16 March 2012
Tomorrow, Saturday March 17th, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! I love this holiday! I get to celebrate my Irish heritage and I get to drink me some beer! I love typing a bunch of sentences together that end with a “!”! For me it’s a day of fun and good food. I won’t go into St. Patrick’s Day history and all but I will take this time to tell you how I like to get my “Mickey” on when celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
The morning will start off with some good strong coffee as it always does, but I’m going to throw in some toast made from fresh Irish soda bread that I will be making the day before. I‘ll have some good blackberry jam to go with that toast and if my wife ain’t lookin’ maybe slip a little Jameson’s in that coffee. We’ll start our morning with some good Irish folk music courtesy of our Pandora radio station. You can find it by searching for “The Irish Experience Radio” on Pandora. We’ll throw some Bluegrass in there and other Celtic and folk music as well. We don’t’ normally watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade instead we focus on the music and the fine morning God presents us with. Of course, with a bit of that Jameson’s, focusing might just be a little tough! And of course, we’ll be sure that somewhere on our personage, we will be adorned with the required green attire!
The biggest thing I love about this day is the food. I love comfort food and Irish fare is good hearty eating! This year, my wife is making some fried cabbage with a little bacon thrown in there. She makes great fried cabbage. I will be preparing a nice authentic Irish Sheppard’s pie for tonight’s dinner. And by “authentic” I mean I’ll be using ground lamb cooked in a bit of beef stock and Guinness. As some of you may know, making this with ground beef makes it English Cottage Pie. I’ll be adding some nice carrots and peas to the pie “innards” and topping with some good mashed potatoes. I always throw a clove or two of garlic in the mash and you can even add a little beet or turnip in with the potatoes as they boil as well. Sheppard’s pie is one of my favorite all time foods.
For dessert, we might have a Guinness-molasses bread to go with tea. I also have a recipe for Baileys that I can whip up as well. But the day’s festivities and the evening will not be complete without a pint or two of Guinness! The only thing I’ll be missing will be a fire in the hearth and a dart board that I can toss a few “ton eighties” on. That’s pretty much “us” and how we like to celebrate! We keep it close to home as we do with most things and always have a grand time. How are you celebrating St. Patty’s Day?
"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
In the palm of his hand."
Or as I like to say “May the sun smile on ya and May the wind whisper the sweetest of greetings in your ear”
Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!
Related Links:
A site for good Irish blessings and toasts:
Allrecipes.com Saint Patrick’s Day recipes:
Guinness Official website:
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