"st patricks day" news and stories

"When Irish eyes are smiling... they steal your heart away" -- those lyrics probably bring to mind serious St. Patty's celebrations. I'm big into entertaining and any excuse to host a party works for me – especially if there is a theme, color or food involved.

But St. Patrick's Day has always been much more to me than just a day for late-night bashes and green beer, because it also happens to be my Granny "Patricia's" birthday too.

I'm starting a new tradition in celebration of the wonderful cooking legacy she passed on to me, growing up in her kitchen. Every year, along with the gift and birthday card I send, I'll include a brand new recipe and photo from my blog, only it will be delivered the old-fashioned way, via snail mail. (Granny certainly knows her way around the kitchen but isn't as savvy when it comes to the computer.)

Find the Skinny Chef's recipe for a Shamrock Shake after the jump.

While the urge to guzzle Guinness on St. Patrick's Day may be overpowering, there's no need to follow the herd -- or subject yourself to (gasp!) green beer. These 10 stouts are every bit the flavorful alternative. And yes, if you ask nicely, we'll even draw a shamrock in the beer's foam.

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout:
The marvelous Michigan stout pours coal-black, with an aroma of roasted malt and a licorice-like flavor blended with bittersweet chocolate.

Rogue's Shakespeare Stout:
Inky with a fat brown head, Shakespeare tastes like mocha coffee reimagined as beer.

Sierra Nevada Stout:
This affordable, widely available stout doesn't disappoint, providing a creamy body with roasted bitterness and a little hint of hops.

Americans today tend to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with platefuls of Irish fare and pints of Irish stout, but the pseudo-Gaelic menu's actually a relatively recent addition to a holiday long marked by dyeing food green.

St. Patrick's been on the Irish calendar for more than 1,000 years, honoring the fifth century Brit who led the first full-scale Christian mission to the Emerald Isle. A resolutely religious occasion, the only treat associated with the celebration in Old Ireland was bacon and cabbage, since Lenten prohibitions on meat were waived for the holiday. Food and drink were such minor considerations that Irish law shuttered bars on St. Patty's Day through the 1970s.

The holiday acquired its jollity in the U.S., where Irish immigrants in 1762 began expressing their patriotism with raucous parades and parties. While a bigoted populace initially shunned the festivities, the sheer number of Americans with Irish roots spurred a 20th century surge in Irish-American political power and ancestral pride. By the 1930s, Americans of all backgrounds were joining in the Mar. 17 fun, cheering on parade participants and cooking holiday meals.

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than with a selection of artisanal Irish cheeses? My knowledge on Irish cheese was limited to cheddar until a trip last fall to Slow Food's cheese festival where I met Jeffa Gill, one of the early pioneers of Irish farmhouse cheese production. At the festival, she tasted out remarkable cheeses with an aroma of the Irish shore.

Durrus is a creamy milky Irish Tomme de Savoie produced with raw Freisian cow's milk. This soft-ripened washed-rind cheese was first made by Jeffa Gill in 1979. You can find Durrus at the Bedford Cheese Shop. Once you've got Durrus, pick out a succulent creamy Irish blue cheese - Cashel Blue or Crozier. Crozier is handmade by Jane and Louis Grubb from the milk of sheep raised locally in Tipperary, Ireland where they graze on rich limestone pastures. Check it out at Murray's Cheese.

After selecting your St. Patrick's Day curds, think about pairings. Murray's Cheese makes this process simple. On their website, you'll find a delicious array of Irish cheese and beer pairings put together by fellow cheese expert Chris Munsey.

It's Beer Week here in Philadelphia, and while I'm not a huge beer drinker, the city-wide brew celebration has got me thinking about ways to incorporate beer into my cooking (we've also got a surfeit of beer around the apartment, leftover from a recent birthday/engagement party, that needs to be used). One of the tastiest applications for beer I've found recently is in beer braised cabbage.

Before I made beer braised cabbage for the first time, I searched the internet a bit, looking for some inspiration as well as confirmation that the recipe I was forming in my head was on the right track. I found a post by Shauna, the Gluten-Free Girl, in which she braises cabbage with gluten-free beer, and determined that my internal recipe was just about on. A few tweaks and I started cooking. The resultant cabbage was delicious and was an excellent foil for some beer braised brisket (I'm on something of a beer braising kick at the moment). This cabbage would be great St. Patrick's Day side dish, served up with corned beef and boiled potatoes (as well as a nice bottle of Guinness).

Recipe after the jump.