[Arwen]

Well the stew turned out okay. Would have been better with some carbs! LOL

Tonight's dinner guest thinks he's getting pulled pork or roast beef, but I've secretly replaced that with corned beef. HEY! I still had cabbage to cook.


Arwen's Never-Fail Crockpot Corned Beef


Corned Beef (2-5 lbs)
6-8 Red Potatoes, smallish
2 Onions, peeled and quartered
2 C baby carrots
1 TBS garlic
1 TBS black pepper
1 C cider vinegar
1 TBS brown sugar
Water to cover

In first, carrots. Be lazy. Get the pre-washed kind. Be healthy. Grab the certified organic ones. I am learning to love carrots again. I really love them sauteed in butter and brown sugar, but yeah...that's not the healthiest in the world.

The potatoes (I put them in whole because that's the way I roll) go next. Get you some of the baby reds not the big teen-aged thug ones. You can use the little whites if you prefer...I guess. Just remember that I like the red ones when you invite my happy rear to dinner.

Then the meat. I buy the kind in the package. I squeeze it out of the package along with all the slimy juice stuff. That's the brine, y'all. It's part of what makes corned beef corned. Stop wrinkling your dang noses! I use the little spice packet too. Just sprinkle it over the meat if you want to use it as well.

TIP FROM ARWEN: Keep a plastic grocery bag handy to throw all the waste into. You will appreciate the ease of clean-up afterwards.

Now I put the onions all around the meat. I take one or two quarters (depends on the size of the meat [no wait...doesn't everything?]) to lay all over the meat. I generally use yellow but whites were on sale last night so I used two medium to large whites. I think Vidalias would be DIVINE in this dish too.

Then the garlic, pepper and brown sugar. Because my brown sugar is in my freezer, I just break off a sizeable clump (I used 1 TBS for the measurements for those of you traumatized by my can of wine in the last recipe...thanks for the many reps on THAT one, y'all )and put the clump on the meat.

Then I put in the vinegar. NOTE: Cider is the only one I would use for this. I've tried white and balsamic. Balsamic is one of my favorite vinegars and I could (and do) drink it straight. However, it was decidedly NOT good with the corned beef. As in "ewwwwwwwwwwww who ruined the dinner" not good.

Next start pouring in hot water (straight from the tap if you've got good water). I hit the brown sugar to melt it into the juice. You want the water to cover the meat...of if you are like me, to get as close as you can without overflowing.

Now turn that crockpot on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8-12. Of course, if you are like me, you can turn it on high for 4 and then on low until your guest arrives.

I'll be cooking the cabbage about 45 minutes in the crockpot if there's room. Um, oops. Once again I over-estimated my crockpot's capacity. (Hmm, I guess I am a size queen after all.)

Probably going to serve biscuits with this and call it good. I'll report back later. Maybe I'll take a picture too.