March 17: National Green Beer Day & National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day

It's National Green Beer Day and National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, which can only mean one thing: today's St. Patrick's Day!  Wear green, eat foods dyed-green, eat cabbage and corned beef, drink Irish beers, watch or march in parades, participate in races that reward you with beer at the finish line...  those are just some of the ways you can celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  (I've done all those except march in a St. Patty's Day parade.)  The Miami University students at Oxford, Ohio, instead celebrate Green Beer Day.  Green Beer Day has been celebrated since 1952 with copious amounts of, you guessed it, green beer.  Why some sites report today as "National Green Beer Day," I can't tell you why since I can't find any corporation that advocates it or any record of recognition from Congress.  Maybe as the students graduated and moved to different parts of the country they spread their tradition of green beer.

When a lot of Americans think of Irish food that must be had on St. Patrick's Day, we automatically think of corned beef and cabbage.  So, naturally, someone somewhere decided that today is also National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day.  The thing is - it's not really an Irish dish, a fact also stated by the website European Cuisines.  Still corned beef and cabbage somehow became integratec in the American imagination as a thoroughly Irish dish that was perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  Right now in grocery stores, you'll find great deals on cabbage and on various styles of corned beef.  Want it pre-cooked?  Or how about already seasoned and ready for you to cook?  I've always been the type to just throw it all in the crockpot with seasoning and let it simmer all day.  (I picked that trick up from a friend who throws the best St. Patrick's Day parties ever.)  Making tasty corned beef isn't all that hard, as documented last year by Chef Sarah of At Home for Dinner.  Mahalo has a nice round up for National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, touching on the history and providing a recipe. 

However you celebrate today, please do so safely and designate a driver or call a cab.



St. Patrick's Day 2012 in Wilmington, NC.  Lots of beer and
lots of green.  The nearby Irish pub was the populat
place to be.