Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day has always been a 'fun' holiday. How can it not be? There are parades, rivers are turned green, there is food, there is beverage, there are Irish jigs.

When I was a child, I went to St. Patrick's Elementary School - I had a connection from a young age. I remember wearing green and people having buttons and shirts that said "Kiss Me I'm Irish". When I headed off to college, St. Patrick's Day was a day marked by Green Beer and lots of community parties.

I really don't recall St. Patrick's Day being associated with a particular type of food until my fourth year of college. I was dating a man that lived in another state and I had headed over to visit for Spring Break - the aforementioned college traditions led to us having a spring break after my sophomore year that was conveniently scheduled over St. Patrick's Day each year. We went to one of his friend's houses for dinner and she made a great dish of corned beef and cabbage. It was delicious. I had enjoyed both corned beef (with noodles) and cabbage (in cabbage rolls) as a child, so they weren't new to me, but having them together for St. Patrick's Day was new.

Now, as an adult, I can't really say that I have any St. Patrick's Day traditions of my own, unless you count wearing green and up until last year bringing something to daycare for the green buffet - frequently, cut out Shamrock Cookies or Finger Jello. I am however, a big fan of corned beef, so this year, I am going to make up some corned beef hash and fried eggs for breakfast or lunch. (I'm thinking lunch, only because I don't normally eat that much food at breakfast - plus Sunday is the only day that I have a bowl of cereal and I enjoy it while reading the paper.) I will likely be enjoying it alone - although, I might convince my son to give it a try, he is more adventurous and likes easy over eggs.

Do you have St. Patrick's Day traditions? Do you eat any St. Patrick's Day themed foods?

If you are in need of some ideas, Hormel Foods has put together a full menu of St. Patrick's Day themed dishes for every meal of day.

Breakfast:
Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Sandwiches - they make theirs green with spinach, not like the green eggs that my kids and I enjoyed a few years back. I think that sounds more appealing to me.
Cheesy Hash - add bacon and cheese to Hormel Mary Kitchen corned beef hash for a restaurant-like breakfast dish.

Lunch:
Sausage and Pepper Pasta - this delicious sounding dish uses Hormel Natural Choice spinach asiago chicken sausage (I have to look for that, it sounds delicious and would be great on the grill).
California Confetti Pizza - this vegetable pizza adds green with the addition of Wholly Guacamole.

Dinner:
Ultimate Roast Beef Sandwich - this recipe takes a bowl of stew and turns it into a sandwich.
Harvest Pork Roast - a classic meat and potato dish.

No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed are mine or those of my family. I am completing this post as a participant in the Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger program. Hormel Foods provided some product and some of the information for this post.