Mom and Dad have been treating their adult children and their spouses to a corned beef and cabbage dinner at church for countless years. This year, we decided to forego having them buy tickets in favor of cooking this dinner ourselves and enjoying it in the comfort of my parents' home. The Sunday after St. Patrick's was perfect for a family get together.
Our busy schedules didn't allow for a lot of logistical planning, but the word on the street was to show up with something to add to the meal. I purchased my groceries on the way up to Mom's and cooked it on her stove so that I wouldn't have to travel with boiling water (like Aunt Cecilia did!). I enjoyed having extra time to visit while it cooked. Carrots and red potatoes filled this dish.
Uncle Tom invented a new way to cook this traditional "New England Boiled Dinner" by roasting it in the oven. I am now sold on this method of roasting because his meat, potatoes and especially the most important part- the CABBAGE, were superior in taste to their boiled counterparts!!!!!
We had about 15 pounds of corned beef since we didn't have time to touch base about who was bringing what. This was certainly no problem as the meat was all delicious and cut into thicker strips then when served at the catered dinner. Larry and I love this meal with hot horseradish mixed with sour cream. You know you're alive when the top of your head starts to get so hot its on fire! We all agreed that this meal was even tastier than the delicious meal at church that we have all enjoyed for years.
Mom had a long table set with a green tablecloth. She had a variety of mustards available to put on the meat. I used a sweet, hot mustard that was so delicious.
The youngest grandchildren joined us.
Uncle Jerry and Uncle Dan brought fresh bakery pies and Kat tried her hand at making a wonderful Bread Pudding substituting chocolate chips for raisins. It was moist and very tasty.
I am so disappointed that this picture turned out blurry... Mom and Dad love to celebrate their Irish heritage and have passed that on to us. Since this meal has always had expensive tickets involved, we let this be the one time that the grandchildren stayed home. This year we changed that up slightly and they all went to Aunt Nancy's house.
Sixteen of them had a terrific time eating pizza and playing outdoors.
They all had a great time, as we did, celebrating Saint Patrick's Day together!
