What’s St. Patrick’s Day without a little Guinness?!

St. Patrick’s Day has always been special in our little family.  Not only did I marry into an Irish family, my mother-in-law, and her mother (our Great-Granny) were both born on March 17th!  Unfortunately, this will be the first St. Patrick’s Day without Great-Granny.  She passed away last summer, and we miss her dearly.  In honor of Great-Granny, I have decided to celebrate her life on St. Patrick’s Day by preparing a Irish inspired menu that she would have enjoyed.  And since my family doesn’t care too much for corned beef hash, I’m switching it up a bit this year. Great-Granny’s favorite night-cap was a little mug of Guinness, so I found a recipe for dinner that incorporated Guinness.  We’ll be toping the dinner off with one of our favorite green desserts.

Main Dish…

Guinness Braised Short Ribs Served Over Mashed Potatoes

First up is this delicious recipe from Jo over at Jocooks.com.  And if you don’t know about Jo, now’s the time to discover her blog, and her instagram!  Her food is AMAZINGLY good!  And while I haven’t tried this recipe, I’ve tried other recipes of hers and I have never been disappointed.  I can’t wait to try this one on Saturday…doesn’t it look fantastic?!

Get Jo’s recipe here!

Dessert…

Ice-Cream Grasshopper Pie

Because Great-Granny ALWAYS had room for dessert, we’ll be ending our night with an Ice-Cream Grasshopper Pie.  Mostly because Brian, Nate, and I love mint ice-cream, but also because it’s green!  Ice-cream pie’s are always a fun option for kids to help with too.  You can make them with any flavor ice-cream, and you can either make your own crust, or buy a pre-made crust.  We like a really thick Oreo crust, so I usually make my own.

Note: If you’ll be filling the crust with ice-cream, be sure to leave the ice-cream out long enough to become soft, but not completely melted.

Here’s what you’ll need for the crust…

1 package of Oreos

7 TBS butter

9″ Pie Plate

Here’s what you’ll do…

Place Oreos in a food processor (you may need to do this in 2 batches depending on how big your food processor is)

Pulse Oreos until you can’t tell the difference between the cookie and the cream filling.

Melt the butter and mix the melted butter with the crushed Oreos

Dump the crushed Oreos and butter mixture into the pie plate.

Press the cookies to the bottom and all around the sides of the pie plate.  You can use your fingers, or the bottom of a measuring cup.

I like to bake my crust at 350º for 8-10 minutes.  I find that baking the crust makes it a little crunchier.  But you can also just chill it for at least an hour before filling it.

Here’s what you’ll need for the filling…

1 Gal Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-Cream

Redi-Whip or home-made whipped cream

Candy shell chocolate sauce (any brand will do)

Here’s how to assemble the pie…

Dump the gallon of softened ice-cream into the prepared Oreo pie crust.

Spread the ice-cream evenly

Decorate the top with whipped cream and candy shell chocolate sauce

Freeze pie for at least 1 hour

Cut into pie slices and ENJOY!

 

What do you like to prepare on St. Patrick’s Day?  I’d love to know in the comments below!

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Crock Pot Chili

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