic

Recipe By: Kathi Richards Smith…. from 2017 All Recipes.com

Ingredients

1. • 6 slices bacon, chopped
   • 1 large onion, diced
   • 2 cloves garlic, minced
   • 1 large head cabbage, cored and sliced
   • 1 tablespoon salt, or to taste

   • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
   • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
   • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
   • 1/8 teaspoon paprika

   Directions

   1. Place the bacon in a large stockpot and cook over medium-high heat until crispy, about 10 minutes. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion caramelizes; about 10 minutes. Immediately stir in the cabbage and continue to cook and stir another 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes more.

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Irish Soda Bread

Recipe by: Melissa Clark…The New York Times

INGREDIENTS

• Butter for greasing pan plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 ½teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ¾ cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 ½ cups raisins or currants
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• Good aged Cheddar cheese, for serving
• Tart apples, cut into slices, for serving

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch oven-proof skillet and line with parchment or waxed paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Stir in the raisins or currants and caraway seeds.
3. Pour batter into skillet. Brush top with remaining butter. Bake until golden and firm to touch, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving with Cheddar and apples.

photo courtesy of Pinterest

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