
My grandmother on my mom's side was Irish, so I suppose I have a good bit of Irish in me. Growing up my mom often made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day and I always loved it. A special treat that only appeared once a year. Since I've left home, I've tried making this dish a few times, but it was never quite as good as I remembered my mom's being. This year I brought out the big heavy cast iron pot and started over 3 hours before dinner time. This heavy pot and the long cooking time did the trick! It was so good!

I also made some Irish bread. And while not very authentic, it was delicious. I made it in an angel food cake pan to cut down on cooking time -- thus the shape. And if you are interested -- I used the recipe from the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. Sometimes you just need to forego the whole grains. (I also have their whole grain cookbook -- King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking
-- which is awesome!)

And you can't for get the beer! Some nice Irish Stout -- Beamish Irish Stout to be exact.
I also made a non-Irish dessert -- the Salt Lick Bars that were posted over at Bake and Shake. Yummy! (Although I didn't use enough salt on the top. I only had the fine grained sel de mare and really needed the flaked or larger grained stuff.)
Lots of crafting to photograph and talk about soon! Knitting and Quilting and Cross Stich -- Oh My!
Your Irish dinner looks great! I got some leftovers of my mom's CBC.. yum.
Posted by: Michelle | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 05:43 PM
All your food looks scrum-dilly-icious (as my kids would say). I've never heard of salt lick bars, but they look yummy too.
Posted by: Joanna | Monday, March 19, 2007 at 11:30 PM
I made corned beef and cabbage this past weekend too! The photo looks almost exactly like mine except my big heavy cast iron pot is blue. :-)
Posted by: Wendy | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 06:31 AM
OOoh - yum - your St. Paddy's day meal looks scrumptious. I went to the local diner and had Irish Stew. They didn't serve Irish soda bread though, and yours looks delicious.
Posted by: Jennifer | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 07:22 AM
My grandfather was Irish, and I remember having corned beef and cabbage every St. Patrick's day - my mom made it - and also some other times during the year visiting my grandparents. I made it this year and it was the best ever, but it really does take about 3 hours. Yum!
Posted by: Kim | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 02:55 PM
OOooo that corned beef and cabbage looks tempting....I've never heard of it in this side of the world...care to share the recipe? =)
Posted by: Rain | Friday, March 23, 2007 at 12:03 AM