4 cups mashed potatoes
21/2 cups cabbage, cooked and chopped fine
1/2 cup butter (avoid corn oil margarines as they will not add the needed body and flavor)
1/2 cup evaporated milk or cream
3/4 cup onion, chopped fine and sauteed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Saute onions. Boil the potatoes and mash them (do not use artificial potato flakes). In a large pan place all of the ingredients except the cabbage and cook over low heat while blending them together. Turn the heat to medium and add the chopped cabbage. The mixture will take on a pale green cast. Keep stirring occasionally until the mixture is warm enough to eat. *Lastly drop in a thimble, button, ring, and coin. Stir well and serve.

*It was an old Irish tradition to hide these in it: a ring for a bride, a button for a bachelor, a thimble for a spinster, and a coin for wealth, or any other item which local custom decreed in keeping with the idea of the New Year as a time for divination. If you make colcannon with these little objects inside, please excercise caution against choking.