Fun Monday - Food!

Debs at 1CrazyStitcher is our host this week:

We all eat it. We all have the kind we like and the kind we dislike. What are some of your favorite foods? Which food do you find disgusting? Have a recipe you want to share?

I grew up in a huge family. Five boys and me. I was the oldest and there was nearly 18 years between me and the last boy. So at any given time, Mom had at least one (and usually more) growth spurt-starving boy to deal with. We were given to large, nutritious and inexpensive meals - and you just couldn't beat New England-Boiled Dinner in that department. When I mention it now, at least two of my brothers (the youngest two) sort of cringe and shudder, but it was one of my favorites growing up.

NEBD consists of 1 cabbage, 1 onion, about 8-10 medium sized carrots, 6 or 7 potatoes, one or two cans of corned beef, and a cup and a half of water.

Chop everything up, but keep it separate. I peel the carrots and potatoes, though I suppose you don't have to.

I use a pressure cooker to make this. It's fast and easy. Put the root vegetables (carrots and potatoes) in, along with the cup and a half of water. Add a little salt and pepper, put on the lid, and bring it up to pressure (burner on high) - then cook for about a minute.

Remove from heat, let off the steam, and when the safety button drops back down, open the cooker and add the onions and cabbage.

Put the lid on, bring it back up to pressure, letting it cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat, let off steam and remove the lid.

Add the corned beef (which is already cooked), cover, bring up to pressure again for about a minute, then remove from heat, let off steam, and open.

Dish it up. I like to add a little bit of butter to it, but it's good just the way it is.

This makes a lot. All three of us eat - the guys go back for seconds - and we have about the same amount to put away in the fridge to eat later in the week or take as lunches to work.

The thinking here is that the root veggies are denser, so cook them slightly at the start, then add the less dense veggies to cook. That way everything is the right consistency and you don't wind up with mush for cabbage and onions for cooking them long enough to cook potatoes and carrots. Since the meat is already cooked, you just add it to heat it up and let some of the flavor soak through the rest of the veggies.


I did not think it was possible to mess this up, but my husband managed it. He didn't use the pressure cooker (though it's not a requirement, it does make timing easier), and he did use some weird corned beef from the international deli. It was from some faraway place that has different ideas about what corned beef should be. I usually stick with Hormel. One can will do you just fine, but my guys really like meat. So I use two.


Hope you enjoyed it vicariously - it was a delicious dinner for us tonight!


Go visit Debs to see what's cooking with the other participants!