My mother-in-law started a tradition that I've been involved in for the last 12 years. Each St. Patrick's Day, we get together as a family for a great meal, with a twist. A leprechaun comes and leaves money in the food! Here's last year's celebration at our home.
We serve meat loaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and cabbage. For dessert, we have pistachio pudding pies. Money is placed inside all of the food, so it's a real treat seeing how much each person goes away with. Here's how to start the tradition with your family. Disinfect coinage ($1, quarters, dimes, nickels, etc) by placing in bleach water. Then wrap in tin foil. Place your meat loaf in pan to bake and then insert wrapped coinage throughout the meat. Bake. As for the mashed potatoes, mash regularly and then stir in wrapped coinage prior to serving. Do the same with the pudding pies. Place a bowl of coinage for those who take helpings of vegetables. Your kids will be more than happy to eat their broccoli or cabbage to be monetarily rewarded. Once your guests know to look out for money hidden in the food, they will eat carefully! This is one of our favorite meals each year and hope it will be a fun tradition in your family as well!
