Lucky Foods To Eat While Drinking Beer At A St. Patrick's Day Party

An old joke about Wisconsin small towns is that across the street from every church is a bar. And when Wisconsinites celebrate St. Patrick's Day , we meet in the bar. Miraculously, we've transformed the feast day of Ireland's patron saint into a grand drinking party. The holiday has become a reason to drink copious amounts of good beer. On St. Patrick's Day, WI-Irish join Wisconsin-Germans, WI-Norwegians, WI-Swedes, WI-Mexicans, WI-you-name-the-nationality to raise beer mugs in toast to "The Luck Of The Irish". But unlike New Year's Day with its long list of lucky foods, St. Patrick's Day lucky foods may be any food that helps you wake up feeling reasonably okay on March 18th.
So which St. Patrick's Day lucky foods does the Wisconsin gourmet eat? What are the ultimate drinking foods? High-protein fatty foods and salty foods. Why? Ingestion of fat and protein slows digestion allowing the drinker to consume more beer before feeling ill. And a higher intake of salt helps the drinker retain water countering the alcohol's efforts to make him give it up. That hang-over headache is largely due to dehydration. The only difficulty is inducing the partier to eat these foods rather than filling up completely on beer. That's why the lucky foods are the gourmet foods. They taste even better than beer.
Here are some suggestions. The ultimate drinking food is nuts. High in salt, protein, and the-good-kind-of-fat, nuts top the list of lucky St. Patrick's Day foods. Plus, nuts are easy to serve and easy to eat, - no plates or utensils required. Second on the list is cheese. Cheese fills the belly with good nutrition, and in curd form is also easy to eat one-handed (the other hand being busy holding a beer mug). The traditional gourmet may choose pickled eggs to eat with his beer. Jars of pickled eggs adorn many of Great Britain's pubs, so a jar on your bar at home will add a touch of authenticity to your St. Patrick's Day party.
Since St. Patrick's Day has become a multi-ethnic celebration in the U.S., Wisconsin gourmets feel free to consume well-known drinking foods of other cultures. German Summer sausages are lucky because they too are high in protein and fat. Their delicious flavor entices the drinker to turn from the bar and toward the table.
Lastly, it's well-known that drinking beer often induces a craving for sweets. There's no better way to round-out the gourmet's feast of lucky foods than with decorative St. Patrick's Day cookies. With these scrumptious gourmet Wisconsin foods in your cupboard, you're ready for a grand St. Patrick's Day party!

Pass The Springerle For An Old-Fashioned St. Patrick's Day Party

St. Patrick's Day is an OLD holiday. Not as old as Christmas and Easter of course, but the 5th-century missionary who made the Irish Catholic has prompted party-ing for over a millennium. The Catholic Church considers St. Patrick such an honorable fellow that if March 17th falls on a Lenten Friday, Irish bishops will lift the day's ban on meat-eating. Pass the Irish Stew - It's Party Time!
Given the extreme age of this feast day, I think it merits celebration with a highly-traditional food. Let's eat food with history older than corned beef and cabbage (which I think was first made in the U.S.) How about 14th-century Springerle cookies? Yes, Springerle cookies are the traditional way to send good wishes on St. Patrick's Day. They are anise and lemon-flavored cookies which are pressed into iron baking moulds, dried and then baked. The moulds give the cookies a raised surface which is then intricately hand-painted with decorative icings. Today we call this type of cookie embossed. Embossed Springerle cookies originated in Europe in the Middle Ages and were exchanged as we exchange holiday and greeting cards. (Out of paper? Send a cookie.) The scenes on these Medieval cookies depicted the seasons and symbols of the holiday celebrated.
Embossed Springerle cookies are gaining popularity in the gourmet food scene. The texture and flavor differ from today's typical cookies. And this edible artwork can be so impressive that if you want to save it for display you can. Just leave it out to dry and it will harden into a decorative ornament you can bring out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day for years to come.

Looking for more ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Check out my other blog, Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food. Be sure you say a prayer for the cook.