Corned Beef, my way.

 

There is nothing quite so wonderful as the scent of a lovely corned beef or three wafting through the air, as they cook slowly in the crock pot, or on top of the stove or in the oven.

And I know it's a little late to be posting Corned Beef recipes, but maybe someone out there is like me, and buys corned beef, cooks it and freezes it for meals at a later date.   And if you're like that, then read on.


We like corned beef here, but I do it a little differently than most.   I really don't care for the traditional cabbage, potatoes and carrots cooked in the corned beef liquid, nor does anyone else in our family.   Over the years I've also tried a lot of different recipes, trying to get the taste just right.  A few years ago, I succeeded, and now I make my corned beef the same way all the time.    Well, most of the time, well, nearly all the time.  At any rate, I do buy the commercial corned beef, although I'm tempted to try my hand at corning my own brisket some time in the future. 

I've actually made a couple of corned beef's this year.   I made one for the monthly potluck we attend, and then we ate one chopped up with some potatoes and onions and eggs for breakfast, and a snack.   But, I wanted some to put in the freezer, as it does freeze well, and it falls into my idea of always having something in the freezer that can be put on the table with a minimum of fuss and bother.   And let's face it, sometimes you just get a craving for corned beef, and how cool is it, you can have it on the table in an hour or so.   

To begin with, you need a corned beef, make it whatever size you like, place it in the pot with a bottle or two of dark beer, then add water to cover, sprinkle it with the pickling spices, then simmer it until tender.  In the crock pot this usually takes about 5-6 hours on high, or on top of the stop, about 2-3 hours.   Check it periodically.

Ready for the beer.

A nice vintage, adds some lovely flavour

Beer and Pickling spices added.

 When it's fork tender (and it's perfectly admissible to cut a slice off and taste it, just to see, you just have to be careful you don't taste test them til they're gone).    You can then put it aside to cool down before freezing them.

Cooling down for the freezer

Or you can do this...

Glazed and ready for the oven

Slather them with a mixture of brown sugar and yellow mustard, and throw them back in the oven for an hour or so, and serve with some more of the brown sugar/yellow mustard mixture.    To make the sauce just mix equal amounts of brown sugar and yellow mustard together.    Simple and totally awesome on corned beef.
And just want to say this, you can slather this on a nice piece of ham and bake it and then use the sauce to dip the ham into.    Might as well make it multi purpose, whenever possible.  

And if you have any left over, you can always make a nice corned beef hash for breakfast or dinner or ...
Chop up the corned beef, add some leftover cooked potatoes and some onions to a pan, brown them well and throw them on a plate.    

Next step, add the eggs on top

Just throw a couple of fried eggs on top, and you're good to go.

Hope your St. Paddy's day was a good one, and if you're like me and cooked a couple extra, now you have an idea on serving them.

Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwich

It was late, I was tired and I didn't feel like cooking.  There I said it, contrary to popular belief, it's not all about time spent in the kitchen, it's all about me.     Just kidding.   Truth is though, I spent the day at the beach, in the sun, and I was tired but I wanted to eat dinner too.   So, I made one of my husbands favorite sandwiches for dinner.    You can also make a salad to go with the sandwich for a more balanced meal if you like. 

And you can turn this into a Panini if you want to.   All I know is that it tastes good and is easy to make.   Let's face it, we all need meals like this. Quick to put on the table, almost effortlessly.  

Start by warming a loaf of your favorite french bread in the oven. 

Then place some thinly sliced ham or leftover ham from a ham roast if you have it, into a fry pan you've sprayed with some non stick spray.   You want the pan on low, all you're doing is heating up the ham a little, not frying it.  Add some sliced cheese on top, I like to use Cheddar,

Next take a pickle out of the fridge, slice it thinly.

Take the bread out of the oven, spread it with some mustard, make pretty designs if you like.   Then layer the warmed ham and cheese and the pickles onto the bread.

 Cut into quarters and serve.   As you can see from this picture, I got a little skimpy on the ham on my end of the sandwich.

And it was good and fast.  I've also put this sandwich on my George Forman Grill and make a Panini out of it at this point,  now that's good.

Senior's Lunch 3/8/12 and Sausage and Cabbage recipe

Just wanted to post a few pictures of the meal we prepared last week, and I will try to get back into the groove this week and tell you about some more foods I've been preparing.   But last week was CRAZY, mainly because some good friends came to town and we visited and we ate and we had fun.   But not too much cooking went on in my house.   Well, except for me serving Spaghetti one night, but I've told you how to do that so...

I'm going to leave you with some pictures of the deliciousness we prepared for lunch.
From Sweet Potatoes 

Ham

Corn Bread (I didn't get a picture of the turnip greens, darn)

And our other choice of meat, this totally scrumptious Sausage and Cabbage dish, I'm still dreaming of this.  The recipe follows at the end here.

