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Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Sunday, March 8, 2009

Out of Synch, Part the Second

Where were we?  Ah, yes.  "We" were craving hot corned beef with cabbage and the weather was, and still is, not cooperating.So there I was with Elise from Simply Recipe's Corned Beef and Cabbage now chilling in the refrigerator.  I planned to serve it in a Reubenesque homage sandwich with cold salad sides.  

While I was mulling over what salads to attempt, I recalled a post Homesick Texan had not too long ago about End to Winter carrot raisin salad. The thermometer says Winter thinks it is ending, so I decided to give her recipe a whirl. I followed HT's carrot salad recipe except I ended up subbing in all mayo for the greek yogurt because as it turned out, after all those trips to my nearby grocer I didn't have any yogurt on hand. 

Cold salad aside? In this family cold salad necessarily means potato salad, prepared the way my Mom used to make it with poppyseed dressing, celery, salt, plenty of pepper, hard boiled egg and loads of chopped sweet gherkins. Mmmnnn, the Corned Beef Redux menu was starting to shape up nicely.

So how did this all turn out? Did the sandwich live up to two days of anticipation? Could the same woman who had a full on train wreck of culinary flops all in one meal so recently pull everything back together and produce a plate of delicious this go round?

Stay tuned gentle readers. Something wonderful this way comes. I was DUE.And here it is. After two or so days of nattering around, plotting, planning and making at least one more trip to the store than is quite justified, we ended up with this lovely salute to corned beef as our reward.

The modified Reuben. A Celebration of March type sandwich featuring oven baked corned beef, AustinAgrodolce Secret Sauce, cooked cabbage and onion and havarti cheese, all piled high on buttery quick grilled pumpernickel bread.Sides? Homesick Texan's Farewell to Winter Carrot Raisin salad and my Mom's Potato salad.

Am I over fretting about the warm weather now? That would be a big Hell Yeah. This was as satisfying a combination as I will ever need for a meal, no matter what the weather is up to. Plus we have leftovers of everything so this meal can be reproduced in a couple of days if we so desire. I really like that feeling when there is an extra meal just waiting in the wings that way. Don't you?Ah, Saint Patrick! Thanks for chasing those snakes out of Ireland and for making March the semi-official Month of Corned Beef with Cabbage. Served piping hot or as a cold cut in a sandwich either one, it is enough to bring out a little Irish in everyone.

2 comments:

bee said...

in my carnivorous days, i would have gladly eaten this for brekkers, lunch and dinner.

PassivePastry said...

where did you get your corned beef?
I kind of wanted to try making my own but am unsure where to buy the special pink salt and if it'll really taste that much better than the already made spice packety variety.
Hmph.