St. Paddy's Day Feast

Confession. Every year I had to steel myself to eat corned beef. Why did I keep making it? Well, because I knew that I actually kind of liked it when I did eat it, but it was just a mindset thing that made it somewhat iffy.

But this year, no problem! It was awesome! I tried a new version of our traditional meal (note, this meal isn't really traditionally Irish, it is Irish-American, but then again, so is the way we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, so I guess it's cool). So this is how it went down.

Roasted corned beef, roasted/slightly steamed cabbage, and roasted root veggies, served with (root)beer in dark glass bottles. And it was delish. Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for the inspiration with the whole balsamic reduction glaze for the cabbage. It was Ah-mazing. Look:

Even Bubs liked it and ate a bunch!

Sometimes I'll make Irish Soda Bread too, but not this year. We used to watch Waking Ned Devine, but our movie watching isn't what it used to be with a little one here. I use corned beef from the store. Some people go all crazy and brine their own meat... I say "Ain't Nobody Go Time for That!" It seriously takes hours and hours, and unless you own a ranch and butcher your own beef, you still have to pay for the original roast! Without further stalling...

St. Patrick's Day Feast

Corned Beef
        1 package corned beef (2-4 lbs)
        Fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 325. Rinse off roast. Place in dutch oven or baking pan fat-side up. If the meat came with a spice packet, sprinkle that and a generous amount of black pepper (2-3 tablespoons) and rub in. Cover with the lid or aluminum foil and bake for 2 ½-3 hours. Uncover and continue baking for 30-45 minutes more and check with a fork. Fork should slide in with little to no resistance. If not fork tender, continue cooking for 20 minutes increments until done.

Roasted Cabbage & Root Veggies
1 small-medium cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
Root veggies peeled and cut into chunks (of about the same size)
    I used:
    4 carrots
    4 red potatoes
    1 parsnip
    1 onion
oil
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
sugar

Spread your root veggies out on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with some oil and add salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until evenly coated and spread into one layer on the sheet. Place in the oven with the roast when you uncover it.

Meanwhile, place balsamic vinegar in a pan with 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon of sugar (I used about ½ c vinegar) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow to reduce until thick.

Put oil in a frying pan and heat to medium-high. Brown cabbage wedges on both sides until a nice brown color is present. Place on a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. When the roast is done, remove and tent. Raise oven temp to 375 (leaving veggies in) and put in cabbage (you can put water in the pan if you want to steam the cabbage a bit). Roast for about 20-30 minutes until tender and browned (veggies should be tender and browned as well). Remove and place in baking dishes. Drizzle some of the balsamic reduction on the cabbage and place the remainder in a bowl to use during the meal.

Place roast on a platter and either slice or shred, depending on preference.

Now if I had been a brilliant blogger, I would have made this earlier and posted it before St. Patrick's Day. But since I'm not, you'll have to settle for using it next year. Here's the necessary "drunk" photo (obviously, we don't drink).

Happy St. Paddy's Day!