St. Patrick's Day Party

Food
For the St. Patrick's theme, serve some traditional Irish foods along with items in various shades of green.
Set up a baked potato bar. Bake up lots of whole spuds with skins on and keep in a covered dish. Have several different toppings in dishes, like cheese, yogurt, chopped green onions, salsa, and steamed broccoli, so each person can customize their own potato.

Some other potato possibilities would be potato salad or traditional boxty and champ.
Boxty
1/2 pound raw potato, finely grated
1/2 pound mashed potato
1/2 pound all-purpose flour
milk
one Egg
salt and pepper
Combine grated and mashed potato. Add salt, pepper and flour. Beat egg and add to mixture with just enough milk to make a batter that will drop from a spoon. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a hot griddle or skillet.
Cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.
Serves 6 to 8

Champ
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 bunch green onions, sliced (about 1 1/3 cups)
Cook potatoes in pot of boiling salted water until very tender, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring cream and butter to simmer in heavy small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Mix in green onions. Remove from heat. Cover and let steep while potatoes cook.
Drain potatoes thoroughly. Return to same pot and mash. Add cream mixture and stir until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve a simple green salad. Fry up an easy but very tasty frittata that's chock-full of healthy green veggies like zucchini, spinach, green peppers, and onion.

Toast some slices of crusty bread or toasted potato bread and serve with green pesto spread.
Pesto Spread
9 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
3/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
Combine spinach with cheese, basil and garlic in food processor or blender until mixed. With machine running, slowly add olive oil, a little at a time until a thick paste forms.

Serve some green munchies such as chips and guacamole dip or guacamole tortilla chips and green salsa made from green tomatillos, cilantro, onion, and chiles.

Try mixing up a quick and easy Watergate Salad, a yummy green dessert.
1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple and juice
1 (3 oz.) box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip
1 c. miniature marshmallows
1 c. chopped nuts
Fold pudding mix into crushed pineapple and add other ingredients. Refrigerate.

For a festive and refreshing drink, tint sparkling cider with a little green food coloring.
For a refreshing drink with a kick, serve some Irish stout ale such as Guinness, Murphy's, and Beamish.

You can also serve a hot drink with more kick. To make an Irish coffee, fill a glass more than half full with strong black coffee (1 cup) and add 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar to taste. Stir to dissolve. Add 1 ounce Irish whiskey. Pour 1 to 2 tablespoons of double cream (or lightly whipped single cream) over the back of a spoon to float on top.

If this sounds like too much work, simply serve brewed coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream liqueur.

Be sure to give a traditional Irish toast with your drink.

May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

Here's to a long life and a merry one.
A quick death and an easy one.
A pretty girl and an honest one.
A cold beer - and another one!

Decor
Hang lots of green balloons and shamrocks cut from green construction paper or card stock. You could also put up streamers in green and white or "rainbow" colored.

For a centerpiece, place pots of clover (found at any supermarket floral shop) wrapped in green ribbon.
Gold foil wrapped chocolate coins displayed in a pot becomes leprechaun's treasure. The coins can also be scattered on tables or wrapped in small bundles with green tulle and ribbon for party favors.

Fun and Games
Have a Limerick contest. Each person writes a limerick and recites it aloud. Everyone can vote by dirtiest, funniest, or most creative.

Play an Irish/St. Patrick's Day-themed version of Pictionary. All you need is paper and black markers. Before the party write down words such as shamrock, leprechaun, gold, rainbow, luck, blarney stone, ale, potato, Ireland, fairies, jig, tea, and Irish stew; on separate pieces of paper. Form teams and take turns picking a piece of paper and drawing pictures that suggest the word on the paper. You can give a time limit of one minute. The team who identifies the most words correctly (once all the words have been played) wins.

Play traditional Gaelic music or music from Irish pop/rock bands such as U2, The Cranberries, The Pogues, Van Morrison, or Sinead O'Connor.