A tip from McCormick: Use green food color to tint minty chocolate chip cookies for your favorite leprechauns. If you don’t like mint, you can substitute vanilla extract.

Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 10-12 minutes.

RECIPE: GREEN MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients For 3 Dozen Cookies

Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. BEAT the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, food color and peppermint extract; mix well. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. DROP by heaping tablespoons, about 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets.

4. BAKE 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookie edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
 
TIP FOR GROWN-UPS

Add some Crème De Menthe or Irish Cream Liqueur to that chocolate milk!
  

Don’t want Irish beer or w whiskey for St. Patrick’s Day?

You can still drink green with this frozen Kiwi Cilantro Margarita from QVC chef David Venable.

David notes: “This is a Margarita recipe unlike anything you’ve ever tried. It gets a beautiful pop of green color from flavorful kiwi and bright cilantro. As you continue to sip, you get all of those memorable Margarita flavors you love.”

RECIPE: FROZEN KIWI CILANTRO MARGARITA

Ingredients For 6 Servings

1. PLACE the kiwi and the cranberry juice in a blender. Blend on low speed for 15-20 seconds, making sure not to dissolve the seeds. Strain the mixture through a sieve and discard the seeds.

2. PLACE the strained mixture back into the blender and add the ice, cilantro, tequila, triple sec and sugar. Blend until smooth. Garnish and serve immediately.

Find more of David Venable’s recipes at QVC.com.
  

[1] You could have a piece of pie for Pi Day. We’ll have a pizza pie instead (photo © Ribalta Pizza | NYC.)

[2] Want a dessert pie? Try pumpkin pie. It must be better for you, since it didn’t make the list of the 16 worst pies (photo courtesy FromTheMixedUpFiles.com).

Mathematically, March 4th is Pi Day: 3.14. As we learned in high school geometry, the Greek symbol is used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, a constant that begins with 3.14159.

Food folks have co-opted Pi Day, turning it into Pi[e] Day and recommending that one celebrate it with a piece of pie.

This might be the time to include one of the numerous “Top 10 Pies” lists; but this year, we have a twist: a list of the 16 worst pies in terms of calories, fat and sugar, as determined by EatThisNotThat.com. You can read the explanations for each pie here.

The worst-for-you pie is #1, the best of the group is #16.

1. Pecan Pie
2. Key Lime Pie
3. Vanilla Caramel Pie
4. Turtle Pie
5. Fruit-Topped Cream Cheese Pie
6. Lemon Meringue Pie
7. Mince Pie
8. Banana Cream Pie
9. Mixed Berry Pie
10. Sweet Potato Pie
11. Peach Pie
12. Cherry Pie
13. Apple Pie
14. Pumpkin Pie
15. Blueberry Pie
16. Coconut Cream Pie
 
Who would have thought that Coconut Cream Pie could be a “better for you” option?

The choice is yours. Happy Pi Day.

Oh…and there is a National Pie Day. It’s on January 23rd.

Forget the green beer on St. Patrick’s Day: It’s going to be the cheapest brew on tap. Who would color craft beer green? If you must do so, go for the palest style, Wheat Beer, a.k.a. Weissbier, Weizenbier and Witbier. It takes the color best.

Instead of the green stuff, consider two beer styles with authentic Irish roots: Dry Stout and Red Ale. American craft brewers from coast to coast make them. In fact, Irish Red Ale is more popular in the U.S. these days than in Ireland!

Dig in to the two styles below, and check out the other types of beers in our Beer Glossary.

IRISH-STYLE DRY STOUT

Stouts are a higher-alcohol version of porter (7% A.B.V.* or higher), a dark beer made from roasted malt or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast.

All Stouts are Porters, but they are the stronger Porters (the “stoutest” ones). You can review their history and brewing techniques at BeerConnoisseur.com.

There are different Stout styles, including American Sweet Stout; Baltic Porter; Milk Stout/Sweet Stout/English Sweet Stout, made with lactose, milk sugar; and Imperial Stout/Russian Imperial Stout, a style first brewed in the 18th century for export to the court of Catherine the Great.
 
*A.B.V. stands for Alcohol By Volume, the percent of alcohol in the beverage.

Guinness, the world’s most famous Stout. Annual sales are almost $2 billion. Photo courtesy Romano.

Irish-style Dry Stouts are black in color with notes of coffee-like roasted barley and a roasted malt aroma. The hop bitterness is medium to medium high. The head is tan or tan-tinged.

 
DRY STOUT FOOD PAIRINGS

 
STOUTS TO LOOK FOR

Dry stouts made by American craft brewers include:

 
Taste them next to Guinness Draught and any other imported Irish stouts you come across, such as Murphy’s Irish Stout, O’Hara’s Celtic Stout, Porterhouse Brewing Co. Oyster Stout.

You may also find Guinness Black Lager, a lager style made with stout’s roasted barley, which provides the dark color and fuller body; and Harp Lager, a conventional style.

