{ saint patrick’s day circa 1938 in new york }

behind christmas and thanksgiving, saint patrick’s day is one of my favorite holidays. growing up my mom would wake us all up with green orange juice and pancakes and we’d head off to school decked out in green bows, ready to see what the leprechauns had done to our classrooms. dinner would always be corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread, the irish tenors playing throughout our house, and i was in heaven. my mom’s maiden name is dempsey (meaning proud in irish), and being half irish is something that i am proud of. see what i did there? it’s something that has been apparent in my catholic school saints projects (almost all of them were on saint patrick), my desire to one day visit ireland (a.k.a. the homeland), and my love for irish cuisine. i even tried out the whole irish step dancing thing when i was little, but i couldn’t tell my left from my right at the age of 4, so that endeavor ended pretty quickly. to make up for not being able to jig, i was (and am) able to get in touch with my roots through a little bit of cooking. one of my favorite things to make is corned beef, soda bread, and mashed potatoes with roasted carrots, but there’s nothing like something sweet. guinness chocolate cake with bailey’s irish cream cheese frosting is a game changer. if you’re in the mood to get cooking today, i recommend some of the food below.

{ beer brownies with milk }

{ guinness bacon cheeseburgers }

{ irish car bomb cupcakes }

{ corned beef and guinness caramelized onion sandwich }

on a final note, danny boy and the parting glass have a very special place in my heart, and i have them on repeat today. i used to sing danny boy with my mom’s mom, who almost always celebrated saint patrick’s day with us, whether we went to visit my grandparents in the city or if they came to long island to see us. to me she’ll always be here “in sunshine or in shadow” and this song reminds me of that.