Sweet Lady

Pagan Blog Project - Week Eleven - F #1 – Food

My mom has always been big into her Irish heritage. (Though she’s moved into a Scottish thing in the past few years after she found out our Irish family really comes from Scotland…) Every St. Patrick’s Day she’d go all out with making soda bread (both sweet and savory), corned beef, potato soup (green!), and as an extra special treat – Irish potato candy! My friends would always love coming over to my house for St. Patrick’s Day because the food was always so good. I’ve tried to carry on this tradition in my adulthood. I have friends who celebrated with me and my family back in the day, and now they make potato soup and Irish potato candy every March, too. And that’s the magic of food and making traditions!

 

Irish Potato Candy – no potatoes!

Ingredients:

One package cream cheese, softened

One stick of butter, softened

One tablespoon of vanilla extract

One large package of powdered sugar (about 32 ounces)

One small package of dried coconut flakes (about 5 ounces)

Lots of cinnamon (or chocolate powder or melted chocolate)

Suggested - gloves

• Mix crease cheese, vanilla, and butter in a bowl. Softened is easier. Some suggest whipped cream cheese, but I’ve never used this.  
• Mix in the dry ingredients. A little at a time works best. This will be messy. Just keep on mixing and mixing and mixing. It will all blend together. It will be very sticky. If you use gloves, it will be easier (but still kind of messy.)
• You can easily change how much of each ingredient you use. Some like less sugar and more coconut. For me, it depends on the day.
• Whatever mixture you use, make sure everything is blended together very well. Put this mixture in the fridge or freezer for some time. Longer is better, but this step is not super necessary, it just helps a bit because it hardens stuff up and makes it a bit less sticky.
• Once you think you are ready, take the sticky mixture and roll it into little balls. Take these balls and roll them into your cinnamon or chocolate powder, or, dip them into melted chocolate. You want the little candies to look like little miniature potatoes – white on the inside, brown on the outside.
• Enjoy! People love these little guys, and they tend to go very fast. Easy to make (although messy) and very tasty, they’re a family favorite and they make good gifts, too.