Mexican Slaw

It's Monday... again. My Monday is slightly rougher than my normal Monday but it's my fault. I had a Sunday Funday yesterday but I don't regret it. Having those random days like that are always a blast. I went to brunch in Federal Hill in Baltimore then made a pit stop at a local restaurant on the way back and further broadened my new found red wine horizons. I then ended the day by making some form of an apple pie dish and eating half of it. I say some form because it wasn't pie but I don't even know what to call it. I can't even tell you what the bottom part of it was. It kind of just consisted of some doughy cakey bottom with apples and a streusel topping. Maybe I should give Hannah Hart a call and chat with her about my Sunday shenanigans. I'd say my day was a success. 

Remember that Mexican slaw I told you about that went so well with those little pies on Friday? This is it! It really goes great with any kind of Mexican style dish. It's so light and refreshing and it's a great compliment to those heavier main dishes. 

Mexican Slaw

Yield 6 cups

Prepackaged coleslaw mix (cabbage, carrots)

3 tablespoons rice vinegar 

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 tablespoon canola oil

juice of 1 lime

large handful of chopped cilantro

1 jalapeno, diced

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Let sit in refrigerator for about an hour so the flavors set in together. 

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Here I am, leaving you with my last St. Patrick's food posting of the year. Maybe you're kind of glad about this and you'd rather me be making Thai or Mexican posts. I know I might prefer to be eating those currently or maybe not considering I just ate 6 cookies. Eeeep! If you have followed any of my recent posts though, you have read about my quest to cook corned beef and cabbage. Lent put a little damper in my plans but I wasn't about to give up. I did a quick rescheduling for the corned beef and set out to make it this past Saturday. Step one: set up everything in the crockpot. Step two: Set alarm for 1AM to get up and plug in and turn on crockpot (which I thought I did) Step three: Wake up to amazing smells of beer and meat. Step three never happened because for some unbeknownst reason the darn outlet wasn't working! My crockpot doesn't have a light that goes on, you just switch the knob to low or high. When I woke up at 7:30 I smelled nothing and quickly realized crockpot never was on. Once again my plans were thwarted. Another readjustment and quick thinking and I put everything in a huge pot and boiled it for 3.5 hours. Luckily, it turned out perfectly and it was the best tasting fall apart corned beef and cabbage I've had.


Corned Beef and Cabbage

2.5 pounds of red potatoes
3+ pound corned beef (and seasoning packet)
1 head of cabbage, quartered
1 cup carrots
1 onion
1 12 ounce can of beer
2 tablespoons brown mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Cut up potatoes into quarters and onion into slices. Place onion, carrots, and potatoes at bottom of crockpot or large pot. Add in brown mustard and brown sugar. Place corned beef on top of vegetables and pour seasoning packet on top of the beef with garlic powder. Last add in the beer and enough water to leave about 1 inch of the meat uncovered. Now, if you are going to cook this in the crockpot turn it on low and cook for about 10 hours. When you have about 2-3 hours left add in the cabbage. If you are cooking this in a large pot go ahead and add in the cabbage and turn the heat on high and bring to a boil. After it has been boiling for about a half hour, reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for another 3 hours. By the end of both of these cooking methods the meat should be falling apart and perfect!

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Colcannon Potatoes

Guess what!?! St. Patrick's Day is getting closer and closer. I love St. Patrick's, the last 3 of them my dad and I have gotten into some fun mischief so I always look forward to it. Whether it be roaming the streets of Grand Forks, North Dakota screaming "Yep, OK!, and You betcha" in typical North Dakota accents as we drank our green beer or going to the Eastport Green Beer Races it's always a blast. This Saturday, we're going to the green beer races again. So, today I'm bringing you a little pre St. Patrick's food inspiration. Maybe you can add this to one of your dishes in your Irish festivities.

The same day last week that we had all that crazy weather I made these potatoes too. Pops and I were going to the local Irish bar to hear to some tunes so I figured I'd make us a nice traditional Irish dinner to get us in the pre St. Patty's spirit. Originally I had planned on making corned beef and cabbage so I went out and bought everything for it. Then I realized the day before I plan to make this it's going to be Friday aka no meat day during lent. I was quite disappointed and I had to do some rethinking but I still got to use my potatoes and cabbage.

Colcannon Potatoes
Yield ~2 8 inch round pans or a casserole dish

9 red potatoes (1 1/2- 2 pounds)
1 cup milk
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, diced
dash salt
dash pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up potatoes into quarters and place in a pot of water. Bring to boil until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, cut up onion, cabbage, and garlic and place into a pan with 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Saute with a dash of salt and pepper until vegetables are no longer firm. Once potatoes are finished cooking, drain the water out of the pot then mash your potatoes with milk, 1 tablespoon butter (more if you wish), salt, and pepper. Next fold in your cabbage and onion mixture. Place mixture into baking dishes and bake for 30 minutes or until tops get a nice browning.

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