Sacrilege! Flying Guinness Drink Recipe

FLYING GUINNESS

1/2 pint Guinness Stout (can or draught)
8 oz can Red Bull® energy drink

Pour half pint of Guinness into a tulip-shaped pint glass.
Place a spoon over the top of the glass upside down.
Slowly pour the Red Bull (or any nasty tasting energy drink) over the top of the spoon.

Serve. Upchucking is optional.

** The drink should look much like a traditional Guiness/Bass Black & Tan, just with Red Bull instead of Bass Ale.

For more Guinness drink and food recipes, sacrilege or not, check out The Great Guinness Stout Recipe Collection at Gigfy.com.

Love Guinness? Love Chocolate? Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe

Guinness Chocolate Cake
— Adapted from Feast, by Nigella Lawson

Makes one 9-inch cake (12 servings)

For the cake:
Butter for pan
1 cup Guinness stout
10 Tbs. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking soda

For the topping:
1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

For the topping:
Using a food processor or by hand, mix sugar to break up lumps. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable.

Remove cake from pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness. Serve room temp or cold.


For more Guinness food and drink recipes check out...
The Great Guinness Stout Recipe Collection!

Irish in Philly

Having been born and raised in Philly (not in the 'burbs, mind you) I've come to know my city through the history of my mother's parents. They had emigrated from Ireland, Co's Mayo and Derry, respectively, back in the mid to late 1920s. They met here in Philly in the early days of the Great Depression.

My grandfather, a widower, left behind his three sons with his sister and brother for Amerikay. During Prohibition, it has been rumored he brewed beer in the bathtub. Forget bathtub gin. Imagine the taste of homebrew from your tub!?!

Other stories consist of my grandfather running numbers for the Irish mob in Germantown. At that time, Germantown had a very large Irish population before white flight and urban cancer took it down. It is said he worked two jobs throughout the Depression. Keep in mind, some 20 to 30 percent of the US population couldn't land but one job.

My grandmother was an indentured servant. Indentured servitude is as close to slavery without being so. It was the only way she could 'pay' her way to the States. She had an aunt already living here who set up the arrangements prior to her leaving the port town of Cobh via steamship. She traveled from her 'bend on a dirt road' village in Co. Mayo to Cork by horse drawn jitney cart and train.

My grandparents met at an Irish social dance at a local parish. My grandfather, or as my mother might say, the debonair one arrived at the dance with another woman. He fell in love with my grandmother at first sight.

He approached her to dance leaving his date to her own devices. My grandmother declined. She wouldn't dance with a man who was already involved with another woman. After that night he ditched his original dance date and made plans to visit again the following Saturday night. Ths time stag. He tried all he could to convince my grandmother to dance with him. She finally gave in.

They married. Had 4 kids. Owned their own home. They achieved their American Dream.

Whether you're of Irish descent, Polish, Italian, German or Dutch, our families stories all have the same basis. The details may be different. Perhaps you're Grandpa Joe made wine in his bathtub. What it comes down to is, we are the products of their American Dream; to work hard, to make better one's lot in this life for themselves and their posterity.

We should take a moment and tip our pints to their memory and their dreams. If not for their blood, sweat and bathtub beer where would we be now?

PS. An ironic story, my grandfather had finally established himself with a decent job. He saved up just enough to buy a used car, his dream come true. He practically emptied out his small bank account to purchase that car. It was on Monday, October 28th, 1929. The next day was Black Tuesday, and the banks were closed. All hell broke loose.

Welcome To Where You Are

Welcome to my little foray into blogging. I think this beats MySpace by a mile.

The purpose of this little blog is to document and share my love of The Bishop's Collar, the Black One, The Irish Elixir, The Blonde in a Black Dress... that's right, GUINNESS Stout.

I've been fortunate to have experienced my first pint of Guinness at bar in my cousin's old hotel, Tullyglass House Hotel, in B'mena, Co. Antrim at the age of 17. I won't tell you what I thought of it then. I love it now.

Over the years, and a lot of help from the Internet and my own, I've experienced bottled Guinness Foreign Extra Stout from Australia, pints o' Guinness atop the Gravity Bar @ St James's Gate, pints o' Guinness in Canada which is brewed in Canada, pints o' Guiness in the most diviest dives and most Disney-esque "Irish" pubs to the most enchanted thatched roofed pub in all Ireland.

What it all comes down to is my never ending pursuit of that Perfect Pint. One might say it's like a junkie's search for that next hit. Ok, maybe not that bad. But you get the point. :0)