Irish Mash-tini Bar

If you haven’t realized by now, when it comes to entertaining, I like themes and I like doing something unexpected.  After the year we hosted the Irish Murder mystery Dinner, and the year we went to Chicago, coming up with something new and exciting took some thinking.  It came to me when I saw a friend post a Mash-tini Bar post on facebook.  That is all it took to jar the Mash-tini bar from my entertaining bucket list to my google calendar!!

Frugality is always a factor, so I was pleased to see that Martini glasses are very affordable!!  I went with a clean, classic, straight line.  These are from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  The glasses are 12 ounces, so it gives guests an opportunity to visit the bar more than once to sample a couple of different concoctions.

Mashtini

Here is the pdf of my menu. I left it generic so it could be shared.

Irish Mashtini Bar Shopping List

Here is the pdf of my shopping list.  Many items I have on hand – but the list is inclusive of everything needed for the Mashtini Bar to serve 12 very hungry people with left overs.  The items here make 1 batch of each item on the menu and each of the 5 items serves 3-4 people.  It would be difficult to cut the recipes in half, for that reason.  If this is way too much food, consider reducing the number of choices for the bar.

While I usually take homemade to the “n’th” degree; to pull this off; I opted to cheat a little.  Mashed potatoes are a time consuming, messy undertaking and “ready-made” mash is simple and affordable.  This time it is worth it.  I also decided that the nice, neat, little, square crispy fish was worth the shortcut as well.

Pretty easy transformation.  I made the Cod Fish Mashtini pictured below with Meijer brand loaded mashed potatoes, and the small Gorton’s frozen squares.  The Martini glasses actually held about half (2 servings) of mashed potatoes, so I am confident that it will work, size wise, for a meal.  Can you imagine trying to use a shot glass ?  Spud-shot-itizers ???  No, thanks.

For our actual dinner, I am adding crisped fried onions (like French’s) as a side topping for this one.

Here are links for the Gaelic Steak, Shepherds Pie, Irish Stew, and Corned Beef toppings.  I advise paying a little more for the matchstick carrots and the jarred minced garlic in these recipes because it will save time and clean up.

Gaelic Steak, Shepherd’s Pie, Corned Beef , Irish Beef Stew

   

Here are the appetizers and desserts that we served.  My sister in law brought a pound cake with peaches, whipped cream and Irish custard.  Fabulous.  The  rest were kid friendly, rice krispies and cupcakes.

 

Since we had loved ones from Holland and Chicago, we had a 2:00 meal time.  We set out appetizers while the finishing touches came together.  Kerry Gold and Dubliner cheeses, imported from Ireland (and believe it or not, found at Aldi’s!), sampler pack of crackers, homemade Irish Brown Soda Bread, and a Reuben Dip my mom made.