Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Even if you don’t wear green or watch a parade on March 17th, you pick up a green bagel or some Irish soda bread and end the day with wine and Irish cheeses, a green cocktail, or an Irish Coffee.

Or, you can make a traditional Irish or Irish-themed recipe, for brunch, lunch, or dinner. This year, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday, affording more time to cook.

In our book, “Irish-themed” comprises any authentic Irish food, or anything colored green, from Appletinis and Broccoli Salad to Chocolate Mint ice cream.

If you only have time for a drink: Irish whiskey, Guinness, and other Irish beers, or an Irish cream liqueur with after-dinner coffee.

Here’s a menu of choices:
 
 
IRISH-THEMED BREAKFAST

 
 
IRISH-THEMED BEER & COCKTAILS

 
 
IRISH-THEMED APPETIZERS & SALADS

 
 
IRISH-THEMED LUNCH & DINNER RECIPES, SIDES
& CONDIMENTS

 
 
CORNED BEEF RECIPES

 
 
IRISH-THEMED DESSERTS

 
 
IRISH-THEMED SNACKS

[2] Corned beef hash patties with fried or poached eggs, from Idaho Potatoes (photo © Idaho Potatoes).

[3] Irish Soda Bread Recipe from The Baker Chick (photo © The Baker Chick).

[4] Irish Cheddar from Murray’s Cheese (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

[5] Guinness Float from R Lounge | Times Square (photo © R Lounge) (photo #5).

[6] Guinness-Marinated Corned Beef & Cabbage from Justin O’Connor | Guinness Storehouse | Dublin (photo © Guinness).

[7] For a cheese plate, serve green cheese and other Irish cheeses with green fruits (photos #7 and #8 © Atalanta Corp).

[8] Green Ombre Layer Cake from McCormick.

[9] Pot O’Goldtini. Here’s the recipe Here’s the recipe (photo © Goldschläger)

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

It seems that once or twice a year, a new brand of artisan ice cream pops up in a local store.

Ice cream lover that we are, we try every one. They’re all good, but aside from the occasional groovy flavor, they don’t distinguish themselves from all the other good ice cream in the freezer case.

Finally, we have something to write about: A La Mode ice cream. It’s allergen-free: made in small batches in a dedicated facility with no eggs, nuts or sesame.
 
 
ICE CREAM FOR EVERYONE

Even if you don’t have allergies, you’ll want to try A La Mode ice cream.

It’s one of the best premium ice creams we’ve tasted in a while:

 
When we tool the tops off the pints, we questioned the aqua-blue and bright pink colors of two flavors. Could anything this bright taste great?

Yes, they can! The minute we tasted them, we couldn’t stop spooning up another taste, and another, and….

You don’t have to be a kid to dig into this ice cream. If you’re an ice cream-loving adult, you’d be remiss not to.
 
 
DIG IN!

The initial retail line includes these craveworthy flavors:

 
You can find them in:

 
The line is certified kosher (dairy) by OU.
 
 
WHERE TO FIND IT

A La Mode Shoppe began as a boutique ice cream parlor in New York City.

If you’re in the neighborhood (360 East 55th Street, Manhattan), the ice cream parlor has many more flavors.

If you can’t stop in, you can buy pints at retailers nationwide, or online.

We are delighted that they are now serving up their brand of happiness to consumers nationwide. The ice cream is also sold in bulk to foodservice customers.

[2] No more plain vanilla: This one’s bright pink, with multicolor sprinkles.

[3] Portion control: a 3.5-ounce cup may keep you from eating the whole pint.

[4] Shakes, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches, pie à la mode: Enjoy them all! Shown: affogato, espresso with Wired coffee chip ice cream.

Discover more at ALaModeShoppe.com.

[2] Amaranth porridge with almond milk and maple syrup. Here’s the recipe from Food Heaven Made Easy (photo © Food From Heaven Made Easy).

[3] Elegant presentation: cooked farro pressed into a ring mold, unmolded and topped with fruit, at Villard Restaurant | Lotte New York Palace Hotel (photo © Lotte New York Palace Hotel).

[4] Special occasion Porridge Brûlée. Here’s the recipe from Pom Wonderful (photo © Pom Wonderful).

We love oatmeal, a whole-grain comfort food that warms the belly in the morning.

If you’re an oatmeal fan, you may have had other common types of porridge:

 
If you like food adventures, searching for new taste experiences, venture into alternative grain porridge territory.

In fact, the same grains that have become popular for sides at dinner and grain bowls at lunch are equally delicious in the cereal bowl, with milk, fruit and sweetener.
 
 
ALTERNATIVE GRAIN CEREALS

 
If your market doesn’t carry them, you can find them at a natural foods store, including Whole Foods.

If you have leftovers from dinner, heat them up and serve with your favorite breakfast cereal toppings.

Bonus: All of these are whole grain cereals. A longer list of whole grains, plus why you need to eat them.

Bonus Tip: We also heat our cereal milk in the microwave. Aside from adding to the comfort food level, it keeps the cereal warmer, longer.
 
 
HOT CEREAL TOPPINGS

As with oatmeal, the sky’s the limit; or at least, the kitchen ceiling is.

Use whatever you have to add flavor dimensions to your bowl of porridge:

 
 
WHAT IS PORRIDGE?

Porridge is a dish made by boiling ground, crushed, or chopped cereal grains in water or milk. It is alternatively known as gruel, hot cereal and mush.

Optional flavorings can be added, from spices to fruits or cheese.

