St. Patrick’s Day menu

For the first time ever, ever, ever, I spent St. Patrick’s Day without my family. I had to work on Thursday, so I made everything on Wednesday, the day before the holiday.

Therefore, I had to make do on my own. I made corned beef and cabbage for the first time. I’ve made carrots before, but honestly, these were the best I’ve ever made. Once or twice, I’ve helped my mom with mashed potatoes, but this was the first time I’ve made them on my own.

Short version: I made a St. Patrick’s dinner all by myself, which I had never done before.

The recipes I used, for my own future reference:

Corned Beef – I used the seasoning packet that came with the meat, and added extra spices, using ideas from this recipe for corned beef pickling spice

Classic Mashed Potatoes – NYT Cooking – This worked out great! I used Yukon potatoes and they were delicious.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage- I used my brother’s recipe for this. It called for half a head of cabbage, a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and one green apple. I don’t have any apple cider vinegar so I went across the street to a small grocery store. They were all out too and the next grocery delivery wouldn’t come for two more days. Thankfully I happened to have apple juice in my fridge and white vinegar in my pantry. I just used those and a little red wine vinegar instead.

Carrots – I didn’t use a recipe. It probably helped that I used at least 2 tablespoons of butter and left the carrots simmer on low with the lid on for a good while. That helped them get soft and juicy.