St. Patrick's Day Menu.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I have put together a St. Patrick's Day menu. You will notice there is no corned beef and cabbage on the menu. Why? Because after a little research, I realized that the United States has made that a tradition, but that it is no longer a traditional Irish food. Only the kings ate it centuries ago. And, being that I don't really like it, I was happy to find something else.

So, for "the top o' the mornin'" we will be feasting on a hearty Irish Breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, and sweet irish soda bread. (on china and a lace tablecloth as is the tradition in Ireland)

And the laddies will be enjoying a traditional Irish dish of Shepherd's Pie and Irish Soda Bread for dinner. (I thought this stew looked good too.)

shepherd's pie


whole wheat irish soda bread

As far as the desserts go, I know none of these are traditional, but seeing as I have no Irish liqueur around, the fact that they are green will have to do.

mint chip ice cream pie

grasshopper pie

mint ice cream cake

Happy St. Patrick's Day

In case you were wondering:

Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's DayPaddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385–461), one of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on March 17. or

The day is the national holiday of Ireland. It is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland and Montserrat. In Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the United States and New Zealand, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.

In the past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903, by the Money Bank. (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara.^[16] O'Mara later introduced the law which required that pubs be closed on 17 March, a provision which was repealed only in the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday remains a religious observance in Ireland, for both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church.

It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture.^[17] The government set up a group called St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:

—Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity.

—Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.

—Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.^[18]