"Sure The Boy Was Green" Horslips (1977)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!,

Today, I thought I'd dig up something from an Irish rock band just about most rock fans in the US have never heard of. But in the pantheon of '70s Irish rock, if Thin Lizzy was on top, then Horslips were in a sound second place.

Horslips (yeah, weird name I know. According to Wikipedia, the name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse"), while huge in Ireland, were criminally overlooked in America. They only had one LP released in the US in 1977 called Aliens. 

Aliens came right on the heels of Thin Lizzy's 1976 album Jailbreak album, which went multi-platinum (I'm sensing somebody thought with the Thin Lizzy craze that Irish rock was The Next Big Thing) and while Aliens was Horslips most accessible album commercially, it was largely unheard of in the US. "Sure The Boy Was Green" was the only single from it.

Horslips disbanded in 1980.

Corned Beef & Cabbage

 

It's the quintessential St. Patrick's Day dinner food in America, one as mandatory as turkey on Thanksgiving. But how did we come to eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day?

It actually might surprise some that this really isn't an Irish dish at all. 

The original Irish dinner actually used bacon in place of corned beef. And not the bacon strips that are a mandatory staple of American breakfast tables. Or even salt pork. 

In the 19th century, Irish immigrants to the United States began substituting corned beef for bacon when making the dish. Corned beef was more plentiful and cheaper than the bacon used to make the traditional Irish dish.

To make corned beef & cabbage is really simple.

You'll need:

-  3 pounds corned beef brisket with spice packet

This is a corned beef brisket.

This is not.

-  10 small red potatoes 

-  5 carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces

-  1 large head cabbage, cut into small wedges

 

Place the corned beef in a large pot or Dutch oven, add water (just enough to cover the brisket.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 50 minutes per pound. Add cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions in the last half hour. Slice across the grain.

(Don't forget the horseradish, Guinness beer or Bailey's Irish Cream!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!