Today I am getting ready for St. Patrick's day (which is next Saturday) by getting my corned beef brined. No nasty sacks of nitrates and goo for me, I corn my own beef and you should, too. You can do a wet or a dry brine and both work beatifully for this meal. I try to get mine going a week before. So here is your reminder, you need to get started on this at least by Wednesday! Otherwise, you won't have the proper texture. It will be good most likely, but it won't be corned beef and you won't long for it all year. While you are out getting the goods for this meal, do not forget to spend a little more and get organic potatoes. Potatoes are a high pesticide crop (see HERE) and are often treated with fungicide (to prevent rot and increase shelf life, see Bayer's page for their specific product HERE). If you are going to go all out and make your kids some real corned beef then spend a bit more for potatoes and get the good stuff. I know that you can get a ten pound sack of potatoes for a dollar this time of year but they aren't worth it, even at that price. I may be spending ten times as much, but a dollar a pound is not too much for any produce. Need to know how to make your own corned beef? See Martha's recipe HERE. Friday I will post a soda bread recipe using sprouted flour as well as some easy cooking instructions.
While you are waiting for your dinner, I want to mention a small bit of local news. I live in Suburban Denver in a city that is clambering to move the National Western Stock Show from Denver out here to Aurora. That would be all fine and good if it were not also a city hostile to small ag prospects like owning chickens. Yes. We want the stock show but if you get chickens the police will confiscate them and fine you. My friend and neighbor has started a Facebook group for folks in favor of chickens and if you are interested, please stop by and take a peek HERE. While there is substantial opposition in the community and on the city counsel, it is important to start the conversation. I honestly do not expect immediate change but I am hopeful.
Wow, good luck getting chickens. We can't have them here, either, which is ridiculous—Ohio brags about being an agricultural state, but MANY of its residents cannot have three or four hens in their yard! It seems doubly absurd to me that we cannot have a few on our quarter-acre plus lot when the collie and I walk down the street to check out the horses, goats, and sheep on a daily basis—barely half a block away. No joke. (I don't mind these animals, I grew up around horses and love having them nearby...but I can't have a few hens?).
ReplyDeleteOh...rant over. Good luck.
Agreed! The objections that people have are based on the premise that it would make our city appear backwards and they are trying to become a cosmopolitan suburb. It is ludicrous! We live outside Denver, where we have an annual cattle drive with cowboys and cattle in lower downtown every year at the National Western Stock Show. See this story here and see a photo of cowboys doing rope tricks: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93771965
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