Today was our Corned Beef and Cabbage day. Overall, it turned out well, although I think the smoked salmon quiche is my favorite so far. There isn't really a recipe, per se, but here is a method that worked out well.
Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes and Carrots
1 Large Corned Beef Brisket
16-20 Baby Carrots
1 Small Cabbage
2-3 Bottles of Guinness Draft
6-8 Red potatoes (depending on size)
3 Bay leaves
Guilden's Spicy Brown Mustard
Butter
Salt and Pepper
Put the brisket in your crock pot on LOW about 10 hours before you plan to serve your dinner. Periodically, check the meat to insure it's at least 75% covered in liquid.
About 1 hour before dinner, peel your potatoes and cut them into quarters. Check the baby carrots for any imperfections, wash them well and pat them dry. Cut your cabbage into quarters, then halve the quarters. Bring a broth of 1-1.5 bottles of Guinness, 2 cups of water and the bay leaves to a boil in a large pan, then put the potatoes and carrots in. While your vegetables are boiling, remove the meat from the crock pot and let it rest on the cutting board. Let the veggies boil well for about 20-30 minutes, until they are beginning to become fork tender, but be careful not to let them get mushy. Then add your cabbage and boil for about 10-15 minutes more. When the cabbage is soft, but still has a snap to it, remove it from the liquid,
drain carefully and put it in your serving bowl. Allow the potatoes and carrots to boil about 5-7 minutes longer, then drain them well and add them to the serving bowl. Be careful not to serve the bay leaves in the cabbage--they will make you sick if you accidentally eat them.
Serve the meal with butter, salt and pepper and spicy mustard. I also recommend serving an artisanal bread if you have one available, such as French bread, soda bread or another option of your choosing.
Until the next meal!!!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Irish Feasting, Day 2
Day 2 of the Irish feast was not so tasty....mushroom potage (a kind of soup from Tipperary) prepared according to the recipe did NOT play to rave reviews from anyone in the family, so I won't be posting that recipe to my blog. I'm not sure I'll even attempt to make the recipe again, even with alterations to suit the family taste buds more.
Making corned beef and cabbage today for Feast dinner, day 3...can't go wrong with that!
Making corned beef and cabbage today for Feast dinner, day 3...can't go wrong with that!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Irish Feasting, Day 1
One tradition in my family is having a nice meal for St. Patrick's Day. Since moving out of my parents' house, I've taken that tradition a bit further, and I make nice meals for the week of St. Patrick's!
We took my daughter to Salt Lake City for her first train ride as well as her first St. Patrick's day parade and party. She was more impressed with eating at the Gateway food court and riding the train, than the St. Patrick's day festivities, but hopefully that will change in time!
Here's the recipe for Day 1 of my Family's Irish Feast:
Smoked Salmon Quiche
2 9-inch Deep Dish Pie Crusts (you can make them from scratch if you wish)
1 Cup Grated Sharp Cheddar
1 Cup Grated Swiss Cheese
1 Cup Grated Colby Jack Cheese
1 Cup GratedDubliner Cheese
1 Cup Grated Kerrygold Reduced Fat Irish Cheddar
5 Eggs
1.5 Cups of Skim or 1% Milk
1 Cup Freshly Chopped Spinach
1 6 oz package of Smoked Sockeye Salmon
(I like the "Seabear" brand sold by Made In Washington Stores)
Combine all the cheeses in a large bowl, then add the milk. Combine eggs together with a fork (as if you were making scrambled eggs), then add to the cheese/milk mixture. Put the smoked salmon patty on a cutting board and separate it into fine pieces with a fork. When your salmon pieces are flaked into VERY small pieces, add the salmon to the cheese, milk, egg mixture. Finally add the spinach and mix all ingredients well.
Spoon the mixture into the two piecrusts, evenly distributing the mix between the two.
Bake the quiches at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool approximately 15-20 minutes before eating. Do not eat immediately after baking or the quiches will be runny and not taste as good.
Companion drink suggestions:
Always drink and eat with a companion! Even if they don't like what you've made...it's much more fun to do it with someone!!!
Oh wait....companions to the QUICHE drink suggestions is what you were looking for here, right???