Then our vegetarian option, my Squash Medley, the how to's of which I will be posting later on.

We also had a bowl of Cherry Tomatoes

And there were the requisite desserts, which I failed (my bad) to get pictures of.

But let me leave you with the recipe for the Sausage and Cabbage dish.   I could not believe how totally yummy it was.    And it's a dish I will make for myself at some point in time.

Sausage and Cabbage Boil

6 large potatoes, Red Bliss or Yellow or White,  they should be a firm fleshed potato.
1 head cabbage, chopped
3-6  carrots, peeled and cut into coins
1 lb. ring of Kielbasa Sausage
1 quart or more low sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon marjoram
1 tablespoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste, if you like.


Cut up some firm potatoes like Red Bliss or White Potatoes, either work well in this dish.    Place in a large pot, then cut the carrots into coins or chunks, after which you core and chop a head of cabbage, however you like.   I would suggest cutting it into quarters, then cutting those quarters into thirds and place them in the pot, add some chicken broth, low sodium is best, to cover.   Add some water if needed or more chicken broth.   Finally some Kielbasa Sausage, cut into chunks.   Season with some Marjoram and Thyme, cover and let simmer until the potatoes are done and the cabbage is done as well.   Taste and season with some salt and pepper if you like.   Serve with some cornbread if you like.      This was so good, I can't even begin to tell you and also, by adding more potatoes, carrots and cabbage you can stretch this dish out as well.    I really like budget friendly dishes like this.    

Another crazy week, sigh...

Last week was nuts, or was it the week before?   Hmmmm  

This past week I got to spend with some friends and we had a blast.    And then they left and I had to hurry up and get my thoughts back on track and do the Senior Center lunch on Thursday.    Friday was catchup day and today I got to watch a parade.   Haven't done a lot of cooking apart from my standard Spaghetti Sauce which I served to those same friends on Sunday, Monday we had home made hamburgers at the beach and Tuesday it was world class Fried Chicken at a favorite restaurant.    Thursday we had soup and sandwiches and yesterday was some of my Chile Verde and home made tortillas.   Tonight is an easy meal as well, I'm putting together Subs for dinner.   Tomorrow we're having friends over for dinner and I'm making a Prime Rib and some Shrimp.      

I'll let you know what I did with the shrimp tomorrow, right now I need to go put my feet up before I tackle putting the Sub makings out for dinner.

Senior's Lunch and Weekly Menus

This has been a crazy busy week, between trying to get some stuff caught up, my car going into the shop and everything else, I was so glad I had my menu's posted on the fridge so I didn't have to agonize over what to make for dinner every night.

 And of course this is always subject to change without notice, or at least not much notice.   Although I am still trying to get to the Crooked River Grill for their Friday Fish Fry, again.   They had Cod and some of the best tasting Hush Puppies I've had in a long, long time.   I'll make it over there yet!

Monday night someone else did the cooking, giggle.   We were invited over to a friends house for burgers, and wow were they good.   Bleu Cheese topped with Onion marmalade, cooked in red wine, on a nice meat patty, and some nice arugala.    YUM!!!!  Of course I love onions just about any way you care to serve them.     I'm going to try my hand at this Onion Marmalade some time soon,  or at least just cook up some good onions for myself.   Some Caramelized onions, a touch of BBQ sauce, a slice of raw onion, and a hamburger bun, now that's a sandwich.  One of my favorite restaurants who have now gone out of business, sigh, used to serve sherry glazed onions, they were so good, hmmm, I think I  will try my hand at that sometime as well.   I mean how can you screw up onions other than blackening them? The more you cook them, the sweeter they get.

I took the picture with my camera phone so the picture sucks a little, but the burger sure didn't.

Yesterday I headed off to the Senior Center to help cook lunch, and as usual had a blast doing it.   The last 15 minutes or so before we serve can get a little like the Keystone Kops, trying to get all the food finished and ready to be served.    But we have fun and there is a great group of people there who do some awesome work, and we are all volunteers. 
Last week we had the following:

 Sorry, no photo's of the finished dishes, I got busy and it was more important to get the food out, than to take pictures of the prepared food.   But I think I'm in love with Field Peas n' Snaps.    The Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls was well received with one exception, we didn't (read that I didn't) get enough cabbage in there.   We'll make it again, and next time put lots more cabbage in it. 
Here's the menu board board for this week;

But we did have some pork chops left over, from last week, it wasn't quite enough so we cooked a few more and made some chopped Pork Sandwiches, have to say I've paid good money for some that didn't taste as good as mine did. 

along with the totally yummy Fried Chicken for this week's lunch.

 Plus Potato Salad, Coleslaw, Squash Casserole,

Sliced Tomatoes,

Pickled Beets,

Biscuits and the desserts, I think our seniors and others had a great lunch.