Traditional0 Irish Red Ales seems to have originated in 1710 at the Smithwick Brewery in Kilkenny. Today, Red Ales are even more popular in the U.S. than in Ireland.

The reddish or coppery hue is a result of brewing with a percentage of kilned malts and roasted barley. The style focuses on strong malt flavors with a light hoppiness and slight nuttiness/roastiness from the roasted grains.

Irish Red Ales are usually well balanced, with an average A.B.V. of 3.5% to 5%, although you can find brews with up to 8% alcohol. You may find hints of caramel and toffee from the malt notes, along with a crisp, dry finish.
 
IRISH RED ALE FOOD PAIRINGS

 
For Irish imports, look for Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale, Murphy’s Irish Red and Smithwick’s Irish Ale. If you want to add another style, pick up some O’Hara’s Irish Wheat, a golden ale.
 
Thanks to Heather Galanty and the Brewers Association for this material.

March 13th is National Ginger Ale Day, time to enjoy a refreshing glass of ginger ale.

You can buy a commercial brand, of course; but for something special, you can purchase ginger syrup and add it to club soda. If you like a hot and spice sizzle, pick up some ginger beer syrup.

The syrups can also be used to flavor barbecue sauce, cocktails, desserts, dips, dressings, glazes, iced tea and other foods and beverages.

Or, make your own ginger ale from scratch, using fresh ginger root simmered in water. The flavor is so much more vibrant: It sizzles.

And, since St. Patrick’s Day is this week, you can color it green!

We adapted this recipe from Epicurious. A squeeze of lime juice, not an ingredient in conventional ginger ale, adds terrific flavor complexity.

The recipe makes about 1-1/2 cups syrup, enough for 4 to 6 drinks. Prep time is 10 minutes, total time including chilling is 3 hours.
 
 
RECIPE: HOMEMADE GINGER ALE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the syrup: Over a low simmer, cook the ginger and water in a small saucepan, partially covered, for 45 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the ginger steep, fully covered, for 20 minutes.

2. STRAIN the mixture into a bowl, pressing on the ginger to extract all liquid; then discard the ginger. Return the liquid to the saucepan, add the sugar and salt, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.

3. CHILL the syrup in a covered jar until cold. To make ginger ale, mix 1/4 cup of ginger syrup with 3/4 cup club soda and 1-1/2 teaspoons lime juice. Taste and adjust the proportions as desired. Use up the syrup within one week.
 

THE HISTORY OF GINGER ALE

First came ginger beer, which originated in England in the 1800s. It was brewed like beer from ginger, sugar, water, lemon juice and ginger beer plant, a cluster of microorganisms like kombucha. It had an alcohol content of 11%. Today’s supermarket beers average 4%-6% and craft beers average 5.9%, although some styles are brewed with ABVs in excess of 11%).

The first non-alcoholic ginger ale was created in Ireland in 1851. But modern-style ginger ale was born in 1907 when a Canadian, John McLaughlin, invented what eventually became Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

It was available in two versions: dry ginger ale, the style of modern ginger ale—pale color, mellow ginger flavor—and golden ginger ale, with a much deeper ginger flavor and golden color.

Canada Dry ginger ale was introduced in 1907; the “dry” style prevails today. It gained favor around the time of Prohibition (1920-1933).

Today, the golden style—deeper color and flavor—survives as non-alcoholic ginger beer. While modern ginger beers do have a touch of alcohol from the fermentation, they are categorized as non-alcoholic drinks in the U.S. because their alcohol content is less than 0.5% (this meets FDA requirements for a non-alcoholic beverage).

Ginger ale was the most popular soft drink in the U.S. until the 1930s, when it was surpassed by Coca-Cola (first was bottled for distribution in 1899).
 

MODERN GINGER ALE & MODERN GINGER BEER: THE DIFFERENCE

The main differences between today’s ginger ale and ginger beer are the sweetness and spiciness.

Ginger beer is less sweet than ginger ale, and has a sizzling ginger kick. The spicier ginger beer provides a bite to cocktails and food pairings (any spicy or highly-seasoned foods, as well as foods with sweet glazes and sauces like barbecue or glazed ham). The lighter ginger ale provides more sweetness and effervescence as a soft drink or cocktail mixer.

Production processes differ. Ginger beer is brewed (naturally fermented), a reason for the higher price. Ginger ale is a soft drink made from flavored carbonated water.

[1] Homemade ginger ale (photo © Malibu Rum).

[2] Ginger syrup. Mix it with club soda to make ginger ale (photo © The Ginger People).

[3] Use fresh ginger root to make ginger syrup from scratch (photo © Jan Schone | SXC).

[4] Launched in 1907, Canada Dry is the “father” of modern ginger ale. This bottle is from the 1940s. See more old soda bottles at Printmag.com.

 
Now, the exception: Some artisan soft drink makers, including Reed’s Original Ginger Brew in the U.S. and Fentinman’s in England, ferment their soft drinks for more flavor and complexity.

Will this become a trend? Stay tuned?