In anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day, I started experimenting traditional Irish meals. I’ve always been curious about what exactly is corned beef and learned the term “corned” comes from putting meat in a large crock and covering it with large rock-salt kernels of salt that were referred to as “corns of salt” to preserve the meat. The Irish were the biggest exporters of Corned Beef until 1825. 

According to Livestrong, a cooked standard serving of corned beef, weighing 3 oz., has 80 mg of cholesterol and a whopping 15 g of protein. If you want a healthier cut with lower levels of fat and sodium, ask for an extra-lean corned beef cut. When ordering from a butcher, the top layer of fat should be fully trimmed off the brisket. Be sure to cut away the visible fat both before and after cooking. Steam-cooking helps melt fat off the meat. Return beef slices to the steamer to help remove some interior fat. Boiling the sliced meat in fresh water can also help lower sodium content.

In addition to corned beef, I also wanted to do something different.  I could make colcannon, or an apple-parsnip soup or even irish soda bread, but I was thinking something other than food this time.  At my son’s school, the teachers are always making this awesome scented play dough.  I didn’t have the recipe, and always forget to ask, so I looked on Pinterest… my first mistake.

I thought that making green play dough with my son would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.  It would be an activity that we could do together, and it looked super easy to make.  I measured out my ingredients, and had everything in place, all I had to do was follow a recipe and then have this awesome play dough.  The first recipe I tried was for a kool-aid play dough.  Cool.  I went to the store, bought what I needed and got to it.  

I made the play dough just like the recipe called for and I ended up with a sticky ball of goo… so I figured I’d try cooking it.  Mistake number two.  I tried again, with a new batch of ingredients, and ended up with the same results.  End Result:  Epic Fail.

Back to Pinterest.  I found a recipe for Jello play dough.  This recipe was a little bit different.  So again, I measured out the ingredients and followed the recipe.  Not a complete fail as in the kool-aid play dough experience, but a very, very sticky and kind of stringy ball of green dough.  End Result:  Fail.

 

Now with two failed attempts at play dough making, I figured I’d just stick with what I know and share a tried and true recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage.  

[yumprint-recipe id=’13’]May the luck of the Irish be with you on this St. Patrick’s Day!

-Lindsie Lizotte, Mom’s Bistro