Oh the Irish in me !

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow, so I whipped up some Irish grub to celebrate the day of green, or the day of drinking or the day to cook Corned Beef & Cabbage !!
I come by my Irish blood honestly, meet my Grandpa Jim May, he's not with us anymore but he will always be in our hearts.

This is a picture of him when he was 16, attending Morgan Park Military Academy in Chicago. He went on to WWII in the Pacific Theater on Guam as a Marine Raider, first guys off the boat. He was shot and recovered at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, where he meant my Grandma Dorothy Harle, then came my Mom, then came Me. When I was little, he ran bars downtown SD, he'd cook big pots of stews for the bar patrons and let me sit on the bar and eat as many Maraschino Cherries as I could. I always remember him cooking. So I dedicate this meal to him. Miss you Grandpa

Corned Beef w/ Cabbage, Potatoes & Carrots.

4 to 5 lb Corned Beef ( I got the uncured one at Trader Joe's, AMAZING )

1 whole head of cabbage

2-3 potatoes quartered

6-7 small fresh carrots/ chopped big

1 bottle of beer

water

Put the beef and the spices from the bag in a dutch oven, add 1 beer  - your favorite flavor, I used a Fat Tire, from Colorado, not Irish but very tasty. Besides I needed to save all the Irish beer for Black and Tans.

 Add water until the beef is covered. Cook at 350 for at least 3 hours. Check the beef for the fall apart factor, the meat should be extremely tender and cut easily with a fork. Remove the meat from the pot and let rest on a plate for carving. Add the veggies to the pot and return to the oven for 20 minutes or until veggies are cooked but still slightly firm.

Slice up the meat and serve the veggies on the side with some good stone ground mustard on the side.

Enjoy, it's yummy.