St. Patrick's Day, 2012


Irish Coffee...and the Society of Ireland in Florida
Once upon a time, there was a club in Florida that collected all manner of Celts and Celt wannabes; it was called The Society of Ireland in Florida, and it was headed by Patrice Cobb Cooper, a native of Collooney, Co. Sligo, who had been in Florida for some years. A philanthropist, Mrs. Cooper also ran a shop,Irish Imports Galore, Inc., in Boca Raton. Mrs. Cooper, who passed away in 1995, had received the United Dominion Award from the Irish government and had been honored by the American Red Cross for her work during WWII. But at St. Patrick's Day, notable Irish people we have known come to mind. This year, Patrice seemed to beckon from the mystical place where all worthy Celts reside.

Irish Coffee (Wiki Commons)


To some of us, Patrice Cooper will be remembered for being instrumental in bringing The Chieftains to South Florida (and for putting one of us--Laura McBride--in the way of The Chieftains' Kevin Conneff, whereby I could boldly plant a kiss on him outside the Green Room at the venue). But that's just one of us; many more people will remember her for her charming addition to the classic Irish Coffee, served at the annual Hunt Breakfast the Society hosted. Find the secret recipe here.


Guinness Cake for St. Patrick's Day
by Laura Harrison McBride
(Reprinted from Suite 101/February 2009)
By adding half a cup of shredded carrot to the recipe, you can enhance both the Guinness and the added veg, in a cake that's moist and keeps well. (Wiki Commons)
With St. Patrick's Day not far off, it's time to think of Irish things to eat. Naturally, things alcoholic come to mind. But the Irish have a sweet tooth, as well.
What to make to take care of both the sweet tooth and alcohol? Irish coffee is easy, and often sweet, depending on the amount of brown sugar one puts into it. But you can’t make an Irish coffee and save it for later; it must be consumed hot. That limits its usefulness in a busy season.

You could make some Irish soda bread. It’s easy, and good. But it’s not sweet.

A cake, perhaps, would be the very thing. You could make it, keep it, and slice it at will. Indeed, the following recipe for Guinness Cake, reprinted from In Search of Modern Ireland (recently updated and republished, in 2012, as .IE, Ireland Explained), with permission, instructs you to save the cake for at least one week before eating. One can only assume it allows the alcohol in the relatively abundant Guinness applied after baking to dissipate…or it might have to be called Tipsy Cake, which is a different recipe altogether.

Guinness Cake

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup soft brown sugar
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 ¼ cup plain flour and 2 level tsp. of mixed spice sieved together
  • 1 cup seedless raisins
  • 1 cup sultanas
  • ½ cup mixed peel
  • 8-12 TBS. Guinness
  • ½ cup walnuts, barely chopped
Method:
  1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
  2. Gradually beat in the eggs.
  3. Fold in the flour and mixed spice.
  4. Then add the raisins, sultanas, mixed peel and walnuts
  5. Mix well together
  6. Stir 4 TBS Guinness into the mixture
  7. Mix to a soft dropping consistency.
  8. Turn into a prepared 7-inch cake tin.
  9. Bake in a very moderate over, 325 degrees F, for 1 hour.
  10. Reduce heat to cool, 300 degrees F. and cook for another half hour.
  11. Allow to cool.
  12. Remove from cake tin.
  13. Prick top of cake with skewer and spoon over the remaining 4 to 8 TBS Guinness.
  14. Keep cake for one week before eating.
Notes:

Mixed spice is a British/Irish name for a prepared mixture of sweet spices used in baking. You can order it from a British/Irish online store, or make your own by mixing together equal parts of allspice, cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg and ground ginger, and keeping the mixture for use in pies and cakes. For this recipe, you’ll need to mix no more than 1/4 teaspoon of each spice, and you’ll still have a bit left over. You might keep the leftover spice, and add a bit of it to Irish Spiced Beef, also, as an added bit of flavor.

Mixed peel is candied orange, lemon and grapefruit peel, chopped, and often mixed with maraschino cherry pieces. You can buy it in the U.S. usually around Christmastime, or order it from an online shop.

In Ireland, raisins are small, dark dried grapes, and sultanas are large puffy ones. In the U.S., it will do as well to use dark raisins for the raisins, and the biggest golden raisins you can find in place of the sultanas.
***

A lovely drink for the Friendliest Day of the Year!


Make March 17 the Friendliest Day of the Year, says Guinness
In its timeless quest to ensure that the whole world has a grand day and lots of good craic (Irish for fun) on St. Patrick's Day, Guinness has declared March 17 to be the Friendliest Day of the Year.

In aid of that, they have instituted a program to prove it by getting people to pledge to celebrate with them...by raising a pint, no doubt. So how difficult should that be, then?

You'd be surprised. On Feb. 26, 2012, they had only gathered the following numbers of pledged participants in the celebration of the green day, the saint and the dark stuff:
United States: 6,339 pleges
Great Britain: 1,508 pledges
Italy: 1,310 pledges
Germany: 1,225 pledges
Spain: 1,214 pledges 

Desperate altogether. Lots more people will have to click here to join in the fun. Be advised: You will be required to enter details to prove you are of legal age to imbibe wherever you live. But you can let them save a cookie so you can log back in anytime without that hassle.

Consider where you might go to join the Friendliest crowd on St. Patrick's Day. A pub is a logical choice; read more about Irish pubs here.

The Chieftains in Yankeeland...and at home

It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without The Chieftains playing some elegant venue in the Old World or the New. This year, it is the New World, with a concert on the day itself at Carnegie Hall. (They play in D.C. on the 16th; one wonders whether Mr. O’Bama will attend!) They play the New York gig―after touring the US―and then take a couple of months off before commencing their 50th anniversary tour of the Old World with a concert in Dublin on May 29. On June 8th, they play the Royal Albert Hall in London (for which Himself and I have tickets!) Check out their tour dates here.  

If you think you don’t really know much about Irish traditional music, think again. As it happens, most Americans know quite a lot of Irish traditional music.

From .ie, Ireland Explained by Bryce Webster (Kindle)
Much of what has become American country music began in Ireland. The tune of “The Connemara Cradle Song” has become, in the States, “On Top of Old Smokey.” The Chieftains have even recorded an album, in Ireland, called Cotton-Eyed Joe. Why? Because, on their tour of Texas a few years back, they took refreshment at a country-and-western club. On hearing the band there play “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” Paddy Maloney instantly recognized the melody as an ancient Irish one, which the group also plays on the album. Even American mountain clog dancing is Irish in essence; watch some step dancers sometime, and you’ll see why. And the cadences our mountain folk speak, often thought to be English Elizabethan, are just as likely to be the lilting leftovers of Irish accents. Or even the more musical, and also Gaelic, Welsh. ―Bryce Webster, .ie, Ireland Explained, Kindle book 2012
The Chieftains play "Cotton Eyed Joe," below.





Big, noisy and Green: Niagara Falls

Dye is cheap. Even in straightened conditions, the powers that be are going to turn the thundering falls into a fookin huge vat of green froth on March 17. See more here.

Also going green again will be the White House fountain (see what that looked like the first time here), and, of course, the Empire State Building.


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