St. Patrick's Day Recipes

I love St. Patrick's Day. I have a wee bit of Irish in me, and love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

For St. Patrick's day I use my favorite Sugar Cookie recipe for my 4 leaf clovers.

Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. white sugar
1 c.butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp.baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
green food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
Set aside.
Cream together the sugar and butter, and green food color to
the color green you like) I prefer to use Wilton cake decorating
frosting color, you don't need much until smooth.
Beat in vanilla and egg, gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls(instead I roll 4 small balls
and 1 stem for my 4 leaf clover) , and place in the shape of a 4 leaf clover with
a stem in between the bottom 2 balls, curving the stem side ways
onto ungreased cookie sheets

(I then watch my time when baking, to make sure they do not over cook) As you are working
with smaller pieces, but if you want you can make large cookies and then bake at the regular time, checking them around 7 minutes)
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool two minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Decorate with frosting or sprinkles. If you are short on time, just pick up a can of frosting and coloring it green)

Frozen Chocolate Mint Squares

1 1/2 cups finely crushed chocolate wafers (or you can use Oreo cookie crumbs if you like)
6 Tbsp butter (melted)
1 7 oz. jar Marshmallow creme
1/2 tsp mint extract
green food coloring (a couple of drops)
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups cool whip

combine crushed wafers and butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan.

Beat the marshmallow creme, mint extract and food coloring with your mixer till smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup of the mini chocolate chips.
fold the cool whip into the marshmallow creme mixture and spread over crust. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the the top.

(Instead of the marshmallow creme you can use Vanilla instant pudding, or use Pistachio pudding and mix with the cool whip. And then also use mini chocolate chip mint chips.) One other way is to replace the marshmallow creme with chocolate chip mint ice cream and top with cool whip.

Mint Chocolate Chip Shakes

Take about 4 large scoops of ice cream and put in your blender, and a small amount of milk, if you need more to get the ice cream moving, just add little by little.
You can also just make this with vanilla ice cream, but add green good coloring.

When mixed, pour into glasses and serve with green straws, or little shamrock party supplies you can pick up.