St Patrick's Day Done Right

Are you feeling lucky? Well you should, because DRH has all of your St. Patrick's Day decor, food, drink ideas, and an awesome Floor Sample Sale!

We are bursting at the seems with awesome upholstery and expecting more, SO we need to move a few items off the floor to make room for new goodies! Now through the weekend select items are 20% off! I bet you are already feeling pretty lucky! Don't wait, these are floor samples so once they are sold that is it...

After spending many hours of browsing blogs, Pinterest, tumbler, houzz, etc I finally came up with a few fun, festive, gorgeous decor ideas for St. Patrick's day. Lucky for you I will save you the time of doing all that searching...

Image Source: Elle Decor

This is the most beautiful, luscious, green tablescape I have seen, and has such a great nod to the spirit of luck on St. Patrick's day.

A few more ideas that are slightly out of the box.

Stripes:

Simple Greens:

Now that your table is set, let's talk food! Here is my favorite recipe for an easy Irish Stew from TastesLovely, the 2 best things about this recipe is that it uses Guinness as one of the ingredients and that you cook in a crock pot...how easy is that?!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds lean beef stew meat cut in 1" cubes
• ½ cup white all purpose flour
• 1 pound carrots, chopped (about 4 large, will yield 3 cups)
• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, chopped (about 4 medium size, will yield 3 cups)
• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated of finely minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 12-ounce bottle Guinness Draught beer
• 64 ounces (8 cups) chicken stock, divided
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• micro greens for garnish (optional, or could use chopped parsley)

Instructions

1. In a baking dish, stir and combine the flour, 2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoon pepper. Add the beef stew meat and toss to coat. Tap off excess, and transfer the flour dredged stew meat to a plate. Discard any leftover flour.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat for 2 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil, and add about ¼ of the meat, being careful to not overcrowd the pan (otherwise the meat will steam and not brown). Cook about 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown, turning to cook both sides. Transfer the cooked meat to your slow cooker. Repeat to continue browning the meat, adding another teaspoon of olive oil to the pan each time before adding the meat. It takes me about 4 batches to cook all the meat.
3. While the meat is browning, chop up the carrots and potatoes to be about 1" x ½" chunks. You don't want to cut the vegetables too small, otherwise they won't hold up in the stew. Transfer the cut carrots and potatoes to the slow cooker. Chop up the 2 onions and set aside.
4. After the meat is done cooking, add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the same pan and cook the onions. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. While the onions are cooking, scrape up any brown bits and cooked flour on the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions just starting to soften. Add in the garlic and tomato paste, stir and cook for 1 more minute. Add in about 1 cup of the chicken stock and scrape up any remaining bits on the bottom of the pan. Transfer the cooked onions and liquid to the crock pot. Add in the Guinness beer, remaining chicken stock, and bay leaves to the crock pot. Give a stir to evenly distribute the meat and vegetables. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours, or LOW for 8-10 hours. Taste for salt and pepper after cooking. Sometimes I'll even add garlic powder if it needs it.
5. Serve warm, and garnish with micro greens or chopped parsley.

YUM!!!!

What goes better with a good warm stew and a gorgeous table setting...a cocktail! And no its not green but it does have Irish Whiskey and it's DELICIOUS!

Ingredients

• For the Honey Syrup:
• 1/2 ounce hot water
• 1/2 ounce honey
• For the Cocktail:
• 2 ounces Irish whiskey, such as Jameson
• 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 ounce Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
• 1/2 ounce honey syrup
• Seltzer, chilled
• Garnish: lemon twist

Directions

1. For the Honey Syrup: Stir together hot water and honey until honey dissolves.

2. For Each Cocktail: Add whiskey, lemon, sweet vermouth, and honey syrup to a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with seltzer and garnish with a lemon twist.

Slainte!

Well that's that. We have savings, holiday decor inspiration, food, and a cocktail...I would say that's pretty lucky!