Ok, it started out as a sleep-in pajama day, and ended up as a let’s-clean-up-the-house day, but in between that, we had our great St. Patrick’s Day feast and a Star Wars movie marathon. I did most of the prep for all this food yesterday (while the Star Wars marathon was just beginning). I made the pasta salad, baked the green cakes, and spent all yesterday afternoon making the jello parfaits. First of all, I tried a “lucky quiche”, that looked so cute, instructions here: http://www.diamondsfordessert.com/2011/03/lucky-spinach-quiche.html (I actually did this last night). It was a lot of work, and the dough was tricky (use plastic when called for to roll it out, nOT wax paper!) I was despairing that the quiches were even going to turn out, but they did….and boy, were they delicious! I had never made my own crust for quiche, wow does it make all the difference! Definitely a recipe to keep! (there’s a tutorial on the blog to get the shamrock shape 🙂 ) I didn’t have all the ingredients for the filling, so just improvised a bit with what I had on hand (no frozen spinach or parmesan cheese).
I saw the cutest leprechaun lunch here: http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2011/03/fun-food-friday-lucky-lunch.html and so decided to copy it. I threw carrots in the coarse grater of the food processor, and the rest was easy to assemble. I didn’t have any green apples, so used cucumbers for the green hats. They turned out super cute and totally worth the effort!!
Ham sandwich face, cucumber hat, grated carrot hair and beard, M&M rainbow, M&M eyes, cucumber mouth, banana coins, shamrock salad. Then we had root beer floats for dessert!
(Pasta salad with green onions, cucumbers, dill and parsely, yum yummy)
Grab a few fairy toys and gold coins, throw them on the table. Stick a few lollipops in a jar of buttons, and my good ol’ green $1 Ikea table runner (which has been used for everything, every party, forever!) and handy dandy green Ikea napkins, and there you go: St. Paddy’s day lunch!
It really didn’t take that long to make, and was so worth it to see the kids’ reactions! (I mentioned it was pj day, right?)
While we ate, we had a good chat about St. Patrick (yesterday we listened to his story on Adventures in Odyssey). I must admit, I love doing all this fancy food stuff, but can’t seem to get it together enough to get it ALL done, as in, clean up things enough to actually invite someone over to eat with us. I do all this cool stuff, take photos of it, then we sit down and eat it, and I like to post photos of it….but can’t get things together enough…y’know….to do it “right”…..so here’s a photo of what things really looked like, aside from the fancy table, just to keep it real:
That’s my big weakness, I love to get all creative, but then I make a huge mess…and I’m usually a mess, the counter, the floor, ugh, everything…but I make some cute stuff. Don’t ask me if it’s worth it…the answer will depend on the moment.
I spent all yesterday afternoon making the jello parfaits from this blog: http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2012/03/lucky-rainbow-jello.html improvised with goblets instead of juice glasses. I just kept the goblets in their box while I poured in layer after layer of jello, it made it easier to whip them in and out of the fridge.
Ok, they turned out better than I thought they were going to. I made the mistake of starting with whipped cream instead of a layer of jello, but i did it because I wrapped a penny in plastic wrap and plopped it in the bottom of the goblet…get it? the “gold” at the bottom of the rainbow!! 😉 I wanted to put a looney in (a Canadian $1 coin, because they look kinda goldish) but I didn’t have any!! I had to raid the kids’ piggy banks to get the pennies as it was…
So while everyone kept on with the Star Wars movie marathon, I started on the cake, which is kind of St. Paddy’s, but mostly for my daughter’s birthday. This was the first time I tried an “ombre” cake. (a cake in varying shades of the same color). I used a white cake mix and added root beer instead of water, but think I would make a homemade cake next time.
It’s easy, bake several layers, tinting the batter for each layer successively darker and darker. I used an 8 inch pan (only one, so had to wash it btwn layers). Trim the layers
get the brown crumbs off
start with the darkest layer, rim with icing, then fill in
continue stacking them up!
then finish icing and decorate!! I didn’t know what to do, and just felt too tired to roll out fondant, so I just iced it all white, then decorated the top with candy (while I was listening to Star Wars and trying to figure out what was going on in the story. I never ever felt the desire to watch them, but the things we do for our kids, I tell ya….oh well, I liked the ending of movie #6 🙂
Ta da! what a wow when you (very carefully) slice it!!!
next time, I’m trying the famous RAINBOW layer cake, haha!!! this was good practice 😉
And just so nothing goes to waste…use those leftover green crumbs to make some…..you got it….cake pops!!
Guess I should go dip those things in white chocolate now…..sigh, I think I’ve had enought foody creativity for today (this week, this month?) Oh wait, a birthday is coming up!!!
denna's ideas 