Friday, March 15, 2013

Tradition





Top O' The Mornin' to you Winsters!

Getting ready for another Saint Paddy's Day at our house. The day where I slow cook a corned beef until it becomes an unrecognizable gray color and then blandly boil up some tasteless, watery cabbage and soft potatoes to go with it. Yum!

It sounds awful, I know, and really it kind of is. If it weren't for the horseradish and sour cream that we slather on everything, it probably wouldn't be worth doing. But my mother forced it on me, and when I was a single gal in college I forced it on myself. And now that I have a family, the tradition must endure. 

That's the thing about traditions, they don't always have to be positive experiences. Sometimes you just have to mark a day in a way that makes you remember it. Or drink enough green beer to forget altogether :)

For those of you that won't be following in the tradition, we have a virtual plate of corned beef and cabbage to give as a gift to your friends. And it looks a heck of a lot better than my cooking!

Erin Go Bragh!
Winnie O'Winster

1 comment:

  1. LOL In case you are serious about bland corned beef and cabbage... Cut the potatoes into 4-5 inch chunks and throw them about 2 hours before the corned beef is done. Make sure they are covered with the juice to soak up the flavor. As for the cabbage, cut them into serving size wedges (8-12 pieces depending on the size), put about an inch or less of water in a pot that just fits the cabbage if possible and carefully arrange the wedges in the pot. Sprinkle a little black pepper and sea salt on top. Chunk up 1/2 to a whole stick of real butter and put them on top and in between some of the leaves of cabbage. Get it boiling on high, cover and let it go for 4-5 minutes or until all the butter on top melts and then turn it down on medium-low to low, keeping it at just boiling for about 45-60 minutes. Check on it every 10 minutes, make sure it's not dry on the bottom, but just a little bit of moisture, and move the pieces around if the heat was too hot and the ones on bottom have begun to brown. When tender but not soggy you can turn up the heat on high and move the pieces around until they start to have a little brown caramel color on some bits. The flavor will permeate to all the cabbage. You'll know when they are done, because you'll be able to begin to smell the caramelization, but if you cooked it on low for less than an hour, it won't have that funky over cooked cabbage smell and it won't be soggy because you didn't boil it to oblivion. I also like to throw some carrots in with the potatoes for color and extra nutrition. Enjoy!

    -bilateralcog

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