Endure

Last night, I made stuffed cabbage rolls for our St. Patrick's dinner tonight.

It was quite an involved process. And before you are disgusted by the thought of cabbage rolls, they were stuffed with bratwurst and covered in a spicy bacon, tomato sauce.

Bacon makes everything taste better.

I cooked the bratwurst in the morning with the rice. Then, after work, I steamed the cabbage. While it steamed I cooked the bacon, onion, red pepper, and simmered those all in tomato puree.

After the sauce was ready, and the cabbage had drained, I took the bratwurst and rice mixture out of the fridge and started stuffing the cabbage leaves.

As if all of that wasn't involved enough, the next part got more so.

The recipe instructed me to cut the main vein out of the leaf, scoop one-third of a cup of the bratwurst/rice mixture into the leaf, and then roll it like a burrito. Except that I just cut out part of the leaf and rolling it as suggested was next to impossible. No matter which way I rolled, stuffing kept falling out through slits. Or I was rolling it in such a way that the stuffing to rolled cabbage ratio was uneven.

But I knew I could endure. I continued stuffing and rolling. I eventually filled my 9 x 13 baking dish with ten rolls. I covered them with the sauce and tucked them away in the refrigerator until this afternoon when Bill took them out for me.

We were also able to endure the forty-five minute wait while they baked.

Bill and I agreed that the cabbage rolls were worth the process.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Just the facts

It turns out I'm Irish! Irish on both sides of the family. I was pretty certain there was Irish on the maternal side. My paternal aunts are red heads, I don't know how I didn't put two and two together sooner.

My guess on the fraction is also pretty close. It's something like my great, great grandfather on mom's side and my great, great, great grandfather on dad's side. So 1/128 sounds about right. Don't worry, my mom told me that she has all of this written down. Whew. I'm really not good at genealogy.

It also lends more weight/credence to my liking for warm beer (it has to be stout, I can tolerate a porter as long as it's not cold), meat & potatoes, and my temper. I've always blamed my strong German roots. Now I can blame the wee bit o' Irish and it's legit.

I'm still looking for Italian roots. Maybe that was in a former life.

In the meantime, check out dinner from Saturday night.

 Don't worry, last night we celebrated by eating the traditional Mexican Skillet. Oh, wait. That's not tradition for St. Patrick's Day...

Saturday also included my first official trip of the season to Jersey Junction. Yum! This means warmer weather is headed our way. And I promised Bill that we don't have to go back until Memorial Day.

Today I'm thankful that I'm feeling better. I have no idea whether it was the cabbage, corned beef, beers, ice cream, all the food I ate in Chicago, taking my vitamin on a less than full stomach, or what but it has passed and I am happy for that.

A Wee Bit 'O Irish

I know I write about Pioneer Woman a lot. I really enjoy her blog and she continues to give me new recipes to try.

Today was no exception. I decided we needed to celebrate the wee little bit 'O Irish in my blood (right, mom? We're some small part Irish, even if it's only 1/128 it counts) and made Corned Beef and Cabbage. We had them with boiled potatoes. But not just any cabbage. And not just any corned beef. We had this.

Please, take a minute and click that link. You have to see the pictures.

It was amazing.

I'm so glad I made it and I can't believe I've never tried it before now.

I'm thankful for the new recipe and a spin on traditional food.