Irish coffee break

I love Irish coffee.

It's in my blood - my grandmother was a member of The Ancient Order of Hibernians, my brother used to dye his mustache green on St. Patrick's Day, and my daughter is OBSESSED with Celtic Thunder.

I have no control over it  :)

Despite my love of Irish coffee, I don't love the price of the "real" Irish cream, so I whipped up a batch in my kitchen.  It is quick to put together and the taste is divine.  

Ready to hear how I made it?

I introduce the ingredients:

2 2/3 cups whiskey (to be authentic use Irish whiskey. I used Canadian because it was on sale)

1 3/4 cups sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsp. instant coffee granules

3 tbsp. chocolate syrup

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. almond extract

This isn't exactly low calorie.  

Pour all of the ingredients into a blender and blend for 30 seconds.

Pour into a cute container and store in the refrigerator up to two months.  

If it lasts that long.

Make yourself a cup of strong coffee, add the Irish cream, a bit of freshly whipped cream for the top, and a seriously adorable argyle shamrock cookie to sit on your mug.  

I am fighting a strong desire to dye my hair green.

Linking with these great parties
Pink Saturday
French Country Cottage
Monday Funday
StoneGable on the menu Monday
Alderberry Hill
Twigg Studios
The Tablescaper Ladybird Ln Weekend Show Off The Gingerbread Blog Sweet Saturdays

Rainbow cookie video tutorial

St. Patrick's Day on the brain?

Guilty.  

These cookies are made with a wet on wet icing technique that is so easy to do (and have the ability to turn you into a cookie rock star!).  

It is one of those things you really can't make a mistake with because it will turn out bright and beautiful no matter how you swirl your toothpick.  Watch the video and see for yourself!

Now go forth and swirl icing!

For directions on making the rainbow drink, look here

Linking at these great parties

The Gingerbread Blog Sweet Saturday
Imparting Grace
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
The Charm of Home
Tutorials Tips and Tidbits at StoneGable
733 Blog Sugar and Spice Party
36th Avenue
A Creative Princess

Rainbow drink

I thought I had such a great idea for making a rainbow drink, but it was one of my more epic failures.  I was in fact horrified at the mere thought of immortalizing it in a photo.  

My big idea was to take fruit sherbets and sorbets in rainbow hues, and put little scoops of them in a champagne glass and then filling it with sparkling apple cider.  I was sooooo proud of my big idea!

Unfortunately, it looked a lot like swamp water.

SHREK SWAMP WATER to be exact.  

My daughter said it tasted good, and Mr. Enchanted guzzled one down, but not only was it not the pretty rainbow I envisioned, it looked downright disgusting.  

I put on my thinking cap and came up with PLAN B.

I have been doing that a lot lately.  

I jumped in my car, drove to the grocery store and bought a bag of multicolored popsicles.  

Yep, $1.98 of artificially flavored frozen crap.  

But, it worked.....like a charm!

All I did was smash the popsicles with a mallet, and then layered the colors in the champagne glass.  There were no green ones in the bag and that did kind of bug me (being a rainbow aficionado and all), but at least it didn't look like swamp water.  Topped with the sparkling cider, it was downright delightful looking!

And if I had used dry champagne instead of cider, it would be perfectly wonderful for whimsical adults - like me.  

My rainbow cookies made for a very colorful treat!  

I will post a video tutorial tomorrow on how to make the rainbow effect on the cookies.  

It is easy and fun - two of my favorite things!

Linking with the following great parties
March Madness Party at 4 You with Love
Savvy Southern Style
Fluster's Creative Muster Party
DIY Dreamer Dream to Reality

Leprechaun cookies

 

I couldn't let the week go by with making some leprechaun cookies.  

And because I don't have a leprechaun cookie cutter, I combined  hat and sea shell cutters to make the shape I wanted.

See how the upside down shell makes the beard?

Just push the two pieces together on the baking sheet, and the heat will meld the two together.

Trust me, this works.

As I began to mix up my icing, the little men began to speak to me.

Really, they did!

I'll have to remember that.

If only I could!!!

Let's hope so.   

From my leprechauns friends and me  :)

LINKING UP WITH

Homemaker on a Dime Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill Six Days of Spring at French Country Cottage Sunny Simple Life Seasonal Sundays
The Creative Homemaker Hop

Painting on cookies - my first video tutorial

I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life I have ever been tempted to imbibe in a glass of wine at 9:00 a.m..  

Let's just say, it took a hundred few takes.

I had so many issues with my camera, I had to resort to consulting the owner's manual.  Now THAT is serious.  

My other issue was with my dog barking.  She would be lying there calm as can be or snoozing, and about 30 seconds in, she would start barking.  I tried giving her a barbeque chewy rawhide stick outside, and she just brought it back to the door, dropped it, and continued barking.  It brought back to mind when my five kids were small and the phone would ring.  They would come from every corner crying, whining, tattling, hungry, thirsty, and fighting.  As soon as the call would end, they would go back to being little angels.

Can I hear an amen from the other moms out there?  I can't be the only one  :\

So I decided to outsmart my dog Nellie (that's right - matching wits  with a little spaniel...).  She is a serious chow hound, so I took a handful of her kibble and tossed it off the deck hoping she would consider it to be a doggie scavenger hunt.  And she did - for about three minutes.  

Close but no cigar.  

Now my kids think Nellie is terribly spoiled and pampered by me.  

And no, she is absolutely NOT eating creme brulee in the photo.  

*Cough*

But, it needed to be quiet and I had to take tough measures with my  "6th child".  It was out to the garage with her, where she gave her vocal chords a good workout.  Happily, it wasn't heard on the video! 

