St. Patrick's Day Meals

The St. Patrick's Day holiday is a wonderful day to prepare special meals.  Below you will find many great St. Patrick's Day meal ideas for you and your family
 

St. Patrick's Day is rich with traditions, especially having wonderful Irish foods. Even if you aren't Irish, there are lots of great foods you can prepare to enjoy with your family. Snacks - There are any number of fun snacks you could have for the kids to munch on while dinner is being fixed. Green jello squares can be a quick and easy snack, that's not too filling. They can even be cut with cookie cutters into shamrocks. Shamrock biscuits are a nice snack, and something the kids can help make. Take two refrigerated biscuits, or sugar cookies, and cut them in half. Put the three sections together to make the shamrock and shape the fourth piece into a stem. They can either sprinkle green sprinkles on them, or "paint" them with water with green food coloring added and then bake.

Side Dishes and Appetizers - Soups are a great side dish or appetizer for a traditional Irish dinner. A cabbage and lamb stew would be very fitting. Or you could add potatoes, carrots and other vegetables to the lamb. Another soup would be Beer Potato Soup, which is based on a chicken stock with cream added, in addition to the beer and potatoes. Add a little onion, celery, sugar and salt and pepper to taste, and you have a hearty, tradition soup.

Main Dishes - Corned beef and cabbage, also known as Bubble and Squeak because the cabbage bubbles and squeaks while it cooks, is probably one of the most popular Irish dinners for St. Patrick's Day and it is fairly simple to make. Combine some onion, whole peppercorn, cloves, parsley and the corned beef in a pot of water. Cover it and let it simmer until the meat is tender. Then add the cabbage that has been cut into sections, and let simmer again until it is also tender. Add some horseradish to sour cream to serve with it.

Shepherd's Pie is another traditional dish to serve for St. Patrick's Day. You can use either lamb or beef in this dish. There are several ways to prepare it, but it is still fairly easy. Cook some onions in either butter or oil; add some other vegetables like carrots, peas or other favorites. Stir in some flour and cook until it's browned a little and add some beef stock. Boil it for about five minutes, and then add the meat, which has been finely chopped, and boil again. Spread the mixture into the bottom of a baking dish. Cover it with mashed potatoes and then bake at 350 for about a half hour. You can add shredded cheese to it when there is about ten minutes left.

Breads - There are many different types of bread that can be served at a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner. Scones are a nice, light option. You can also make Irish bread that has baking powder and soda instead of yeast. Many people like to add raisins or currants to the bread. Irish Brown Soda bread is a whole wheat bread that also uses baking soda, instead of yeast. It also has rolled oats and buttermilk, giving it a heavier texture.

Desserts - What would a holiday meal be without desserts? A green velvet cake with white frosting is a sweet end to the meal. Shamrock shaped cookies are also a fun thing to have. A Killarney Cake can be made with a chocolate fudge cake mix, with crème de menthe or peppermint extract instead of water. Stir in chopped green cherries. Top with whipped cream and more chopped green cherries. It can be put together as a layer cake, with a layer of whipped cream between each layer.

Traditional Irish foods are the perfect addition to any St. Patrick's Day celebration. Even if you aren't Irish, you may soon find some of them to be new family favorites you might even fix all year round.