St. Paddy's Day

St. Patrick's Day Favorites


If you know me you know I love holidays.  One of the main reasons I love holidays is because I love theme food. St. Patrick's Day is no different.  Here are a few our families favorites and essentially our meal plan for the next week.  What is your favorite St. Patrick's Day recipe?

Courtesy of www.versesfrommykitchen.com

Beef and Guinness Stew
Beef and Guinness Stew Recipe

Shephards Pie


And of course...

Kopan's Irish Cream

A few side notes.  I also LOVE Irish Soda Bread but I don't have an awesome recipe for it yet.  Also, I never use heavy cream for anything.  If it requires heavy cream I use milk.  Not as a rich but if I buy heavy cream I use half of it and the rest just sits around my refrigerator. 

Christmas (or St. Paddy's Day) Treats



Oh my, this is late.  As in very late.  To the point that I thought perhaps, I shouldn't even write about our Christmas baking.  I mean, I've already done my Valentine's Day baking.  Then of course I realized that any time is a good time to share about Christmas baking and making Homemade Irish Cream.  Heck, St. Patrick's Day is coming up so I'm actually ahead of schedule.  And you could easily use minty green oreos and make St Paddy's Day bark...(which I'm totally going to do).

The best thing about both these recipes is that they are easy!  Really easy requiring very little more than just combining ingredients but none the less they are very, very good.

Homemade Irish Cream
Irish  Cream supplies.  It is go time!

  • 1 cup light cream 
  • 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 2/3 cup Irish whiskey (I used Bushmill's)
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee (I used decaf)
  • 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and set on high speed for 30 seconds.
  1. Bottle in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate. Shake before using.
  1. Will keep for up to 2 months.

 Peppermint Bark
Peppermint Bark supplies 
Peppermint Bark


  • Ingredients
  • 12 ounces chocolate chips
  • 12 ounces white chocolate chips
  • 1½ cups (roughly 15 individual candies) crushed peppermint candies (can also use candy canes or pre-crushed peppermint)
  • About 1/2 Box of peppermint joe-joes

Instructions
  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  1.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave by placing in a microwave-safe bowl and heating and stirring in 20-30 second intervals. 
  1. Once melted, pour over parchment paper and spread as evenly as possible with a spatula. 
  1. Crush the peppermint oreos.  I prefer the plastic bag technique.  (As put in a plastic zip-lock bag and step on them.)
  1. Sprinkle the peppermint oreos over the melted chocolate.  
  1. Prepare white chocolate in clean bowl exactly as with chocolate.   (Beware with the white chocolate.  It melts fast and then crosses beyond melted even faster.).
  1. Pour over the oreos and spread evenly with a spatula. Spread as quickly as possible to avoid having the melted chocolate mix with the white chocolate.
  1. Generously sprinkle  peppermint over the white chocolate topping.
  1. Place back into freezer for 30-45 minutes to allow to fully harden.
  1. Once completely hardened, remove from freezer and break into small pieces with your hands.
  1. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Recipe courtesy of www.cupcakeproject.com

Ingredients
Instructions

Peppermint Bark