Pre St. Patrick's Day Dinner

 

  

I don't think I have a drop of Irish in me, and nor does DH however, who doesn't love a corned beef and cabbage dinner??  I always make a corned beef and cabbage dinner for St. Patrick's day, but often DH will ask me a few weeks before to make it because it's so good, you want to have it more than once!

  

I remember the first time I made corned beef and cabbage many years ago. I had no idea it was going to shrink so much.  There I am, looking in the pot at my little meteorite of corned beef, as my mother in law is arriving for this "wonderful" dinner I was making.  Then as we cut into it, it wasn't falling apart tender like it's supposed to be.  Turns out I made the mistake of following the recipe on the package and that recipe said to cook it a few hours, when in fact you need to cook it for many hours.  Lucky for me, my DH and MIL were very sweet and assured me that their three bites of corned beef weren't bad at all, but I felt terrible.  Any fantasies I had about opening "Carole's Corned Beef" franchises were definitely dashed.

   

I am much better at making corned beef these days.  I like to make it in the crockpot - it doesn't need as much "babysitting" than if you have it simmering on the stove.  However, I don't really have any recipes for Irish Soda bread, or anything else St. Patrick's Day related... Does anyone have any recipes to share?  Or hints or tricks about how you make your corned beef and cabbage dinner?  What do you have for dessert with this dinner?

  

The end.