We went over to our friends’ house last night to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, so I decided to get the party going with a couple of lazy, boozy treats: lime green jello shots and semi-homemade Guinness brownies.

Want to make your own?  Here’s how.

 

Lime Green Jello Shots

Yields 24 small jello shots.

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes Lime Jell-O (with sugar)
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 2/3 cups citrus vodka (I used Smirnoff Citron)

Tools:

• Pot for boiling water
• Pitcher
• Dixie cups

Directions:

1. Bring the water to a full boil.
   • While the water is heating up, set out 24 Dixie cups.
2. Take boiling water off the heat, and immediately pour in the jello packets.  Stir until the jello has completely dissolved.
3. Add citrus vodka to the pot, and stir.
4. Transfer jello mixture to a pitcher, and pour into Dixie cups.  You should have enough liquid to fill 24 cups about 3/4 inch.
5. Refrigerate at least four hours, or overnight.

 

If you want to make more boxes, or different flavors, jello shots have a magic ratio that you really can’t mess up:

• Take the number of boxes you’re using (say, 3 boxes)
• Boil a bit more than that many cups of water (about 3 1/3 cups)
• And measure out a bit less than that many cups of vodka or rum (about 2 1/2 cups)

 

Semi-Homemade Guinness Brownies

I normally make baked goods from scratch, but after a full day of work, a happy hour, and trips to the mall and the grocery store, I needed some help from the boxed dessert gods.  So I adapted this excellent Guinness Brownies recipe from Lessie at Modern Christian Homemaker.  Hey, if she can feel okay about making boozy brownies from a box, then surely so can I.

These were a huge hit.  You can’t really taste the Guinness, but it does lend the brownies an extra warm, earthy flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Ghirardelli Chocolate Supreme brownie mix
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/3 cup Guinness Draft beer

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a bowl or mixer, mix the egg and oil.
3. Stir in the Guinness.
4. Add the brownie mix and chocolate syrup pouch. Mix well.
5. Grease and flour an 8×8″ baking pan.
6. Pour and spread the batter in the pan.
7. Sprinkle the top with semi-sweet chocolate chips.
8. Bake 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Do not overcook; underdone is better than overdone.
9. Allow to cool, cut into squares, and enjoy!

Wishing you a very happy and slightly boozy St. Patrick’s Day!

Sláinte!