St. Patrick’s Day Family-Friendly Recipes and Slow Cooker Corned Beef & Cabbage

Growing up in New York, St. Patrick’s Day was truly an event celebrated by all.  Regardless of ethnic or cultural background, the entire city seemed to take part in all the fun festivities of the day.  Attending religious private schools for most of my academic years, I often had the actual day of St. Patrick’s Day off as a student holiday.  I always wore green – socks, shirts, pants, dress, undergarments, and even hair accessories.

My parents would take me to New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade where I would be among the families, children, revelers.  I cheered, waved, and jumped with delight as I celebrated among Irish American and other cultures.  For some years, my father would be part of the parade walking down the New York City streets as an executive with other union delegates representing New York and New Jersey.  On a few special occasions I was able to walk with him and felt the pride and joy of being part of the parade.  The day was usually complete by eating some authentic Irish cuisine at such places like Blarney Stone Bar & Restaurant.

Now being married to a husband with Irish descent, I like to continue the tradition with our family and children.  eMeals founder and mother of four, Jane DeLaney, offer the following frugal, fun, festive, and kid-friendly recipes to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your family:

Leprechaun Punch

Ingredients:
3 scoops of lime sherbet
1.5 cups Sprite

Directions:

• Scoop 3 ice cream scoops full of lime sherbet and put them into a cup.
• Pour Sprite over the sherbet until it’s fizzy and at the desired amount of liquid in the cup.
• (Additional Ideas: Buy green straws and spoons to slurp and eat the Green Leprechaun. You can also buy St. Patrick’s Day stickers and put them on plastic cups for an additional flair).

Mini Apple Pies

Ingredients:
7 Granny Apples
½ cup of sugar
½ t cinnamon
2 T brown sugar
1 Package of pre-made piecrust
Confectioner’s sugar
Butter

Directions:

• Cut the tops off of 6 apples and discard the tops.  Very carefully remove the insides of the apple with a melon baller or a spoon.  Make sure you do not puncture the apple peel. Slice the apple pieces you removed from the inside of the apple into thin pieces.
• Place the apple pieces in a bowl and add sugar and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.  Place the mixture into the hollow apples. Roll out the piecrust and slice into ¼ inch strips.  Cover the top of the apple with a lattice pattern with piecrust strips and brush on top with melted butter.
• Place apples in a baking pan and add enough water to cover the bottom of the apples.  Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes at 350. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes until crust is golden brown and sliced apples are soft. Slice your leftover apple.
• Sprinkle the baked apple pie with Confectioner’s sugar and garnish with sliced apple.

Three Leaf Chocolate Clovers

Ingredients:
1 bag of Hershey Kisses
Green M&Ms (You may have to pick them out of a regular bag of M&Ms)
1 bag of pretzel knots
Wax Paper
½ cup Confectioner’s Sugar
Green food coloring
¼ stick of butter
2 T of milk

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 200°.  Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Place the pretzels on the cookie sheet.  Place an unwrapped Hershey Kiss on each pretzel.  Place the cookie sheet in the oven.  Allow chocolates to melt until they become soft.
• Remove cookie sheet from the oven and promptly press the chocolate flat on the pretzel.  Add three green M&Ms to the pretzels to form a three leaf clover.  Allow the pretzels to cool completely.
• In a mixing bowl add Confectioner’s sugar, green food coloring, butter and milk.  Add food coloring until you get your desired color.  The consistency of the mixture needs to be like play dough.  You can keep adding Confectioner’s sugar until desired consistency.  Pinch off a piece of the icing and roll the stem of the clover with your fingers and add to the pretzel.

Iced Mint Oreo Brownies

Ingredients:
Aluminum foil
Cooking spray
7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
1/8 t mint extract
10 drops green food coloring
1 box brownie mix
Vegetable oil (amount depends on the brownie mix)
Eggs (amount depends on the brownie mix)
17 oz package cool mint Oreo cookies
3/4 c white chocolate chips
1/4 t vanilla extract
1 canister vanilla frosting

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9×13 pan with foil & spray it with cooking spray. In medium bowl, stir marshmallow fluff, mint extract, & 5 drops of food coloring (or more) until light green color is achieved.
• In a large bowl, prepare the brownie mix as directed on the box, using water, oil, eggs, & fold in 12 hand crumbled Oreos at the end. Spread brownie batter in prepared pan. Place random dollops (about 1/2 c) of the green marshmallow mixture on top of  brownie batter & save the rest for later. Gently pull a table knife through batter in S-shaped curves for a swirled looking top to your brownies. Bake until brownies are set, being careful not to overbake.  (Originally set my timer for 25 minutes but ended up having to bake them for around 40 minutes until they were done in the center).
• Cool brownies completely before icing. In another small microwave-safe bowl, melt the white chocolate chips for 30 second intervals.  Take out the chips and stir in between each 30 second intervals until they are completely melted and smooth.
• Add the melted white chocolate chips, vanilla extract, & the vanilla frosting to the reserved marshmallow mixture. Stir in 5 drops of food coloring or until your desired level of green is achieved.
• Once the ingredients are blended, spread over cooled brownies. Crumble Oreos by hand and sprinkle them over the brownies, pressing them in lightly. Let it set before slicing and serving.

My parents are terrific cooks and having careers that surrounded them with multi-cultural groups, they also learned how to make a variety of dishes.  Around St. Patrick’s Day, my mother would often make homemade Corned Beef and Cabbage.  The following is a Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage (which also has an instructional video which can be viewed HERE):

Ingredients:
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces
10 baby red potatoes, quartered
1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 cups water
1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet
6 ounces beer
1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped

Directions:

• Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High.
• Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.

Courtesy of: CashNetUSA It’s Economic