Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Little Peanut can't wait for her Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner tonight! Here is a little fun St. Patrick's Day - Corned Beef & Cabbage history!

In many parts of the United States it's a given that you'll wear something green on March 17th and have a feast of corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Most Americans think that tradition came from Ireland, but we are wrong! An Irishman is apt to tell you that in Ireland the day is celebrated quietly, religiously, in church. Period. Of course, there are canny Irish restaurateurs who will provide corned beef and cabbage -- for the tourists! -- and eventually the custom may catch on, especially in Dublin.

However, in the old days in the old country it was "a bacon joint" and cabbage that was the common folk's fare. When the Irish emigrated across the Atlantic "pond" they found beef more easily available, and, possibly taking a tip from their fellow immigrants' Jewish cuisine, used a brisket they could "corn," (preserve with salt) in the way they'd preserved the bacon joint back home, and they cooked that with cabbage and potatoes.