This year is pretty low key for us, as it falls on a Sunday. I'd love to be out drinking pints and listening to reels, but I guess I wasn't willing to give up Sunday as my household catch-up day in favor of drinking too much on a school night. Still, even though I am not physically smushed into a pub, my heart is there...actually, my heart is in Dublin, where my head always pretends to be whilst smushed in said pub on St. Patrick's Day.
We celebrated this morning as a family with an Irish breakfast at a local pub and did our annual toast to my father, who was a fine Irishman that passed away on March 18, nine years ago. This year we toasted with Bailey's & coffee. (Sorry, daddy, we couldn't bring ourselves to toast with whiskey at breakfast with the kids...we'll do two next year.)
Actually, we kicked off the festivities yesterday. I ran the Get Lucky 7K and, much to my surprise, I RAN THE WHOLE THING. 4.3 miles, baby, when the longest I've ever run is a 5K! Apparently the theory that you can basically learn to do anything with enough practice is true. Who knew?
I could dwell on how useful this lesson might have been had I learned it a wee bit earlier in life, but instead, I'm just going to say how thankful I am to be learning it now.
So in honor of today, I bring you a Smart and Good recipe for shamrock sugar cookies, which aren't exactly great for you because they've got 2 sticks of butter, BUT they are gluten free and don't contain refined sugar...until you get to the icing.
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| FYI, the palm sugar will make your dough darker than the average sugar cookie dough. |
1 cup unsalted cold butter (cut into cubes)
1 cup palm sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
Shamrock cookie cutter (or any holiday-specific cookie cutter)
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| So easy, even a nine-year-old can do it. |
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine flour, baking powder and xanthan gum in a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add beaten egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix until well combined.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, one cup at a time until combined. Continue with mixer on lower speed until batter begins to come away from sides of bowl. Scrape down bowl and gather batter to form into a ball.
5. Roll out your dough on a floured surface. (It's sticky!)
6. Cut your shapes. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Pepperminty Icing
1 cup powdered sugar (there might be a non-refined version of this, but I haven't tried it)
1 Tbsp water (adjust based on the consistency you want)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Mix it all up and then add food coloring unless you're making some kind of snowy-looking shamrocks, which would be appropriate here in Minnesota.
Beware: You're going to tell yourself it's ok to eat, like, 6 of these because they're gluten free...try to remember those two sticks of butter. Or, go run 4.3 miles.
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| Tada! Shamrock cookies are the new green beer, I swear. |
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