Happy St. Patrick’s Day

That goes even for you poser Irish out there, LOL. After all, as the joke goes, everybody is Irish on St Paddy’s Day.

I’m the black sheep of the authentically (part) Irish, I suppose. Everybody will be bragging in their blogs today and tomorrow about their corned beef and cabbage. Personally, I’m NOT a fan.

Blasphemy, you say? Perhaps. You might feel the same way in my shoes though. My family thought the correct way to cook corned beef and cabbage was to throw everything into a pot of water and boil the hell out of it. Everything lost it’s flavor, but the fat off the corned beef partially melted and made everything taste greasy.

So yeah… There yah go. That’s not to say I haven’t done corned beef before. I smoked one on our grill years back, along with other meat for meals later that week. You can see THAT post here: Meatzapalooza.

For those not inclined to see the meal, it turned out good overall but the corned beef was over-brined and somewhat too salty for me. It cooked up perfect otherwise:

The next day, being a contrarian, I had to do something different with it for dinner. I didn’t feel like an ornate meal. So, what DID I end up doing, you ask??

Corned beef sandwiches with coleslaw and Havarti cheese on pretzel rolls with fries.

Viola: Corned beef, cabbage and carrots (in the slaw) and potatoes (fries). Untraditionally traditional. 😁 How’s that for clever? LOL

Today we’re doing alot of cleaning around the house and are planning on salad for dinner. Sometimes you’ve just got to break the rules.

In Other News…

My personal “got spammed” record here at WP was broken last night. 56 likes in 2 minutes. I’d name and shame, but they don’t read others’ blog anyway, LOL. Besides, you almost have to admire the effort behind the desperate cry for attention. If you’re going to spam you might as well go all out, right?

That also helped bring my deleted emails folder up to 4,768 deleted emails. 😯

Unconventional St Patty’s Day Dinner

I showed the corned beef I smoked for this meal in a recent post. Being a contrarian, I had to do something different with it for dinner. We had a long day that day, and after getting stabbed, I didn’t feel like an ornate meal. Truth? They’ll take away my (part) Irish Card, BUT, I’ve always hated the “throw it all in a pot and boil it” thing for corned beef and cabbage on Saint Patrick’s Day. It takes all the flavor right out of everything.

So what DID I end up doing??

Corned beef sandwiches with coleslaw and Havarti cheese on pretzel rolls with fries.

Viola: Corned beef, cabbage and carrots (in the slaw) and potatoes (fries). Untraditionally traditional. 😀

Meatzapalooza!

Yesterday evening we finally had a break in the never ending rain (I swear I thought we moved to Tennessee, not Oregon), and we dragged the smoker out of the garage to get some cooking done while we can. It’s going to rain the rest of the week.

Anyhow, I smoked a small ham for sandwich meat, 3 chicken breasts for a dish I’ll be making in the next day or two, a turkey breast for sandwich meat, and a nice piece of corned beef brisket for dinner tonight. 😀

Meatzapalooza indeed! 😀

A few hours later…

I had to sneak a little piece of the corned beef also after my mom said it would be tough and I should have boiled it.

Being salt cured, it’s a little on the salty side, and while it was a little bit firmer than my usual brisket:

It was still plenty tender, because my family is from Texas, damnit, and tough brisket of any variety is a crime there!

Seriously, ask any Texan and they’ll tell you that you can talk bad about somebody’s mama before you can trash talk their brisket. 😀