St. Patrick’s Day Cooking Ideas

To me St. Patrick’s Day is one of the most fun holidays to cook for. I have some Irish background, but even without that St. Patrick’s Day is a great cooking holiday.  One of the things I like is that Irish food is generally fairly uncomplicated.  There are few long and complicated recipes when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day! I always enjoy cooking food from different countries, because is is great to revisiting traditions that may have been forgotten or overlooked.

This year we are having a big family get together on St. Patrick’s Day, to celebrate all the family birthdays that are occurring in March.  My sister-in-law suggested ordering pizza so I don’t have to cook, but it just doesn’t seem right to have pizza on St. Patrick’s Day.  So we are going to have a traditional meal instead.  Of course that means Corned Beef and Cabbage as the main dish.

In our house we serve potatoes and carrots along with the cabbage. This is a perfect meal for a big party because it can go in crock pot in the morning and be ready for dinner time. I am sure my meal won’t look as pretty as the picture, but it should taste good.  Since I have some vegetarians coming I will cook the vegetables separately from the meat and make a big pan of macaroni and cheese too.

Irish Soda Bread is another good addition to the meal.

I have made this in the past, but realistically I don’t think it is going to happen this year.  So I will probably buy Italian bread and figure it is close enough, all our food doesn’t have to be Irish.

Lamb stew is another great dish to put on your St. Patrick’s Day table. There are also slow cooker or crock pot recipes available for this family favorite. If you don’t like either of those Shepherd’s pie is another traditional Irish dish.  It is probably a little more complicated to make, but tastes delicious.  So what are your St. Patrick’s Day plans?