Porridge is usually served hot for breakfast, in a bowl or dish. It may be sweetened with sugar or served as a savory dish (cheese grits is an example).

Worldwide, barley, fonio, maize, millet, rye, sorghum, triticale and quinoa are also made into porridge.

We’ll get to today’s tip in a minute or so. But here’s what inspired it.

Frenchly.us is a website for Francophiles in the U.S. that covers news, arts, culture, style and all things French.

Which includes food.

In the past, the website sponsored a Best Baguette competition in different cities, naming some 15 finalists from the best in bakeries the city. Buy a ticket, and taste them all in one place.

This year it was the Best Croissant competition, which we attended recently. If you’re a croissant lover, imagine being in a venue with the city’s 15 best croissant bakers, who bid you to sample as much as you’d like.

More than 700 eager eaters went from station to station in a Manhattan location, eating as much as they desired. How many croissants do you think you can eat?

We’d be stuffed at two…although we calculated that if we only ate two bites of 15 croissants, that would be about three croissants.

But the bakeries brought more than their classic croissants. They brought almond croissants, chocolate croissants (pain au chocolat), specialty flavors like pistachio, along with muffins, fruit breads and rustic loaves.

Plus unlimited coffee, tea, jam, butter, and other French delights like pâté.

What’s a taster to do?

For one thing, don’t order the optional brunch. You won’t have room to sample the cornucopia of croissants.

The competing bakeries are shown in image #3.

While every bakery’s products were of the highest quality, participants were asked to vote for their favorites.

And the winners are…

 
 
PARTY IDEA!

Coordinate your own Best Croissant competition. Ask friends and family to bring the best from their neighborhoods.

You can do this with any food, from brownies, chocolate chip cookies and éclairs to non-baked, savory foods like bagels and chicken wings.

Our friend Cricket has an annual Super Bowl event where everyone brings their favorite wings for a wing-off.
 
 
WHAT ARE CROISSANTS?

Croissants are French breakfast breads, served with jam and butter, and coffee.

They belong to a category called Viennoiserie, “items of Vienna.”

[2] For chocolate lovers, pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant [literally, “chocolate bread”; photo courtesy The Bojon Gourmet).

[3] The 15 finalists in the 2018 Best Croissant competition.

Viennoiserie includes such favorites as brioche, cheese and other flavors of danish, chausson aux pommes (apple turnover), chouquette (dough sprinkled with pearl sugar and sometimes filled with custard or mousse), pain au chocolat, pain au lait, pain aux raisins, and others.

The Original Croissant

The original croissant (croissant is the French word for crescent) was plain laminated dough. Puff pastry yeast dough alternates with layers of butter—many layers, a process known as laminating.

Subsequently, bakers created what have become standards: the almond croissant, filled with frangipane and topped with sliced almonds; and the chocolate croissant, correctly called pain au chocolat, baked with a piece of dark chocolate in the center.

Others have soft fillings, such as lemon curd, jam, coffee crème.

There are also pretzel croissants, which are not laminated dough, but adapt German soft pretzel dough into the crescent shape.
 
 
CROISSANT HISTORY

Stories that the roll was made in the shape of the crescent of the Turkish flag, after the defeat of the Turks in the Siege of Vienna in 1683, are a perpetuated myth.

 
Today…

 
Ahhhh!

We’ll get to today’s tip in a minute or so. But here’s what inspired it.

Frenchly.us is a website for Francophiles in the U.S. that covers news, arts, culture, style and all things French.

Which includes food.

In the past, the website sponsored a Best Baguette competition in different cities, naming some 15 finalists from the best in bakeries the city. Buy a ticket, and taste them all in one place.

This year it was the Best Croissant competition, which we attended recently. If you’re a croissant lover, imagine being in a venue with the city’s 15 best croissant bakers, who bid you to sample as much as you’d like.

More than 700 eager eaters went from station to station in a Manhattan location, eating as much as they desired. How many croissants do you think you can eat?

We’d be stuffed at two…although we calculated that if we only ate two bites of 15 croissants, that would be about three croissants.

But the bakeries brought more than classic croissants. They brought almond croissants, chocolate croissants (pain au chocolat), specialty flavors like pistachio, along with muffins, fruit breads and rustic loaves.

Plus unlimited coffee, tea, jam, butter, and other French delights like pâté.

What’s a taster to do?

For one thing, don’t order the optional brunch. You won’t have room to sample the cornucopia of croissants.

The competing bakeries are shown in image #2.

While every bakery’s products were of the highest quality, participants were asked to vote for their favorites.

And the winners are…

 
 
PARTY IDEA!

Coordinate your own Best Croissant competition. Ask friends and family to bring the best from their neighborhoods.

You can do this with any food, from eclairs to chicken wings. Our friend Cricket has an annual Super Bowl event where everyone brings their favorite wings for a wing-off.

[2] The 15 finalists in the 2018 Best Croissant competition.

Croissants are breakfast breads, traditionally a breakfast bread served with jam and butter, and coffee.

Variations include the almond croissant, filled with frangipane and topped with sliced almonds, and the “chocolate croissant,” correctly called pain au chocolat, baked with a piece of dark chocolate in the center.

There are also pretzel croissants, which adapt German soft pretzel dough into the crescent shape.

The rich, buttery, crescent-shaped rolls are made of puff pastry. Puff pastry layers yeast dough with alternate layers of butter, a process known as laminating.

Stories that the roll was made in the shape of the crescent of the Turkish flag, after the defeat of the Turks in the Siege of Vienna in 1683, are a perpetuated myth.