Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For those of you who don't know, I love making themed meals (probably because I think I'm a messier, more-Jewish Martha Stewart who secretly dreams of having her own Food Network show). So for St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make what seemed like the ultimate Irish meal - Corned Beef and Cabbage. In previous years, my aunts have made this on St. Patrick's Day, so I decided, if they could do it, so could I. It actually was surprisingly easy. I used this recipe. I omitted the beets, because I'm lazy, but I put them elsewhere in my dinner (you'll see). Here's the beef all ready to go in the pot:

You can't quite tell from the picture, but it's an almost absurdly fatty cut. Which made it super delicious - but not that health-conscious. Oh well. So, I added 6 cups of beef stock to the pot, and let it simmer for 2.5 hours. Then I added these veggies:

I added way more onions than this. I really like onions. I would recommend just getting a large white or yellow onion instead of these pearl onion though. They all fell apart in the dish and turned to mush (really yummy mush - but mush that made me feel silly for taking the time to parboil and peel them). Anyways, I let the veggies simmer for another 45 minutes and then it was done.

While these things were cooking, I made a carrot beet salad that you can read about here. First you just peel some raw carrots and beets. Here are mine:

I cut my finger peeling the beets. Plus, they dyed my hand a silly shade of red. Oh well. Next you grate them up. I got to use my amazing KitchenAide Food Processor which I'm totally obsessed with, like an out of date hipster with a trucker hat (I can't come up with any better similes than that - how sad).

Then I just tossed it with some things I found in my pantry - White balsamic vinegar from Meredith, some olive oil, hot sauce, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. Here it is all finished and blurry from my low quality camera:

It was really good. I also made cornbread to go with it (which I know, isn't Irish Soda Bread, but Zack doesn't like caraway seeds and Miriam doesn't like raisins and I was really tired of waiting for sourdough bread to rise). I got the recipe from The New Moosewood Cookbook again, which I'm rapidly falling in love with (Sorry, Zack).

I have leftovers for lunch today, which I'm excited about. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Go out, drink some beers and pinch anyone who's not wearing green.