St. Paddy's Day Eats

We had a delicious meal of corned beef, potatoes and cabbage.



I didn't corn my own brisket. I'm not going to apologize. I pulled it out of the package and simmered it for 3 hours. In the last hour and a half, I tossed a handful of baby red potatoes into the pot.

I had made a soda bread and froze half of it, so I pulled that out of the freezer and whipped up a little butter with a drop of honey and some chopped chives.

The cabbage was quartered and cut very thinly. A couple of tablespoons of water in the bottom of a skillet, some salt, and a tablespoon of butter, did the job to steam the cabbage. I finished it off with another tablespoon of butter and pepper, and added a bit more salt to taste.

I made a buttermilk horseradish gravy to finish it off. I took 1 cup of the water that the potatoes and meat simmered in, heated it up with 1 cup of buttermilk. I made a slurry of 2 tblsp cornstarch and 2 tblsp water and whisked it into the mixture, simmering low until thickened. Then I added about 3 big tsps of prepared horseradish (tasting as I went).

Lazy Cabbage Rolls

When the weather starts to cool, it makes me really happy. It means that I get to start making some of my FAVOURITE food...chilis, stews, things with squash, and I get to pull out my crockpot!

I got my crockpot over 6 years ago from my dear friend, Dawn...it has made some amazing meals...sadly, it's nearly done for this lifetime. It's been pretty cranky the past couple of times I've used it. It might be time for a new one :(

So, I got really excited that we were having some cool weather, and planned to make Lazy Cabbage Rolls. Then we hit a warm patch.

We had them anyway.

The beef I used was hormone free stuff from a local farm, Wagner Orchards. Our awesome chiropractor and friend, Dan, recommended this place.

Lazy Cabbage Rolls



1/2 head chopped cabbage (or 1 small cabbage)
1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 8oz can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
1 cup uncooked brown rice
3 cups water
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

Brown your ground beef in a skillet. This is an important step in any crock pot with meat type meal. Browning means caramalization, which means flavour! Take advantage of this opportunity while you can! Don prefers his ground beef to be in really small pieces, but since it's going to be in the crock pot all day, I don't fuss about the size of the pieces too much. I break it down into hunks, let it brown, and dump it in the crock pot.

Toss in cabbage, onion, garlic, ONE can of tomato sauce, rice, water, and salt and pepper. Give a stir, cover, and cook 4 to 6 hours.

If you're home, stir occasionally. If not, no biggie.

Approximately 2 hours before serving (or 1 hour if you're tight for time), mix the second can of tomato sauce, tomato soup, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce in a bowl and pour on top of casserole contents. Continue to cook.

Serve how you like it (we like a blob of sour cream).