And so with the house quiet at last, I made this video tutorial - 

PAINTING ON COOKIES!

Let me know what you think - suggestions for making it better or new subjects you would like to learn about.  

I also embellished the painted cookies with a Celtic knot border - I love the way it has a three dimensional look!  

Nellie and I hope you enjoy the video tutorial, and give painting on cookies a try!  

Link parties I am participating in:

Home Stories A to Z
Seasonal Sundays
Inspired Friday at Common Ground
Little Mom on the Prairie
Home Sweet Home
House of Hepworths
View from River Mountain
Stone-Gable Tutorial, Tips, and Tidbits
Seven-Alive Link it up Thursday
The Dedicated House
Wicked Awesome Wednesday
Sugar and Dots
Made by me Wednesday

How to make royal icing shamrocks

St. Patrick's Day is in the air, and my Irish blood is stirring!

Time for leprechan mischief and green treats galore!  

Ready to learn how to make 

 ROYAL ICING SHAMROCKS?

  The first step is to make traditional royal icing - this is the type of icing that hardens, used to make three dimensional roses or sticking gingerbread houses together.  I use the Wilton recipe that you can find here.  

When you prepare this recipe, you will notice it is quite stiff, and that is a good thing when making embellishments that will stand alone.  

Once you have the icing prepared, add food coloring till you get the shade of green you like, and then load into a pastry bag that is fitted with at least a # 3 tip.

On a piece of parchment or wax paper, draw a heart shape.

Now make a second heart on the side,

and now a third heart on the other side.

All that is needed now, is a cute little stem.

I was having such fun, I made quite a few!  

Then I moved on to trying Celtic knots,

and then changed to a star tip to make stars with a large green dragee in the center.

I just kept on cruising until I ran out of icing!

All that is left to do, is allow them to dry (and that doesn't take long).  Just peel them off the paper, and they are ready to add to cookies, cupcakes, or cakes.  

AND, they keep indefinitely in a storage container.

IRISH BLESSINGS MY FRIENDS!

Having fun with

House of Hepworths

StoneGable Tutorials, Tips, and Tidbits

Seven-Alive Link it up Thursday

A Stroll Thru Life

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Cozy Little House

Make the Scene Monday

Moonshine Monday

Sugar and Slice Sunday

Masterpiece Monday

Leprechauns!

 


I am participating in Cuisine Kathleen's Irish blog crawl!




We are going to be out of town this weekend, so I decided we needed to have our annual St. Patrick's day dinner a bit early.  Corned beef,  cabbage, parsley potatoes, and this year, a leprechaun cake that I piped and painted. 

I have always LOVED St. Patrick's day.  The annual St. Patrick's day party at the Knight's of Columbus was one of the highlights of my year.  It was so festive, with everyone wearing green (and pinching anyone who wasn't), singing Irish songs, and McNamara's Band playing - oh, it was so much fun!

And my grandmother was a card carrying member of the Irish Catholic organization AOH - Ancient Order of Hibernians.  Gram lived with us, and when they had meetings at our house, my mom would spend all day cooking and cleaning for the big event.  Once the initial greetings were exchanged, we were banished to the upstairs because the meetings were 
TOP SECRET. 
 Mom used to refer to them as the FBI, and I wonder to this day what in the heck went on down there...

Back to today - I was working on my cake when something strange caught my eye.  There was SOMETHING flitting and scampering through my back yard.  Underneath it's hat was orange hair and it was wearing green.  I could sense an air of MAGIC about it.

Could it be?  Was it really a leprechaun?

IT WAS!!!

And the leprechaun brought along his girlfriend.

Now I know you may find this hard to believe, but the man in green thinks he will have a good shot at being elected class clown.  
Imagine that?

The elfin sister got into the act as well.

So what am I to do with a group like this?

Feed them cake, of course!

Belleek Irish cookies

I am participating in Cuisine Kathleen's Irish blog crawl



Today's cookies are my take on Belleek Irish china.  I used royal icing to make the patterns around the rim, and I painted the shamrocks with food coloring.  I am really enjoying the paint technique.  It has opened up a whole new world of possibilities - I even got myself a couple of new brushes today!  

And now for a few Irish blessings!

MAY THE ROAD RISE UP TO MEET YOU.

MAY THE WIND BE ALWAYS AT YOUR BACK,

MAY THE SUN SHINE WARM UPON YOUR FACE,

THE RAINS FALL SOFT UPON YOUR FIELDS AND,

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN,

MAY GOD HOLD YOU IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND.

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE WORK FOR YOUR HANDS TO DO.

MAY YOUR POCKETS ALWAYS HOLD A COIN OR TWO.

MAY THE SUN SHINE BRIGHT ON YOUR WINDOWPANE.

MAY THE RAINBOW BE CERTAIN TO FOLLOW EACH RAIN.

MAY THE HAND OF A FRIEND BE ALWAYS NEAR YOU.

AND MAY GOD FILL YOUR HEART WITH GLADNESS TO CHEER YOU.

MAY YOUR TROUBLES BE LESS,

AND YOUR BLESSINGS BE MORE.

AND NOTHING BUT HAPPINESS

COME THROUGH YOUR DOOR.

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE WALL FOR THE WINDS,

A ROOF FOR THE RAIN, TEA BESIDE THE FIRE,

LAUGHTER TO CHEER YOU, THOSE YOU LOVE NEAR YOU, AND ALL YOUR HEART MIGHT DESIRE.

And, my personal favorite,

MAY YOU BE IN HEAVEN

A HALF HOUR BEFORE 

THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR'E DEAD.