Porcelain and Plaid: Just a Hint of Irish Dinner

"May the dreams you hold dearest be those which come true

and the kindness you spread keep returning to you."

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, I wanted to add a little bit of Irish flare to a dinner we had with friends on Friday evening. I love everything blue and white and our house is decorated with blue and white already, so I wanted to include blue and white in my table with hints of Irish green. When I don't have florals ordered through a florist, I can always find some pretty good flowers to work with at our local Kroger. I love these bright green hydrangea stems. I used a white Pottery Barn pitcher and two ginger jars as my vases.

Here are sources for my tables cape (this picture was taken pre- silverware & stemware):

Navy Runner: No longer available at PB, similar here and here

Blue Placemats: One of my best purchases ever from Hobby Lobby, I could not believe they carried placemats this cute. No longer available, similar here

Water Hyacinth Placemats: These are a big deal! They look just like the Serena and Lily style sold here, but I got them for SO much less here

White basketweave dinner plates: My all time favorite dinnerware from Williams Sonoma found here

Napkins: My napkins were purchased from a linen shop in France during our honeymoon, but you can get monogrammed styles from so many sources, such as here.

Napkin rings: These napkin rings I found on Amazon here. They are such a good price and showed up literally within 24 hours. There are a bunch of other colors available, too.

Blue & White Ginger Jars: I have found my ginger jars as so many different sources. From online store to Home Goods to thrift shops and consignment stores, there is no shortage of blue & white. There are good options here, here, and here.

White pitcher: My white pitcher is from Pottery Barn (found here), but you can use any cute white pitchers like the ones found here, here, or here.

All florals are from Kroger.

In keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme, I wanted a little green in the food, so I made this all green fruit salad. My toddler loved it and a bonus- this meal didn't require any yucky artificial food coloring!

I am not sure if a Shepard's Pie is even Irish (LOL), but it sounded good and traditional, so I went with it. I found a recipe that had a more modern twist using sweet potatoes and the filling was paleo. First, I cooked the sweet potatoes separately from the filling.

I then placed the filling in my Le Creuset baking dish and topped it with the sweet potatoes.

This is how it looks prepared before I baked it all together in the oven.

The recipe can be found here.

I wanted to make a salad that felt spring-like, so I made this spinach salad with raspberries, oranges, and toasted walnuts. We kept the blue cheese on the side.