St. Patrick’s Day - The 2nd Best Day of the Year

Anyone who knows me well (or has even read some of the other posts on this blog) knows that one of my favorite days of the year is St. Patrick’s Day. My day usually consists of getting to an Irish pub to have my first Guinness poured before noon and staying out until at least dinner time. I usually have on a delightfully tacky green ensemble complete with a light-up shamrock necklace. Everyone seems to be in a jolly mood on this day and a little more friendly with strangers than usual. I look forward to this day every year. I joke that it’s my 2nd favorite holiday after my birthday!

But of course we all know what happened in March 2020. Here in Indy the restaurants and bars closed on March 16. Luckily we were planning on staying in for the day due to growing concerns about the coronavirus (that’s what we called it back then, not COVID-19). And we had 2 good friends/neighbors who were going to come over to celebrate with us. We made a hearty slow cooker beef stew, Irish soda bread (mine was somewhat dry), and chocolate chip cookies with green, orange, and white sprinkles. And of course Guinness, Jameson, and Bailey’s to go with it.

For 2021, I stepped up my food game a little. I made a different and better Irish soda bread, good enough to have on days other than St. Patrick’s Day. It wasn’t dry or crumbly and had a great flavor. And it was great with Irish butter and strawberry jam for breakfast the next day. The recipe was from the website Sally’s Baking Addiction which has so many great recipes. And I highly recommend subscribing to her newsletter as she sends recipes that go along with the seasons.

I also baked Bailey’s Irish Cream chocolate chip cookies with green M&M’s. The dough tasted so good as I could really taste the Bailey’s (I know, I know, you’re not supposed to eat raw cookie dough). But the flavor of the Bailey’s was really diminished after baking them. So I’m tempted this year to make them as edible cookie dough by leaving out the eggs and cooking the flour to make them safe to eat without baking. This past Christmas I made these chocolate chip cookie dough truffles which I can use as a template for how to make them into edible Bailey’s cookie dough.

And the third thing I made was Brussels sprouts colcannon. It was a play on the traditional colcannon dish which is mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale. I like both of those veggies, but I like Brussels sprouts even better. This was a different kind of dish for me to have, but it was really good. And a different way to eat Brussels sprouts other than roasting them which is what I usually do. This recipe was from the cookbook Modern Irish Food which I bought in Ireland!

I think I’ll make all 3 of these again this year to celebrate one of my favorite days! What Irish foods do you make to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?