Eatin' Irish

Growing up, my family didn't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day -- except the pinching part. When I moved to Texas in 1978, a sweet friend invited me for St. Paddy's Day . . . and served Corned Beef and boiled cabbage.  The smell alone cured me for a while.  I'm not a big drinker and even if I were, green beer hasn't really appealed to me, so that let out the celebrations in local bars.

Only 35 years later, I decided to cook a Saint Patrick's Day feast because I may not be Irish, but I'm a foodie.  My family are fantastic eaters and we all enjoy cultural food adventures.  After extensive research, I came up with a few authentic (sounding, anyway!) dishes and one not authentic but yummy sounding desert.

Here's our feast.  Enjoy! The links to the recipes are below the photos.

Our "starter" was Guinness Rarebit.  It was very rich and should not be served with a meal!  But we did it anyway.  I cut the butter in half and do not be fooled; this makes enough sauce for may more than 4 pieces of bread.  I am freezing the leftover and will resurrect it eventually as fondue.  The leftover Guinness did not go to waste!

Homemade Pork Sausage, Colcannon, and homemade Apple Sauce.

Oh my goodness, this was delicious. I used parsley, not marjoram, in the sausage and added salt and savory and it was so delicious.  But truly, every dish was delish and we will not wait a year to have this combo again.  (That said, "full fat" sausage is an extremely rare occurrence in our home so the next time around, it will be half ground turkey or chicken breast.)  I halved the sugar in the applesauce, too.

Here it is all together on my plate.  I meant to serve English peas, too, but just plain forgot.

We topped it off with a Skinny Shamrock Shake with a secret ingredient.

[My photo is not the best because it was hot in our kitchen! ]  I avoid using food coloring in our kitchen except very rarely because I just don't think we need it. Real food is lovely, anyway.  But a Shamrock Shake just needs to be green so I followed this recipe to the tee, including the avocado.  This was so tantalizing.  I love that the fat is from avocado and not super-rich ice cream.  If you try it, be sure to add the ice because the added volume is lovely. Every one loved it and we did not tell them about the avocado.  A "must repeat" desert!

Finally,  finish off your own St. Paddy's Day with a little fun. Cheers!