the feast, day one...

I have made many a corned beef and cabbage meals and this year is by FAR the best I have ever made. First off getting the corned beef from Whole Foods, while absurdly expensive, was just amazing. Truly awesome. It was there own ones they corned. Next I decided to slow cook it. It was more out of a need to make things easier but it made it just wonderful. I also used some new spices this year for cooking. I used garlic cloves, black and white peppercorns, allspice corns, mustard seeds, juniper berries, whole cloves, bay leaves, and the rind of one orange. It made it yummy. I also got organic multi-colored carrots which were yummy AND fun. I did both red and green cabbage and potatoes of course. I also got some amazing, and so bad for me, peppered thick cut bacon from the store the other day. They were handing out samples they had cooked off and it was just so good it was impossible not to buy some. Bliss LOVED that and mostly had that with fruit although he said he liked the corned beef. .It was all just so delicious it was astounding. The dogs got the fat layer which was heaven for them.

I also had pear cider with the meal which was just right. I also had some blood orange sparkling juice for Bliss so we could all do "cheers" with our meal. We have three acrylic wine/champagne glasses for just that. Bliss has the flute and roomie and I have a regular wine glass one each and we all do cheers at holidays without worry of breakage. Bliss loves it.

After the meat was done this morning I took it out and covered it. I saw how much it has shrunk (way way more than I am used to, but for that flavor who cared) and I was worried we would not have enough for the sandwiches tomorrow. I ran off to the market and got a fresh cooked one there that they sliced thin for me for tomorrow. It isn't a Whole Foods one but is a perfect one for the Reubens. It was also nice not to have to cook another and drag out the slicer after it cooled. I also got to be really picky about thickness of the slice.

Lastly I made a homemade cherry pie. It turned out just perfect which is always nice.