Corned Beef and Cabbage - Hold the Rye

It feels good to eat a traditional, Americanized St. Patrick's Day meal! Normally my mom would make corned beef, I'd ignore the cabbage and make toasted rye bread and beef sandwiches. This year, I was on my own to recreate our family's annual dish.

At the grocery store, I carefully read the ingredients and got stumped with "flavorings." Technically, barley or malt could be snuck in without being declared. I kept reading the package because I was really craving corned beef and lo-and-behold, the last two words on the package in the bottom corner were "Gluten free." Maybe my calls to Safeway/Dominick's asking them to label gluten free products as such were actually being heard? I purchased my always gluten and dairy free veggies (red potatoes, cabbage, and carrots) and headed home to prepare my feast!

I followed the package directions for cooking the corned beef on the stovetop in my Dutch oven. When it was done and was cooling on a plate underneath a piece of foil, I added washed and halved red potatoes and peeled and cut carrots to the water, brought to a boil, and then simmered for almost 10 minutes. Then I added the cut cabbage for a few more minutes unitl everything was cooked and then drained the vegetables.

Despite my awesome knife skills with bell peppers, garlic, and onions, my meat cutting skills leave something to be desired still. I cut the corned beef a little too thick so it was rather tough. I forgot that one of the best parts of my mom's corned beef was always how thin they were sliced. (My sister, it turns out, had the same problem I had when cutting corned beef. Maybe we should have paid better attention to our mom's preparation and presentation of food as we were growing up?)

This was an easy meal to cook and all of the important meal elements were safe to eat! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!