Sunday Dinner on Thursday - St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day (belated). Only my step-dad is Irish, so we don't do much, but this is the first year that my parents have been out of town, so I felt like it was important to at least make corned beef and cabbage. Yes, I know this dish is not an Irish invention, but an American tradition. Still, rubber slipper contessa style is all about the intent, not the effort, so I decided to go online in the morning to look for slow cooker recipes. I couldn't find one that I was really happy with, so I combined several recipes and started cooking.

 Spray the slow cooker insert with Pam, cut up the potatoes and line it on the bottom.

 Follow with cut up carrots and onions. I only had one carrot left, but I had leftover baby carrots, so I just dumped those in too.

Put in the corned beef ( I used the preseasoned one with no seasoning packet, so I didn't rinse it)

Slather 1/4 cup of brown sugar ( I used Splenda brown sugar) and 2 T of mustard (it calls for yellow, but I used dijon).

Add one can of beer and squeeze the wedges of cabbage on the sides and cook it on low for 10 hours.

That's it. Enjoy the rest of the day. I squeezed lemons, made fresh lemonade and lemon bars.

The meat should always be cut cross grain. Why? I have no idea, but all the recipes say  to do that, so it must be for a good reason.

If you like your cabbage a little less boiled, take the meat out, keep it warm and put the cabbage in the broth for 1/2 an hour on high.

The verdict: I thought it was good, but Ken wanted it to taste a little more traditional. He thought the brown sugar made the dish too sweet, and the beer and sugar and mustard changed the taste of the Idaho potatoes so that he thought I had used sweet potatoes instead.

Ah well, if  only I had green beer.