• Irish Coffee Cheesecake
• Green-Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Your favorite rolled cookie recipe with a shamrock cookie cutter and green-and-white icing
• S’mores with green marshmallows
• Silver Moon’s Praline Irish Cream ice cream
• Irish Cream Icing for your favorite brownies or loaf cake: Take 1/3 cup Irish cream liqueur (such as Bailey’s) and 8 ounces of top-quality white chocolate. In a small pan, bring the liqueur to a slow boil; then remove from the heat and whisk in the chopped white chocolate until it’s completely melted and the icing is smooth. Refrigerate until it becomes thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally. Spread the icing over the brownies or cake. Keep refrigerated until 30 minutes before serving.

Find more of our favorite desserts in our Cookies, Cakes & Pastry Section.

Celebrate St. Pat’s with Irish Coffee
cheesecake. Photo courtesy National Honey Board.

Juice with half the calories. Photo by
Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

Tropicana has addressed those concerns with Trop50 juice beverages: 50% less sugar and calories. An eight-ounce glass has 50 calories.

We tried two flavors of Trop50: Pineapple Mango and Pomegranate Blueberry.

The juice beverages have a nice, delicate fruit flavor—yes, it’s more dilute flavor than “full test” juice, but a good fruit juice solution for those who have given up this high-calorie, high-sugar, high-carb food.

The products will be welcomed by dieters, carb counters and America’s 20-million-plus diabetics, who have had to give up juice; not to mention parents who are counting their kids’ carbs. While the sugars are still high (11g per eight-ounce glass), Trop50 gives people on sugar quota on the choice to have a glass of juice.

Trop 50 is simple, yet not simple:

Trop50 is certified kosher by OK.

One thing to note: It’s no longer a half gallon (64 ounces) but 59 ounces. Contemplation of the day: How much more can companies shrink gallons, pounds (16 ounces of coffee is now 14 ounces), etc.?

• Find more of our favorite reduced-calorie and sugar-free products in our Diet Nibbles Section.

There are almost 100 species of thyme, which can range in color from deep green to gray and golden-green (look for golden lemon thyme). It’s a very aromatic herb—so much so that it lures honeybees (in ancient Greece, thyme leaves were rubbed over the hives to encourage a honey production, and thyme planted as a ground cover is still used to attract butterflies that pollinate fruit trees).

We all need more thyme—it’s one of the leading culinary herbs.

Thyme’s flavor is more delicate than sage and it can be used with similar dishes: eggs, fish, meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, salads, sauces, soups and stews. Toss sprigs into the water before you cook rice.

Thyme is part of the classic herb blend known as bouquet garni, along with bay leaf and parsley.* Use more thyme and less salt.

English thyme is one of a half dozen
varieties available at WhiteflowerFarm.com.

A cook’s trick: pull the stems through fork tines to easily strip the leaves.

RECIPES WITH THYME

• Creamy Seafood Chowder In Cumin Thyme Broth
• Thai Chicken Salad With Rice & Thyme
• Spring Braise Of Veal En Croute
• Charlie Trotter’s Goat Cheese Ice Cream With Whole Roasted Figs

*There is no set herb combination for bouquet garni: bay leaf, parsley and thyme are most common. But the bouquet—which is bound with string, put in an herb ball/tea ball, cheesecloth or a sachet—varies with the recipe. It can also include basil, chervil, rosemary, tarragon and other herbs.

Drinkin’ o’ the green. Photo courtesy
Agwa de Bolivia.

Start celebrating with a green cocktail. You can make an entire cocktail menu from our green selections:

• With Midori Melon Liqueur
• With Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey (not green in color, but as Irish as it gets)
• A Dublin Delight, with Grey Goose Le Citron
• With Agwa de Bolivia coca-leaf liqueur (it’s emerald green, like Midori)

Finish the evening with Irish Coffee, of course.

Find a larger selection of cocktails in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.

Tomorrow: St. Patrick’s Day desserts!

You can get a sampler of mints from
WhiteflowerFarm.com. From left: Apple mint,
spearmint and peppermint.

Mint also migrated east to become a basic ingredient in the meat and vegetables dishes of the Pacific Rim. The aromatic herb has a sweet flavor with a cool, refreshing aftertaste. Try adding a bit to tzatziki and raita.

A few sprigs will enliven a green salad, a beet salad or spicy arugula. Mint mixes well with basil and tomatoes too. It’s an ingredient in tabouli—bulgur wheat, parsley, mint and tomatoes. And it’s so refreshing in iced or hot tea or mineral water.

There are numerous varieties of mint. Common types in the U.S. include apple mint, chocolate mint, ginger mint, orange mint, pineapple mint and the most famous duo, spearmint and peppermint. Each adds its own nuances to dishes. Start with a pot of spearmint. It’s what stores typically sell as “mint.”

• Spearmint is most often used in recipes and food products: lamb, mint jelly and mint tea, for example. It is a great complement to new potatoes and eggplant, and as an accent in salads. It’ss one of the most popular food garnishes.
• Peppermint, a more robust flavor, is used in sweets and beverages.
• Apple mint, often found at farmers markets, has the scent of minted apples. When you see a jar of apple mint jelly, it’s been made with apple mint—not apples and mint.

Any of the three makes a delicious cup of mint tea.

Mint grows quickly. A pot in your window will encourage you to make the recipes we’ve listed more frequently; and you may become addicted to the fresh mint tea recipe, below.

• Crab Salad With Lemongrass and Mint
• Porcini-crusted Australian Lamb Rib Chops With Fresh Pea, Mint And Feta Salad and Rack of Lamb With Quinoa-Hazelnut Crust & Mint Pesto
• Honey Mojito Mint Ham Glaze

RECIPE: Mint Tea

Mint tea is the unofficial national drink of Morocco. Wherever you go, from shops to homes, you’ll be offered a glass of hot mint tea—green tea steeped with mint. While it is traditionally sweetened, it’s deliciously refreshing with no added sweeteners. Make yourself a cup:

Ingredients
– 1 cups water
– 1 teaspoon loose green tea leaves or 1 green tea bag
– 2-3 sprigs fresh spearmint
– Optional sweetener: agave nectar, sugar or non-caloric sweetener

Preparation
1. Boil water and steep tea. Cover and up to 5 minutes. Add the agave and stir to blend. Strain and serve.

2. Garnish with a mint sprig. While it’s not part of Moroccan mint tea, you can add a squeeze of lemon or lime.

If you are preparing multiple portions, add the bunch of mint to a teapot.

For iced mint tea: Let the tea cool to room temperature, transfer to a covered pitcher or bottle and chill. Serve in a tall glass over ice, garnished with a fresh mint sprig.