John Sheda

This Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day. A day or night or both to guzzle down some “green beer.” The city of Chicago will once again douse the Chicago River with about a hundred pounds of green dye and the river will be green. All the fish in the river will get “green around the gills,” (nyuk nyuk), as Curly would say. Interesting thing about St. Patrick is that his real name was “Maewyn Succat.” Yea, I’d change it too. But why a first name of “Saint?”

Have you found a trifolium yet? Me either. How about a pot of gold or any leprechauns, a blarney stone or some guy playing the bag-pipes? Ever get into a good ol’ “donnybrook?” One of my favorite movies is The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Great Irish movie.

Some interesting facts about St. Patrick’s day include that the original color for the day was blue. Don’t know why it changed. Not sure if this is true but I read somewhere that St. Patrick was one of the original members of the Boston Celtics. He averaged 8 points a game and credited his ability to carrying a four-leaf clover in his shorts his entire career. Maybe, maybe not!! And speaking of crazy things, did you know that St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. Nope, he was born in Britian.

But enough of all that. Here is my recipe for “JOHN’S IRISH/BOHEME STEW.” Are ya ready??? If you’re a slow reader, I’ll type slow for ya. Here goes……………Get about two pounds of good ground chuck or better yet stew beef. Brown it with a couple of cut-up yellow onions. Next cut up about five or six slices of bacon and throw them into the pan too. Gotta have bacon, folks. Slice up a few sprigs of celery and toss that it with everything. While doing this, get a nice size pot of two cups of water, three or four cups of beef broth and a couple tablespoons of flour and get that all mixed up, bringing to a boiling point. Add several cups of cut up carrots, several nice big potatoes cut up, (I don’t peel them), and a nice generous amount of garlic. Add salt and pepper and other spices as you wish. Oregano is good, as is some parsley flakes.

As the beef and bacon gets nice and brown, pour everything into the pot. Yes, the bacon juices and everything. Now if you want you can also toss in some cabbage, (since it’s for St. Patrick’s day). Bring once again to a boil for about five minutes and then, (here’s the tasty part), let it just simmer nice and slow for an hour or two.

Wow wow wow wow…………….

My lips are-a-smacking right now.

If you try it, let me know at jsheda@indytel.com or call me at 319.327.4640 and let me know just how good it was!! Enjoy!!

Oh, by the way, a trifolium, as you all know is simply a four-leaf clover.