St. Patricks Day

St. Patrick's Day. It's all about meat, 'taters, cabbage, and leprechauns. No wonder this Italian girl from New England has never gotten excited about it. Fortunately, it's also about beer, and that does get me excited.

I'm a late-comer to beer, but I love it; since I live in San Diego, that's a good thing. With a whopping 33 breweries producing craft beer, San Diego was recently crowned the top beer city in the country by Men’s Journal.

I just discovered an amazing seasonal beer calle Pipeline Porter. It's brewed by Kona Brewing Company in Hawaii but distributed to only a handful of markets including San Diego. It may just be the perfect beer for a Beer Ice Cream Float.

I grew up in Ireland, and we ate Irish soda bread every day with breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is a recipe that my family inherited from our cook in Ireland, Mrs. Creagh, and it’s the best that I know.

This bread is particularly delicious toasted at breakfast time with salted butter and my homemade pomegranate jelly: The salty and the sweet are just fantastic together. If you don’t have pomegranate jelly, do as the Irish do and spread with salted butter, then top with smoked salmon and capers with a drop of lemon. Unbelievably delicious.

Alright, even though we have been working so hard on what the heck we are going to make for Easter, I almost forgot about St. Patrick's Day. Gasp! I mean I never miss a chance to celebrate those dang rainbows, pots of gold and little green people. So instead of pulling out the Lucky Charms once again, as your go to St. Patrick's Day feast...why not make this? And don't even say, "I don't like corned beef, wah, wah wah'. It's tradition people, it's all about tradition. AND THIS will take tradition to another level, I promise.

Whiskey-Glazed Corned Beef
Adapted from Cuisine at Home

Submerge in Water; Simmer
1 corned beef brisket (3.5-4 lbs)

Whisk Together
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup whiskey (such as Jack Daniel's)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Submerge corned beef, fat side up, in water, in a large pot. Cover and simmer over low heat until beef is tender when pierced with a fork, 3 hours. (If chilling overnight, keep the meat in the liquid. Bring it to a simmer the next day, then continue with the recipe).

I used to hate St. Patrick’s Day.

I grew up with working class Irish-American kids in one of the biggest Catholic parishes in San Francisco. All the nuns and the priests were Irish. They spoke with thick Irish brogues. Many of my classmates’ parents had brogues. On St. Paddy’s Day everybody else faked a brogue. They’d play that grinding fiddle music and make us do these silly step dances. Then somebody would pass the hat for the IRA.

If you weren’t Irish, you couldn’t wait for this holiday to be over.

Years later I visited Ireland. I found that St. Pat’s Day wasn’t as big a deal there. In fact, St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. He was a Roman taken slave by pirates or some other “pagans” and brought to Ireland. Corned beef and cabbage was not the national dish. As a B&B owner explained to me, a true Irish dinner was probably potatoes and seaweed. A poor family in Ireland couldn’t afford meat. Only in America would they be so lucky.