Saint Patrick's Day 2024

When it comes to celebrating holidays from other cultures, Saint Patrick's Day is one of the ones that America does big. As with any holiday the memories that normally stand out the most for me are related to food. Like during my college days at CSU Saint Patrick's Day was always marked by eating pizza and drinking Guinness with my friends. Now though there are not only Irish foods that can easily be found at restaurants, but even already packaged for you at stores like Costco. Below is a mixture of Saint Patrick's Day foods that you can either find in stores or make yourself.

In Restaurants

Paris Baguette

These are their normal mochi donut just dressed up for the holiday. It would have been cool if they would have went with something flavored but they missed out.

This is also just their normal cream filled donut. Once again they missed out on having some fun with the flavors.

Jus Grill Restaurant

This is a restaurant spotlight. Why? Because this place just normally has good food for a good price. At the same time, if you go during the few days before Saint Patrick's Day they do a great Irish platter for a good price and it is also a good amount of food. We used to get a similar dish at the Black Eyed Pea, but they kept shrinking their portions while upping their price. For the past 2 years we have gone to Jus Grill and have not been disappointed. Last year their Corned Beef and Cabbage was $13.25 and it came with red potatoes, carrots, a dinner roll, and a choice of soup or salad.

That was a lot of food of high quality for a great price.

In Stores

Blarney Scone Irish Soda Bread from Trader Joe's

I do like to go to Trader Joe's every now and then just to have access to different types of products, but I regretted this one. My mother and I always try to get a Irish soda bread each year and most of the time they are amazing, but this one sucked so hard. First of it did not taste like a soda bread base, but instead tasted like a super strong rye. This rye flavor did not mix well with the other ingredients and it was also super dry. Don't waste your taste buds on this one.

Cabbage, Potato and Bacon Hash (A La Carte)

I found this at Costco in their Saint Patrick's Day food section. On the back there were different ways you could cook it. On the first night we went with the microwave option and added two eggs. It was ok. The the second night I put the leftovers in a skillet to warm it up and brown it a little and it was much better that way. Once again we paired it with 2 eggs. I would recommend cooking the eggs so that they are still runny and the yoke can act like a sauce. 

Make Yourself

Irish Crockpot

Every year my family makes some version of this crockpot. I say some version because there are a lot of ways you can mix it up using different vegetables, like adding cabbage. Also the seasoning you add can make a big difference. 

The meat I always put on first thing in the morning around 8am. I just use water in my crockpot for this since it will pick up flavoring from the things I add to it. Most of the time this meat will also come with a seasoning packet (which I always add in anyway). I also make sure to pull the meat out of the bag without letting all of the blood and other juices from just falling into the pot. To me keeping those things out just makes for a cleaner taste. I then normally add a lit of pepper. I like to use both the ground and unground kinds. This year I was able to find a super deal on the meat at King Soopers. This meat can be very expensive, but I recommend shopping around before you buy.

Then around noon I add the potatoes. You can add any type you like. I normally go for both a small variety and a colored potato because they will both cook fast and have a little more variety then standard potatoes. I also make sure to stab each one about 4 times with a fork as well. Not so much for pressure release, but so they can soak up the meat juices easier. I have always found it interesting how so many of the dishes we link to Ireland have potatoes in them. I'm always reminded about the great potato famine and if you are not familiar of this part of history I would recommend looking it up. The Irish dependence on the potato actually really hurt them. 

Then about 1-2 hours before serving I will add the onions and carrots. I have used purple onions in the past which can dye the rest of the food, but I also just love pearl onions in general. They are great to keep in your freezer and can be used in lots of dishes.

For the carrots you can use any type you like. I like using snack carrots since they are already peeled and are the perfect size. By using already prepped foods or small foods you can save time and the only thing that really took me any time on this dish was washing the potatoes.

For serving you can have some butter for the potatoes and I like having a horseradish sauce for the meat.