© 2006 Timeless Treasure Trunk
All rights reserved.

Corned Beef And Cabbage

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Stew

Potato Soup

Blarney Stone - Kissed Cookies

Shamrock Punch

Irish Coffee

Irish Blessings

Irish Poetry

Irish Toasts

Irish Proverbs

The Hunt For Gold

Pot of Gold

Shamrock Hop

Free Printable Card

Shamrock Pin

Shamrock Greeting Card

 

Special Occasions St. Patrick's Day

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face.

And rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

An Irish Blessing

The History Of Saint Patrick's Day

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385, his given name was Maewyn. At age 16 he was sold into slavery by Irish marauders. He originally considered himself a pagan but while in captivity he became closer to God.

After six years in slavery he escaped and went to Gaul where he studied under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity.

He was quite successful at winning converts, this fact upset the Celtic Druids and he was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries, schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.

This mission lasted for thirty years when he retired to County Down, passing away on March 17 in AD 461. That day has become what we celebrate as St. Patrick's Day.

Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day including the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead and that he drove all the snakes from Ireland. Snakes were never native to Ireland, so most people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.

Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity, how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. From this his followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

Corned Beef And Cabbage

Ingredients:

5 pounds corned brisket of beef

6 peppercorns, or packaged pickling spices

3 carrots, peeled and quartered

3 onions, peeled and quartered

1 medium-sized green cabbage, quartered or cut in wedges

Melted butter (about 4 tablespoons)

Directions:

Place the corned beef in water to cover with the peppercorns or mixed pickling spices (in supermarkets, these often come packaged with the corned beef). Cover the pot or kettle, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 hours or until tender, skimming occasionally.

During the last hour, add the carrots and onions and cover again.

During the last 15 minutes, add the cabbage.

Transfer meat and vegetables to a platter and brush the vegetables with the melted butter. Serve with boiled parsley potatoes, cooked separately. (The stock can be saved to add to a pot roast or stew instead of other liquid.)

Serves 6, with meat left over for additional meals.

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1-1/4 cups raisins

1 egg

1/2 cup honey

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter a heavy skillet or casserole, 10" and 3" deep.

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together.

Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles peas.

Add the raisins and toss .

Beat the egg in another bowl until very frothy.

Beat in the honey.

Beat in the buttermilk.

Gradually stir into the flour.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake about an hour or until the middle is firm.

Cut into wedges and serve warm .

IRISH STEW

1 1/2 lbs. lamb cutlets (1/2" cubed)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup white flour

1 medium sized chopped onion

5 cubed baby red potatoes

1 cubed medium rutabaga

3/4 lbs. pre-peeled baby carrots

24 oz. of of beer

1 cup red wine

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

12 oz. fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup of corn

1 teaspoon rosemary (or to taste)

1 teaspoon garlic salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon of black pepper (or to taste)

Combine flour and garlic salt. Lightly coat lamb cubes in flour mixture. Sauté lamb, onion, and mushrooms in skillet with olive oil.

When lamb is thoroughly browned, add 1/2 cup of red wine. Simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid condenses.

Transfer lamb, onions, and mushroom mixture to a stew pot. Add rutabagas, potatoes, corn, beer, the rest of red wine, carrots, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and rosemary. Cook on medium to high heat at a boil for 30 minutes.

Potato Soup

6 cups water

7 medium potatoes, peeled & sliced

3 yellow onions, peeled & sliced

2 carrots, peeled & sliced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup hot milk

1/4 cup hot light whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

salt & pepper to taste

Boil the water in a saucepan.

Add the potatoes, onions, carrots, thyme, and bay leaf.

Cook over low heat for 50 minutes.

Drain off the water, remove the bay leave.

Add the milk, cream, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Cook over low heat for 12 minutes.

Blarney Stone Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

30 HERSHEY®'S KISSES® Milk Chocolates


3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

3 1/4 teaspoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 drops green food coloring

Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Divide dough in half; place each half on separate sheet of wax paper.

Shape each half into log with square sides, about 7 inches long and 2-1/2 inches wide. Wrap each log in wax paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 7 hours.

Heat oven to 325 F. Cut logs into 3/8-inch thick slices. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 15 minutes or until set. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool. Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces.