A nicely chilled white wine (not too sweet, but not too dry) or a Guinness draft go well with this meal. Or if you would like to have a non-alcoholic option, I recommend mineral water (Pelligrino is quite nice) or an iced black tea such as Earl Grey.
Thus ends day one of my Irish Feast! Slainte! (That's "Cheers" in Gaelic!)
We took my daughter to Salt Lake City for her first train ride as well as her first St. Patrick's day parade and party. She was more impressed with eating at the Gateway food court and riding the train, than the St. Patrick's day festivities, but hopefully that will change in time!
Here's the recipe for Day 1 of my Family's Irish Feast:
Smoked Salmon Quiche
2 9-inch Deep Dish Pie Crusts (you can make them from scratch if you wish)
1 Cup Grated Sharp Cheddar
1 Cup Grated Swiss Cheese
1 Cup Grated Colby Jack Cheese
1 Cup GratedDubliner Cheese
1 Cup Grated Kerrygold Reduced Fat Irish Cheddar
5 Eggs
1.5 Cups of Skim or 1% Milk
1 Cup Freshly Chopped Spinach
1 6 oz package of Smoked Sockeye Salmon
(I like the "Seabear" brand sold by Made In Washington Stores)
Combine all the cheeses in a large bowl, then add the milk. Combine eggs together with a fork (as if you were making scrambled eggs), then add to the cheese/milk mixture. Put the smoked salmon patty on a cutting board and separate it into fine pieces with a fork. When your salmon pieces are flaked into VERY small pieces, add the salmon to the cheese, milk, egg mixture. Finally add the spinach and mix all ingredients well.
Spoon the mixture into the two piecrusts, evenly distributing the mix between the two.
Bake the quiches at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool approximately 15-20 minutes before eating. Do not eat immediately after baking or the quiches will be runny and not taste as good.
Companion drink suggestions:
Always drink and eat with a companion! Even if they don't like what you've made...it's much more fun to do it with someone!!!
Oh wait....companions to the QUICHE drink suggestions is what you were looking for here, right???
A nicely chilled white wine (not too sweet, but not too dry) or a Guinness draft go well with this meal. Or if you would like to have a non-alcoholic option, I recommend mineral water (Pelligrino is quite nice) or an iced black tea such as Earl Grey.
Thus ends day one of my Irish Feast! Slainte! (That's "Cheers" in Gaelic!)
Sunday, January 1, 2012
In With A Whole Lot Of New, part 1
First of all, a rousing "Happy New Year" to anyone who's reading this blog.
At New Year's, people say, "out with the old and in with the new". Well, I got a whole lot of "new" to start off 2012! And before you say, "ugh", our story does look like it will have a happy ending.
My husband transferred with his company from Everett, Washington to Salt Lake City, Utah, this fall. He's always wanted to get back to the Rocky Mountain region after living there 15 years ago, and now he'd gotten his wish. I wasn't especially thrilled about packing up and moving cross-country. Although my teaching career had hit a temporary bump (I'd been laid off at the end of last school year) I felt comfortably established in the region and in my school district, where I was still able to be a substitute teacher. But since I love my husband, and I want to support him in his endeavors, I agreed to move. So I began the major purge/decluttering of our belongings in September to prepare for this move.
Over the next two months, I would take so many items to Goodwill that the employees would laugh and say, "You again??" To which I responded, "yep, it's me AGAIN!" Going through the house with a fine-toothed comb and taking box after box of stuff out actually felt good. I was rather amazed at how much we had accumulated over ten years in Washington. By my birthday in November, which coincidentally was the day the packers came to the house, I felt like I had really pared us down to a reasonable load of household goods. It made me feel even better when they said, "you've hardly got anything; we can pack this place up quick." Despite the fabulous going-away parties that had been held in our honor, it wasn't until I saw my belongings travel on their relentless journeys into wrapping paper and cardboard boxes that the reality of leaving the area that had been my home for the past decade hit me like a freight train on hyperdrive. In the two months since we had gotten notification we were moving, I was telling myself, "it'll be great fun...it's an adventure....you're closer to your brother and your parents.....there's a purpose for you to accomplish in Utah". Subconsciously, I couldn't get excited enough about the move to believe my hype and I broke down after the packers left. Yes, I now own stock in the Kleenex company, but I did NOT, repeat DID NOT, contribute to any flooding those who live along the Snohomish River might have experienced this fall!
