Scattered Thoughts . . .

I 'm feeling well enough this weekend (not to be confused with feeling well...  I was just feeling well enough) to cook a larger than average meal today so we're having corned beef and cabbage today, St Patrick's Day. I put the corned beef in the oven about an hour ago and it will be in the oven almost all afternoon.  The house is already smelling delicious! Most recipes call for simmering corned beef on the stove but I'm not much a fan of boiled meats.  Back awhile ago, I tried a Dutch oven...  that was better than boiling but it still was lacking.  Besides, neither one of us likes cleaning the Dutch oven either! Then I decided to slow cook the corned beef in the oven, covered, with spices and fresh onions and garlic.  I add a bit of liquid to this too (beef stock, watered down to cut the salt a bit) and then seal it up in foil.  It slow cooks for at least an hour per pound. This is the same way I slow cook pork so I don't know why I didn't always coo...

A s expected, we ate too much corned beef and cabbage last night.  That was good!  We always eat so much corned beef that we run out of meat long before running out of potatoes, cabbage and carrots.  In the future, perhaps I should make about four pounds of corned beef whenever I make this meal.  We finished dinner completely stuffed...  over-stuffed. Now that was a good meal.

T he Irish Soda Bread is now out of the oven and being eaten...  and it is very good, as always! This really is easy to make but it gets a bit frustrating when mixing of the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  The dough gets so sticky and thick that it is difficult to mix and handle.  It sticks to everything!  You mix it with a big wooden spoon and you end up with more on the spoon than in the bowl.  If you knead it with your hands, you quickly have nothing left to knead because the dough is completely sticking to and covering your hands.  You end up spending a lot of time effort getting the dough from your spoon, your hands and the bowl into the springform pan.   It is good though! I have already put the corned beef in the oven and started prepping dinner.   This time I added dried cranberries as well as the usual golden raisins.  We'll see how we like it with the cranberries added.  I usually soak the golden raisins in...

I was intending to make some homemade home fries, bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast followed by some fried apples but I was too hungry to make such a large meal.  I needed to eat as soon as possible so I changed my breakfast plan to having French toast, berries, and bacon.  It was easier to make, would require less energy, require less energy, and it turned out to be delicious! This breakfast really has nothing to do with Ireland but it was a good breakfast that was easy to make.  The food of Ireland will come later today. After lunch, I'll be baking some homemade Irish Soda Bread.  That is something both Sheila and I really like.  My Irish Soda Bread is softer than most and definitely more moist that typical store-bought Irish Soda Bread.  I also make some sweet butter to go with it.  It is really like a dessert dish.  I sort of has a cake-like texture to it but it is crusty like a bread.   After the bread goes in the oven, I'll clea...

As always, when it comes to a good corned beef and cabbage meal, we both ate far too much last night! Last night's corned beef and cabbage was tasty! The previous time I made this meal, I attempted to cook it in more of a traditional way... everything in the same pot but each thing added at the appropriate time.  Uggg...  that was nasty. Everything took on the taste of the corned beef yet it all tasted bland because everything tasted the same. Last night I went back to my usual way of cooking this meal... meat in a dutch oven and slow cooked at 275 degrees in the oven. I cut up an onion, added spices, and added a weak beef broth to the pot... covered it... put it in the oven.   The remaining items are cooked separately. The potatoes are boiled but then I do a quick fry in a pan at the end with onion powder, salt, pepper and some paprika. The carrots are separate also... boiled until soft... then drain the water and add some butter and a little bit of brown s...

Tonight will be a little primer for St Paddy's Day. The corned beef is being slow-cooked in a dutch oven and the potatoes, carrots and cabbage are prepared and ready to be cooked. I plan to make some homemade Irish Soda Bread the next time I make this meal next week. In meantime, as the corned beef slow-cooks, the Guinness is cold and tasting smooth... and, it is being served in an antique can this evening... Seeing the fireplace in the background of this photo reminds me... When the guys were delivering and setting up the new furniture yesterday, they commented about how nice the fireplace looks and they asked if I do that sort of work for a living. I just chuckled and said it was more like one of my hobbies.