Green eggs & ham and beer batter pancakes. Yes, I sure did get up at 5:45 a.m. to start off our St. Patrick’s Day with a touch of greatness! I was a little skeptical about using a cup of beer in the batter instead of a cup of milk (all the time wondering who was the first person to think “Damn, I’m out of milk! Oh well, I’ll just use beer – it’ll be just as good!”) but what the hell. Why not, right? Surprisingly, the beer – we used Leinenkugel’s berryweiss – added a really nice dimension to the pancakes. It made them sweet, light and a little bubbly. Totally worth a try if you’re feeling adventurous! Check out this easy-to-make recipe here! And of course the green eggs and ham were festive and delicious!
Since I’ve never officially celebrated a proper St. Patrick’s Day, I was bound and determined to get myself to a respectable Irish pub and down a glass of green beer this year, darn it! We really like the atmosphere and the food at The Pub in Norwood, but so does everyone else – rightfully so, it is a popular place. We were both warned not to go to The Pub on St. Patrick’s Day. We were warned that if we did foolishly go, not to expect a seat, food, or anything even remotely close to room to breathe, much less move. We were warned it would be mobbed, with minimal standing room only – if the luck of the Irish was indeed with us that day. But we went anyway. And you know what? It was loud, it was crowded with green balloons and tons of weirdly dressed green people who smelled like Guinness, and there was a live band with music that blasted throughout the pub and you had to shout just to be heard. But we did luck out and we found a seat – at our table, nonetheless – within five minutes of our arrival!
We ordered our beer from the Leprechaun waitress – a Strongbow for Ted and I finally got my famed lowest-quality possible green beer, which certainly wasn’t as tasty as Strongbow, but it was green, which is obviously the most exciting and important thing here! Green beer! We placed our orders for awesome Irish grub and it arrived hot, fresh and delicious within 10 minutes. So far I’m thinking everyone who warned us not to even think about going to this place for St. Patrick’s Day is full of crap. Sure we had to shout over the music and cheering people – but it wasn’t impossible or unacceptably obnoxious. Having been branded as party animals with the obligatory “over 21” florescent orange wristband at the door, had our celebratory beers and eats, watched some March Madness basketball finals on TV, and grooved to the music from the band, we were in and out in about an hour and home before the sun set. It was great fun and I’m so glad we went out!