Stir together 3/4 cup powdered sugar, milk, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3 or 4 drops green food color, if desired, in small bowl until of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over top of cookies. Immediately place a chocolate piece on each cookie. About 3 dozen cookies.

Shamrock Punch

1 large can concentrated frozen lemonade, thawed

1 large can pineapple juice, cold

2 liters ginger ale

1 quart lime sherbet

Combine lemonade, pineapple juice in punch bowl.

Slowly add the ginger ale.

Spoon in the sherbet.

Irish Coffee

1 shot Irish Whiskey

1 tbsp Sugar

6 oz. Coffee

Whipped Cream for garnish



Pre-warm a stemmed glass. Add the whiskey.

Add the sugar and stir in the coffee.

Float the whipped cream on top.

Drink the coffee through the cream.

Do not stir after adding the cream.

Irish Blessings

A collection of Irish blessings, to use these on cards or scrapbook pages we have instructions and scrapbooking software here.

May the lilt of lush laughter lighten ever road,

May the midst of Irish magic shorten every road.

May you taste the sweetest pleasures

that fortune ever bestowed,

And may all your friends remember

all the favors you are owed.



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Go mbeannai Dia duit

(May God Bless You)

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May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.

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May you live as long as you want,

And never want as long as you live.

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If you're enough lucky to be Irish...

You're lucky enough!

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My wild Irish rose

The sweetest flower that grows

You may search everywhere

But none can compare to my wild Irish rose

My wild Irish rose

The sweetest flower that grows

Someday for my sake she may let me take

A bloom from my wild Irish rose

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'Tis better to buy a small bouquet

And give to your friend this very day,

Than a bushel of roses white and red

To lay on his coffin after he's dead.

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For each petal on the shamrock

This brings a wish your way-

Good health, good luck, and happiness

For today and every day.

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Dance as if no one were watching,

Sing as if no one were listening,

And live every day as if it were your last.

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May you always have

Walls 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!

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May you be in

Heaven a half hour before the

Devil knows you're dead!

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When Irish eyes are smiling,

Tis like a morn in spring.

With a lilt of Irish laughter

You can hear the angels sing

When Irish hearts are happy

All the world is bright and gay

When Irish eyes are smiling

Sure, they steal your heart away.

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May your blessings outnumber

The shamrocks that grow,

And may trouble avoid you

Wherever you go.

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There are many good reasons for drinking,

One has just entered my head.

If a man doesn't drink when he's living,

How in the hell can he drink when he's dead?

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May the best day of your past

Be the worst day of your future.

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I'm looking over a four leaf clover

That I overlooked before

One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain,

Third is the roses that grow in the lane.

No need explaining the one remaining

Is somebody I adore.

I'm looking over a four leaf clover

That I overlooked before.

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May you live to be a hundred years

With one extra year to repent.

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May those who love us, love us

And those who don't love us,

May God turn their hearts

And if he can't turn their hearts,

May he turn their ankles

So we will know them by their limping!

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As you slide down the banister of life,

May the splinters never point in the wrong direction!

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May luck be our companion

May friends stand by our side

May history remind us all

Of Ireland's faith and pride.

May God bless us with happiness

May love and faith abide.

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Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter

Lullabies, dreams, and love ever after.

Poems and songs with pipes and drums

A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.

That's the Irish for you!

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There's a dear little plant that grows in our isle,

'Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that sets it;

And the sun of his labor with pleasure did smile,

And with dew from his eye often wet it.

It grows through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,

And they call it the dear little Shamrock of Ireland.

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May your neighbors respect you,

Troubles neglect you,

The angels protect you,

And Heaven accept you.

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May you have:

A world of wishes at your command

God and his angels close at hand

Friends and family their love impart,

And Irish blessings in you heart.

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May God grant you many years to live,

For sure he must be knowing

The earth has angels all to few

And Heaven is overflowing.

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These things I warmly wish to you-

Someone to love

Some work to do

A bit o' sun

A bit o' cheer

And a guardian angel always near.

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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!

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May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,

May good luck pursue you each morning and night,

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O Ireland isn't it grand you look

like a bride in her rich adornin?

