Luck of the Irish

We had a great St. Patrick's Day here...how about all of you? I had the day off so I got to spend lots of time with JJ and it was a gorgeous day. Oh, and we watched lots of basketball! It really is one of the best days of the year. Beer, corned beef, and basketball. Yes, please!

Here's my little leprechaun...

I started preparing for the holiday last weekend. I bought a 7 lb. brisket and brined it for 4 days. Making your own corned beef is 100x better than buying the packaged one from the store. It's SUPER easy too. It's beer, water, salt, sugar and pickling spices. Then it sits in your fridge for 4 days. The only strange thing is it doesn't come out red, it comes out looking like brisket! Imagine that. I then split it in half and made it two ways. The traditional boiled method with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. The other half got slathered in cloves, hot mustard and brown sugar. Then it got put in the oven for 2 hours and folks, this is the way to make corned beef. It's really wonderful. Tender and flavorful. I sauteed cabbage and onion to go with it.

I used the recipes found here:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/corned_beef_and_cabbage

Ok, it isn't pretty, but damn it tastes good!

Now I'm off to make corned beef hash. MMMMM good. But first, it's time to lower the crib mattress. Someone learned another trick this week...