It’s National Pi Day (3/14/15) today, but since we can’t have pie, we’re going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day early with a corned beef dinner. Instead of cabbage – boring – and potatoes –too many carbs – we’re having mustard-glazed Brussels sprouts on the side. We bought some mustard made with Irish stout that we should crack open for this occasion. (The stout, we realized too late, means this mustard – unlike most – is not gluten-free.)
When you cut back on carbs, you may start looking for variety in your mustard. (Because you can’t have ketchup or relish.) I found this tasty Chili Stone-Ground Mustard at a local farm store a couple of years ago and have bought it regularly ever since.
This type of mustard? 
I guess we are mustard snobs now. We only keep this on hand for guests who like their mustard yellow, not brown.
We’ve never tried making our own mustard, but if I want to try it someday, I’ll turn to one of my favorite food gurus, Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table. Find links to recipes for Beer and Caraway Mustard, Herbed Honey Mustard, Roman Mustard, Dried Cranberry Mustard, and Hard Cider Mustard here:
The Splendid Table: How to Make Homemade Mustard
You need a good food processor to grind the mustard seeds to make your own mustard.
Speaking of condiments, I attended a St. Patrick’s Day luncheon the other day and sat next to a woman who asked the server for ketchup to have with her corned beef, boiled cabbage, and boiled potato dinner. Ugh! But she wasn’t the only one, as the ketchup was having to be passed from table to table. I didn’t bother to ask the server for mustard, because I am now an official mustard snob and just knew the only mustard would be the yellow squeeze-bottle kind.
And speaking of Pi Day, it looks as though the American Pie Council has decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and has cast aside its own National Pie Day on January 23, which no one could ever remember, for Pi Day on March 14, which is nice and easy to remember – if you remember your math, at least.
Happy Weekend Cooking and Happy Pi Day!
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