Jackson Free Press

Can't get enough of Mal's St. Paddy's Parade? Continue the party at home, and have another Mal-athon on your dining room table. You need only to create a krewe of broccoli stalks marching on a street paved with split peas and red beans—and, presto, you've got a green parade. This year's theme celebrates nutrition and health. (Stick the broccoli in candle holders or use pin frogs.)

Every St. Paddy's party needs a pot of gold, and what could be more golden than the paté of the South—pimento cheese (potted on a bed of collard greens)? Spread it on potato rolls as a nod to the Irish.

Have guests make their own Mississippi Reubens with corned beef on little slices of rye bread, slaw (instead of sauerkraut), comeback dressing (instead of thousand island) and Swiss cheese—or more pimento cheese!

As Robert St. John says, "It ain't a party until someone breaks out a block of cream cheese." And any Mississippi woman knows that you need to slather the cream cheese with hot pepper jelly before it goes on your cracker. For St. Paddy's Day, make sure the pepper jelly is green, and form the cream cheese into a shamrock. (Use your Valentine's heart-shaped cutter cutters for the three clover leaves, with their points meeting.)