Saint Patrick's Day Recipes: Green Or Truly Irish

Snacks For Big And Little Folks

Are you going to have kids at your Saint Patrick's Day do? 

While green food coloring isn't exactly the most healthy thing around, it is probably inevitable if you want to make cookies or cakes. I like green chocolate chip cookies with some mint extract. You can also try meringues, or cupcakes in rainbow colors to represent the rainbows, to remind everyone of leprechauns and the coins they hide near those.

For grown-ups and those who have issues with food coloring, you may prefer to stick to a display of fresh fruits in many colors, arranged in the shape of a rainbow and with chocolate coins in a pot at one end.

Savory snacks could include crackers with cream cheese, with slices of cucumber shaped into shamrocks on top. Stuffed boiled eggs with guacamole add another piece of green food to your party, and go well with any type of beer or Irish whiskey — which you will definitely be enjoying on Saint Patrick's day!

Dinner — Colcannon, Of course!

Colcannon is a truly delicious Irish take on mashed potatoes. What's more, there is plenty of green there too. While anyone celebrating Saint Patrick's Day has a huge array of dishes to choose from, I really think you should make colcannon for dinner.

Use eight large potatoes, about four lbs, as your base to serve four to five people. You will also need a lovely green kale cabbage along with a bunch of scallions, milk, an egg, butter (real butter, not margarine!) and salt and pepper. Follow these steps:

• Peel and boil your potatoes. They'll boil faster if you chop them into smaller parts.

• Chop a head of kale into strips and boil, until they are a little softer than they were. Don't deadboil your kale, or it will lose some of its taste and nutrients. Kale is naturally a powerful antioxidant that is rich in vitamins C, K, A, B6 and E. It also has some great minerals: calcium, iron and magnesium among others. Let's leave that goodness in and keep the kale a bit crunchy.

• Mash your potatoes. Add in butter, a bit of milk, and a raw egg. All these things will make your colcannon more creamy.

• Stir your kale into the mashed potatoes, and add rings of chopped scallions as well. Your colcannon will look beautiful! Some people choose to put chives or parsley on top, but this is optional.

Are you a real carnivore? Bacon or ham apparently go well with colcannon. I haven't tried this myself since I am a vegetarian, but I do know that you should prepare your meat before you start boiling the potatoes.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you all!