The transfer yanked into sharp focus all of those things that I had taken for granted in Washington....friends, an incredible school of students/staff (a shout-out to Cascade High School) where I LOVED working, loads of fun things to do in Seattle, Starbucks cafes on every street corner, delicious/relatively inexpensive/plentiful sushi, lots of Asian markets and restaurants, the ability to order anything (wine, clothing, food) and have it shipped directly to my front porch, a beautiful home in a great neighborhood, mild weather year-round and 1001 other things that had become commonplace (and therefore, unacknowledged) in my life over the nearly eleven years that I had lived and worked in Washington.
Reflecting on the wonderful aspects of my life that I was going to miss helped me to also focus on things I wasn't crazy about while living in Puget Sound....days and days of rain, high cost of living, and more traffic jams than I can count. At certain times of the day, I-5 becomes one gigantic parking lot! I definitely was NOT going to miss that!!!
So very early on Thanksgiving Day 2011, 3:30 am to be precise, we left Everett and drove to Sea-Tac airport for our flight to Salt Lake City.
At New Year's, people say, "out with the old and in with the new". Well, I got a whole lot of "new" to start off 2012! And before you say, "ugh", our story does look like it will have a happy ending.
My husband transferred with his company from Everett, Washington to Salt Lake City, Utah, this fall. He's always wanted to get back to the Rocky Mountain region after living there 15 years ago, and now he'd gotten his wish. I wasn't especially thrilled about packing up and moving cross-country. Although my teaching career had hit a temporary bump (I'd been laid off at the end of last school year) I felt comfortably established in the region and in my school district, where I was still able to be a substitute teacher. But since I love my husband, and I want to support him in his endeavors, I agreed to move. So I began the major purge/decluttering of our belongings in September to prepare for this move.
Over the next two months, I would take so many items to Goodwill that the employees would laugh and say, "You again??" To which I responded, "yep, it's me AGAIN!" Going through the house with a fine-toothed comb and taking box after box of stuff out actually felt good. I was rather amazed at how much we had accumulated over ten years in Washington. By my birthday in November, which coincidentally was the day the packers came to the house, I felt like I had really pared us down to a reasonable load of household goods. It made me feel even better when they said, "you've hardly got anything; we can pack this place up quick." Despite the fabulous going-away parties that had been held in our honor, it wasn't until I saw my belongings travel on their relentless journeys into wrapping paper and cardboard boxes that the reality of leaving the area that had been my home for the past decade hit me like a freight train on hyperdrive. In the two months since we had gotten notification we were moving, I was telling myself, "it'll be great fun...it's an adventure....you're closer to your brother and your parents.....there's a purpose for you to accomplish in Utah". Subconsciously, I couldn't get excited enough about the move to believe my hype and I broke down after the packers left. Yes, I now own stock in the Kleenex company, but I did NOT, repeat DID NOT, contribute to any flooding those who live along the Snohomish River might have experienced this fall!
The transfer yanked into sharp focus all of those things that I had taken for granted in Washington....friends, an incredible school of students/staff (a shout-out to Cascade High School) where I LOVED working, loads of fun things to do in Seattle, Starbucks cafes on every street corner, delicious/relatively inexpensive/plentiful sushi, lots of Asian markets and restaurants, the ability to order anything (wine, clothing, food) and have it shipped directly to my front porch, a beautiful home in a great neighborhood, mild weather year-round and 1001 other things that had become commonplace (and therefore, unacknowledged) in my life over the nearly eleven years that I had lived and worked in Washington.
Reflecting on the wonderful aspects of my life that I was going to miss helped me to also focus on things I wasn't crazy about while living in Puget Sound....days and days of rain, high cost of living, and more traffic jams than I can count. At certain times of the day, I-5 becomes one gigantic parking lot! I definitely was NOT going to miss that!!!
So very early on Thanksgiving Day 2011, 3:30 am to be precise, we left Everett and drove to Sea-Tac airport for our flight to Salt Lake City.
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