And with all the pent up love of my heart

I bid you the top o' the mornin!

Irish Poetry

W.B.Yeats - Love and Death

Behold the flashing waters

A cloven dancing jet,

That from the milk-white marble

For ever foam and fret;

Far off in drowsy valleys

Where the meadow saffrons blow,

The feet of summer dabble

In their coiling calm and slow.

The banks are worn forever

By a people sadly gay:

A Titan with loud laughter,

Made them of fire clay.

Go ask the springing flowers,

And the flowing air above,

What are the twin-born waters,

And they'll answer Death and Love.

With wreaths of withered flowers

Two lonely spirits wait

With wreaths of withered flowers

'Fore paradise's gate.

They may not pass the portal

Poor earth-enkindled pair,

Though sad is many a spirit

To pass and leave them there

Still staring at their flowers,

That dull and faded are.

If one should rise beside thee,

The other is not far.

Go ask the youngest angel,

She will say with bated breath,

By the door of Mary's garden

Are the spirits Love and Death.

Father and Son

by F.R. Higgins

Only last week, walking the hushed fields

Of our most lovely Meath, now thinned by November,

I came to where the road from Laracor leads

To the Boyne river--that seems more lake than river,

Stretched in uneasy light and stript of reeds.

And walking longside an old weir

Of my people's, where nothing stirs--only the shadowed

Leaden flight of a heron up the lean air--

I went unmanly with grief, knowing how my father,

Happy though captive in years, walked last with me there.

Yes, happy in Meath with me for a day

He walked, taking stock of herds hid in their own breathing;

And naming colts, gusty as wind, once steered by his hand,

Lightnings winked in the eyes that were half shy in greeting

Old friends--the wild blades, when he gallivanted the land.

For that proud, wayward man now my heart breaks--

Breaks for that man whose mind was a secret eyrie,

Whose kind hand was sole signet of his race,

Who curbed me, scorned my green ways, yet increasingly loved me

Till Death drew its grey blind down his face.

And yet I am pleased that even my reckless ways

Are living shades of his rich calms and passions--

Witnesses for him and for those faint namesakes

With whom now he is one, under yew branches,

Yes, one in a graven silence no bird breaks.


Toasts

Here's to absent friends and here's twice to absent enemies.

Here's to the light heart and the heavy hand.

Thirst is a shameless disease so here's to a shameful cure.

Here's to a wet night and a dry morning.

May we always have a clean shirt, a clean conscience, and a bob in the pocket.

May you be across Heaven's threshold before the old boy knows you're dead.

IRISH PROVERBS.

* A drink precedes a story.

* Time is a great story teller.

* A friend's eye is a good mirror.

* Even a small thorn causes festering.

* Good as drink is, it ends in thirst.

* It is a long road that has no turning.

* As the big hound is, so will the pup be.

* A trade not properly learned is an enemy.

* Put silk on a goat, and it's still a goat.

* When the liquor was gone the fun was gone.

* There is no fireside like your own fireside.

* It is not a secret if it is known by three people.

* It takes time to build castles.

Rome was not built in a day.

* The man with the boots does not mind

where he places his foot.

* If you do not sow in the spring

you will not reap in the autumn.

* When a twig grows hard it is difficult to twist it.

Every beginning is weak.

The Hunt for Gold:

You can buy plastic gold coins or just make some from yellow tagboard. Hide them around the room and have the children hunt around the room for them.

Pot of Gold Toss

Supply the children with yellow bean bags (gold) and a laundry basket, the pot and have them toss the gold into the pot:)

Shamrock Hop

Place shamrock shapes on the floor. Have the children hop from one shamrock to the next.

Irish For A Day Pin

You will need


3 hearts cut from card stock or made from wood

1 piece of card stock 3"x3"

2 shades of green paint

Paintbrush

Tacky glue

Pin back

Black marker

Scissors

Directions


1. Glue the three hearts together and set aside to dry. 2. Trace the glued hearts onto card stock including a stem. Cut out Shamrock shape. 3. Glue the three hearts onto the card stock this will give the pin extra support. 4. Paint Shamrock light green and then dab on some dark green paint for contrast. 5. Add a name and don't forget to include an "O" before the last name. 6. Glue on pin back.