St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

A classy St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Menu may be a bit of a diversion from the usual fluorescent green food served on this holiday. Filled with springy green and white flowers, touches of gold, and an Irish-inspired menu, I love the way it turned out!  

St. Patrick’s Day is such a fun holiday to celebrate, and while I love the leprechauns and rainbows, I thought it would be nice to change it up a bit and put together a green-inspired dinner party that still feels festive!  I may still have to throw a separate ‘party’ for Charles, he was missing the green beer :).  Truth be told I found that there was so much of that inspiration already out there that I wanted to create something a bit unique!

These meals can be scaled depending on how many people are in your bubble, and extras can easily be frozen!

From a prep schedule to a grocery list all the way down to suggested wine pairings (as selected and curated by local sommelier and wine expert, Matt Wentzell of Experience Wine Tours), it’s all here.  Don’t worry about the exact brands for the wine, but if you’re after a good variety to stick to it’s there.  Being prepared means that you can actually relax and enjoy the meal!  And that matters.  Like, a lot.

I hope you have so much fun celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with your family, whether that means leprechauns, rainbows and green beer, or bunches of white tulips and local wine!  You do you;)

Here’s the full guide my friends!

xo

Tori

Classy Green Flowers

I’ve never done an all-green flower display before and I have to say that I LOVED it!  Not only is greenery less expensive than blooms, but it was so showy and springy – just what we need at this time of year (as I write this a fresh layer of snow is coating the ground… bring on the tulips!).

The lovely talented ladies at Byland’s helped us pick out exactly what we needed.  You can use your imagination, but we used a combination of:

• white stock
• white snap dragons
• white tulips
• white lisianthus
• green triachlium (looks like soft green moss)
• baby’s breath
• white wax flowers
• leather leaf (looks like fern)
• green bell (lepidum) – the wispy greenery also used with the napkins
• viburnum (they looks like mini green hydrangeas

We used a mixed selection of vintage green and white bottles of varying heights and sizes (Mason jars and glasses would work as well) – you can find these hidden gems at vintage, thrift and antique stores (or I searched on Etsy and found a bunch)!  They are so gorgeous!  Truly you can use whatever you have on hand; even some pasta jars are so pretty when you tear off the label!

Setting a St. Patrick’s Day Table

We decided to skip a tablecloth for this one as I have a white wood table (it was custom made), but you can use a white tablecloth if you like that look and your table is another finish.  We used layers of white and green with a touch of brass and gold.  Here are all of the elements that we used to create the look!

• gold chargers
• white dinner and salad plates
• white napkins
• neutral twine (with a sprig of Irish green bell as an accent)
• brass and clear glass candle holders
• white candles (candle sticks, pillar candles and votives)
• green, blue and clear bottles
• wine glasses
• small bistro tumbler glasses
• vintage cutlery

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day Menu

We wanted to keep the menu on the more casual, lighter side (always plant heavy!) with plenty of bright colours!  Of course, I was at it again with the cookie cutters, this time a clover shaped one 😉 – they are the easiest way to add a fun seasonal element to a meal.  The menu is designed for 6 people but you can adjust accordingly.

We included local BC wine pairings with every course and a grocery list and workbook schedule to take the heavy lifting out of the meal.  The idea is to have as little to do as humanly possible when your guests walk through the door!

The meal starts with a beautiful veggie platter with homemade dips (let’s be real, everyone can use a few extra veggies at this time of year) followed by a Potato Broccoli Soup with warm Irish Soda Bread and an entree that can be completely prepared in advance the day before, a hearty Lentil Shepherd’s Pie.  To end it all we have an Avocado Lime Nice Cream that is deliciously bright and creamy at the same time.

Below is a menu to print off: we recommend printing it on a thicker paper stock and choosing the option to print 4 per page in your printer settings (choose ‘copies per page – 4’) to make the menus a smaller size that fits better on the plates.

 

 

[pdf-embedder url=”https://fraicheliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/St.-Patricks-Day.pdf” title=”St. Patrick’s Day”]

 

Appetizer: Local Veggie Platter with Homemade Dips

Suggested Wine Pairing:Unsworth Vineyards Charme De L’lle Sparkling N/V British Columbia

 

First Course: Potato Broccoli Soup with Irish Cheddar Soda Bread (here is the vegan version of the Irish Soda Bread or try your hand at these Irish Cheddar Biscuits.

Suggested Wine Pairing: Coolshanaugh Chardonnay 2016 BC VQA Okanagan Valley by Okanagan Crush Pad Winery

 

Main Course: Lentil Shepherd’s Pie 

Suggested Wine Pairing: Painted Rock Estate Winery Red Icon 2015 BC VQA Okanagan Valley

https://www.paintedrock.ca/

 

Dessert: Avocado Lime Coconut Ice Cream

Suggested Wine Pairing: Jackson-Triggs Riesling Reserve Icewine 2016 BC VQA Okanagan Valley

 

Prep Schedule

Don’t sweat it if you don’t get all of this done, but here’s the prep laid out for you in the ‘ideal world’ kinda situation.

TWO DAYS BEFORE

• Buy flowers
• Purchase wine (and beer!)
• Grocery shopping (download list here)
• Iron linens (or not, lol – life is short after all)

DAY BEFORE

• Set table and arrange flowers
• Make Soup
• Make Croutons
• Prepare Veggie Platter
  • Make Dips
• Prepare Shepherd’s Pie

DAY OF

• Morning:
  • Make & freeze ice cream
•  Afternoon:
  • Bake Soda Bread (place it in the oven 20 minutes before guests arrive ideally so it’s served warm from the oven!)
• Guests Arrive:
  • Serve Veggie Platter with Dips with the bubbly
  • Heat Soup and serve with the croutons (if using) and soda bread with butter or vegan butter
  • Bake Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
  • Remove Avocado Nice Cream from freezer 20 minutes before serving to soften
  • Serve Avocado Nice Cream with Ice Wine

 

Thank you to the BC Wine Institute for partnering with us on this post in 2019!  For more information on the wines and selections, visit WineBC.com’s Perfect Pairings for professional tips and advice on BC wine pairing.