St. Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops

Have you ever gotten pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick's day? I'm trying to remember if I have. I feel like I did when I was younger... but I realize now that every year on St. Patrick's day, I make sure to always wear green. 

I think the true fun of St. Patrick's Day is in all the little things that combine to make a unique and fun celebration. In our home, we do a (somewhat) traditional dinner for the holiday and don't go too overboard. However, we do go a bit overboard on the days leading up to this

"lucky" day and these simple, fun and adorable marshmallow pops are just one way that we 

we do that. Cheers to you and I wish you the best of luck this St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops:

Ingredients:

3 large marshmallows

Food Writers - Green, Black & Yellow "markers"

1 teaspoon melted white chocolate

Green sprinkles

Wooden Skewer or (long) lollipop stick

Instructions:

Brush the outside edge of one large marshmallow with melted chocolate and roll in green sprinkles. Place on parchment paper and allow to dry.

Using food writer markers, draw a clover on the "face" of one marshmallow and green stripes around the outside edge. Draw a pot of gold on the other marshmallow, and write "kiss me" or "lucky" or another cute, St. Patrick's day saying on the other marshmallow.

Place marshmallows on skewer and tie green ribbon around the stick.

Leprechaun Cupcakes

I completely love any excuse to make adorable treats... and having a daughter in 1st grade gives me that excuse! I love making special things and bringing them to share with her class because at this age they get so excited! As soon as you walk in the room their little eyes light up and they all start whispering to each other: "get your work done or we won't get them!" I love that I can impress them all with something as simple as a cupcake and I am not looking forward to the day when they are "too cool" to even eat a leprechaun cupcake. Right now I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts and realize that I have a baby boy coming soon that is going to be starting school eventually! Yay! I guess that's why I should keep having more kids, right? :)

Leprechaun Cupcake Instructions:

24 baked yellow cupcakes, in liners (cooled)

1 can *already prepared* vanilla frosting (like Betty Crocker) with 1 drop yellow food coloring and 1 drop red food coloring mixed in

1-1/2 cups bright orange buttercream frosting

1-1/2 cups bright green buttercream frosting

3 tablespoons yellow buttercream icing

48 Mini Chocolate chips

Place canned vanilla frosting (with food coloring mixed in) in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, until frosting is melted. Remove from microwave and allow to cool for a few seconds. Dip the tops of all cupcakes in the melted frosting, allow excess frosting to drip off, and place on parchment paper to dry. **Do not discard remaining frosting!

Once frosting has dried (about 20 minutes), use a star tip (I used Wilton Tip #21 to pipe on beard using orange frosting. Using another star tip, pipe on a cute green hat. Place yellow frosting in a small ziplock  bag and snip the tip. Pipe a small square on the hat rim.

Place mini chocolate chips in place for eyes. Use remaining prepared vanilla frosting to pipe on a nose. 

Ta-da! You now have cute little Leprechaun cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day!

5 Ingredient Irish Stout Corned Beef & Lodge 6 Quart Dutch Oven Review + Giveaway

As you all know, St. Patrick's Day is coming right up! I wanted to share my absolute favorite Corned Beef recipe with you because I just know you're going to love it! There's only 5 ingredients (well, 6, if you count the seasoning packet... but it comes with the corned beef, so I don't count it!) It's easy to make, takes very little preparation and it tastes marvelous! Guess what I also want to do? I want to tell you about the amazing enameled cast iron Dutch Oven from Lodge I used to cook the recipe AND give one of you, my lucky readers, the chance to win one for yourself (at the bottom of this post!) Yay!!

So first of all... isn't that a gorgeous dutch oven? Is there anything prettier than this beautiful emerald green? It's really such a lovely addition to my kitchen! I leave it sitting on my stove at all times because it makes my kitchen look ahhh-mazing! There are so many recipes that require a dutch oven nowadays, so it's absolutely necessary to have one in your kitchen! On top of cooking soups and stews and countless other foods, it's also great for frying! I love using mine to fry up a batch of doughnuts, or french fries. But, my favorite thing to use it for is braising! This 6 quart beauty is perfect for cooking your pot roasts and makes a deliciously moist piece of meat every time. The fact that it's a Lodge product let's you know it's sturdy and dependable. I know my Lodge cast iron skillet has been one of my most used kitchen tools for years and it's still going strong! 

Here's the Line-up of characters. I mean, Ingredients. Guinness. Corned beef (with seasoning packet). Brown Sugar. Cabbage and Red Potatoes (not pictured)

Rub your corned beef with the brown sugar and 1/2 of the provided seasoning packet. 

Next, pour your Guinness beer right along the side and a little over the top.

Watch it bubble and fizz. Ain't she a beaut? 

Then you'll put your lid on your dutch oven and place it in your preheated oven for 2 hours. That's one of the things I love most about dutch ovens... they can go in the oven, or you can use them on top of your stove!

After it's cooked for a while, you can add veggies. Cabbage and red potatoes go really well in this dish! Carrots would probably be yummy too!

Then, you'll place it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Once time is up, you can remove it from the dutch oven and slice it and serve. Make sure to reserve some of the yummy drippings to pour over. You can even thicken it up with a little cornstarch before drizzling over the top of your corned beef.

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5 Ingredient Irish Stout Corned Beef Recipe:

Ingredients:

3 pound corned beef (with seasoning packet)

1 (12 ounce) bottle Irish Stout Beer

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 head cabbage - quartered

1 pound red potatoes - diced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Pat corned beef dry and place in dutch oven. Rub corned beef with brown sugar and 1/2 of the provided seasoning packet. Pour in beer.

Put lid on dutch oven and place in preheated oven.

Cook for 2 hours. Remove from oven and place chopped vegetables under corned beef. Place back in oven and cook for additional 30 minutes, or until veggies are tender.

Remove from oven, place corned beef on serving platter and slice. Surround it with the cooked veggies and serve.

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HERE'S HOW TO ENTER  THE GIVEAWAY: 

(READ CAREFULLY!)

Mandatory Entry:

-Follow Lodge (Lodge Cast Iron) on Facebook and comment on this post letting me know you did! *Make sure to leave a comment on THIS post or your entry doesn't count!!*

Earn Extra Entries:

-You may earn 1 extra entry each for doing the following  (leave a separate comment for each one you do!):

-Check out Lodge's site and leave a comment on THIS POST letting me know what item you'd most like to have!

-Like Diddles & Dumplings on Facebook (if you already do, just leave a comment telling me so!)

-Pin this post on Pinterest (use the "Pin it" button on the top of this post!)

-Share this giveaway on Facebook

Make sure to use all entry methods to receive 5 entries. This will give you the best chance of winning! Also, make sure I have a way of contacting you (you can leave an e-mail address in the comments!)

Contest ends at Midnight on Saturday, March 16th, 2013 and is open to U.S. Residents only.

1 Winner will receive an Emerald Green 6 Quart Dutch Oven by Lodge. Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen. 

**Thank you so much to Lodge for providing the Emerald Dutch Oven for review and also for sponsoring this giveaway! Make sure to follow the rules of the giveaway and also please "Thank" Lodge on Facebook for sponsoring this awesome giveaway!**

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