Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Having young children is so fun during holidays. They get so excited about everything and make it all fun. Today for dinner, we had leftover salmon chowder, and to be green for St. Pattys, I made some homemade pesto and slathered that on a long, skinny sun-dried tomato baguette, and baked that for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Those pictures turned out terrible, so I won't be sharing them, but it was really yummy! At some later date I'll try to post that "recipe" with pictures.

I did make some yummy shamrock cookies from Taste of Home. I added a little more almond extract to the cookies, and cut down on the milk a little in the icing. Then I used a freezer ziplock bag with the corner snipped to pipe designs on the cookies.

Note: I would use parchment paper-lined baking sheets. I broke quite a few cookies because they stuck so badly, and I even started greasing my cookie sheets.

Pot o' Gold Cookies from Taste of Home

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds, toasted
Dash salt

ICING:
2 cups powdered Sugar
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons milk
Green food coloring

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and extracts. Combine the flour, almonds and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Shape into a 10-in. roll; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. Unwrap and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 325° for 14-16 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool. Combine the icing ingredients; decorate cookies as desired. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 3-1/2 dozen.