Last Minute St. Pat's Day Treats

Today has been one of those days.  Know the ones I'm talking about?  The ones where you have a laundry list of to do's and high hopes of being incredibly productive but the world rallies against you and every little thing that could possibly go wrong does?  Yeah... I hate those days!  But... I finally made it here to my blog (better late than never?) and I swear that I'm going to turn my day around and finish on top!

I had plans to actually celebrate St. Pat's this year - get a few friends together and head to the bar for a customary green beer (okay... I wouldn't have actually had a beer, since I'm not a fan, but I would wildly support the others who did have one... and get some green girly drink instead!) and some silliness.

Then I realized that St. Pat's is on a Wednesday this year.  And on Wednesday nights I have class - an hour and a half commute away from my home.  Shoot!

So hubs I and I decided rather last minute (last night!) that we would have an impromptu St. Pat's celebration this evening.  A celebration of food, that is!  Hubs got up early to put the corned beef in the slow cooker and I'll be adding the cabbage a little later this afternoon.  In the meantime... I whipped up a couple of additions to our feast...

This soda bread was my very first bread-baking experience.  And I tell you what - it was soooo easy!  I got the recipe here but added a little extra buttermilk (about a tablespoon) to the batter because it was a little too dry looking.  I haven't tasted it yet... but it smelled delicious while baking!

For these little shamrock sugar cookies I cheated twice over.  I used store bought dough (gasp!) and made the cookies per the package directions, then grabbed a Wilton ready to use decorating gel in green instead of making my own frosting (double gasp!), and free-handed the shamrock designs.

Steps to pipe an (almost) perfect shamrock?  Start with a heart shape...

Then flank it with two other hearts...

Fill in and add a stem!

These cookies would be quick and easy to do with kids, and the tubes of gel make it not too messy.  I made both the bread and the cookies in about an hour... and they were the easiest things I've done all day!  I hope that you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, and be sure to pop in for our weekly guest post... I am so excited!