Cooking for St. Patrick’s Day is a fun part of the holiday. Traditionally people make menus that include things like corned beef and cabbage, salt bread, Irish cream and Irish whiskey, Irish stews, etc. However, sometimes you want to do your cooking for St. Patrick’s Day, but you are dealing with some picky palettes. Much Irish cooking and St. Patrick’s Day cooking involves Irish cream, spirits, and foods that most kids, and even several adults, are unfamiliar with. So, how can you cook for St. Patrick’s Day and still embrace the traditions, while creating something your family will actually eat, and love? Consider the following:
1. Do your own take on corned beef and cabbage. This is the traditional fare for St. Patrick’s Day, but it tends to be a polarizing dish that you either love or hate. So, to make it with a twist.
For example, you can cook your corned beef, but serve it as lettuce wraps, where you fill cooked cabbage leaves instead of butter lettuce, and wrap up herbed mayo, corned beef, and some rye bread. You get all of the ingredients, but in a different presentation, which makes it more palatable to some.
A variation kids tend to love is the corned beef and cabbage pizza. This is a great twist on the tradition, where you make a traditional pizza crust, and top it with corned beef, cabbage, and thin sliced potatoes, and then cover it in Monterey jack, Mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses, for a cheesey, delicious spin on the fave.
2. Use green. If your kid won’t eat anything they are unfamiliar with, but you want to cook for St. Patrick’s Day, try taking their classic favorites and adding a little food safe coloring to it to make it green. Make pancakes and top with green whip cream. Make green jello, make bread that is green, or applesauce that is green, etc. Adding green makes it work for St. Patrick’s Day.
3. Cut into the shape of shamrocks. The next option for cooking for St. Patrick’s Day is simply cutting the normal foods into St. Patrick’s Day themed shapes, such as shamrocks. You can make your child a PB&J like normal, and use a cookie cutter to get a fun St. Patrick’s Day shape. The same goes for pancakes, waffles, even steaks if you want to take the time and effort.
Regardless of what you cook for St. Patrick’s Day, add in some green beer, some Bailey’s Irish cream, Irish whiskey, or Irish lamb stew, and you are sure to have a hit on your hands. It is all about celebrating all things Emerald Isle, so find the part of that which works for you, and capitalize on it during your cooking.