An Irish Thanksgiving

For as long as Jess can remember, her mother, Lindy, always made corned-beef dinner for St. Patrick's day. This is one of Jess's favorite meals and you can imagine why: just the name, "CORNed BEEF," screams Iowa, doesn't it?! Brian, on the other hand, never really experienced St. Patty's Day corned-beef dinners growing up . . . which is funny because he's the Catholic and the only one with a bit of Irish heritage! In any case, Jess wanted to make this St. Patrick's Day special for her new family: Brian and Oliver.

We begin by boiling the beef for 4 hours in a mixture of salt, pepper, thyme, paprika, allspice, and bay leaves. Mmmm, if only they made corned-beef scented candles, the apartment could smell like this all the time!


Instead of fixing the typical boiled vegetables, we decided to roast the new potatoes, carrots, and onions. (Yes, Mom, my oven needs a good cleanin'.)


We then quick braised the cabbage with butter, thyme, parsley, and a cup of the broth from the boiling beef.


At 7:30 p.m. we finally sat down to enjoy our new favorite holiday: Thanksgiving in March! Sadly, you'll notice there's no Irish beer :(


And 10 minutes later . . . we have leftovers for a month!


Turns out Yorkshire Terriers are Scottish, but Ollie sure nailed the I'm-a-cute-little-Irish-beggar-so-please-feed-me-some-corned-beef look:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY from our table to yours!