Growing up in a small town meant my family did quite a bit of commuting for work or when the time came for my brother and I to leave our rural grade school for high school. My devoted mom would not be deterred from the mission of providing practical, nutritious, and homemade meals even though the convenience of grabbing food from an actual restaurant — in which my town had zero — before coming home for the night was now a daily temptation. Maybe more so for Dad, who was prone to grabbing HyVee fried chicken when it was his turn to tackle a family meal (and also why Mom didn’t put him in charge of this precious provision very often).
When asked about my most vivid childhood memories, I can usually recall a few specifics. What I DO remember is the support and smells of HOME as the wafts of a scratch-made meal billowed out from the kitchen to greet me at the door. As a teenager, I naturally had very insensible clothing on and wet hair from diving practice so I was always freezing cold and ready for the warm comforts of home. Mom was a master of the crockpot, and dinner was inevitably hot and ready. This is how my former business of crafting retail-ready bone broth was born. Mom almost always made soup for weeknight meals — with European-style accouterments to go alongside.
Traditional Family Meals
Soup, sourdough, and garden greens were the culture of our most common family meals, and I loved it – but every now and again, Mom would make a surprising stir-fry for Chinese New Year or head-turning enchiladas for Cinco de Mayo. Being that my parents were well-traveled teachers, there was no such thing as a random holiday – all were worthy of celebrating with relevant cuisine and a conversation. BY FAR, our most favorite meal of the year was St. Patrick’s Day feast. Mom was Catholic and raised us in the church, so this holiday was more pertinent to us, too! I’m sure you know it — the menu was always classic and consistent:
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Slow-Cooked Corned Beef
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Cabbage, Carrots, Onions and Potatoes
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Soda Bread
There is truly no frills to this meal. It’s hearty stick-to-your-ribs sustenance begging for an answer to my question, why don’t we do this meal more than once a year? The crockpot makes this a meal you can pull off on any old weeknight and the flavor is unrivaled. Plus, cabbage is a very underrated veg, imho. So yum cooking in that salty signature brine.
St. Patrick’s Day Traditions
For the last few years, my brother and I have made it a tradition to pay homage to our favorite childhood meal by feasting together on St. Patrick’s Day. We usually invite our Greek or Italian friends who have never appreciated an Irish-themed meal before and blow their minds with how good and memorable it is. I mean, once invited to our annual SPD feast, our people beg to make the invite list again the following year. And it’s quite funny to me because the meal itself is so simple to pull off.
My brother usually prepares the meat, and I eat the veggies and bread with a couple of modern tweaks. Jay usually cooks the meat in a Dutch oven – still low and slow – and instead of putting all the veggies in with the meat, I roast them. First, I hack up a green and red cabbage into wedges, dice the carrots and onions, and cube the potatoes. I arrange the vegetables onto two large baking sheets covered with parchment paper and use a pastry brush to coat everything with olive oil. Then, I apply a generous amount of Redmond’s Real Salt. I roast them in a convection oven at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes (turning them about halfway), keeping an eye out for some charred edges to appear on the cabbage. Once the meat is done, I drizzle the veggies with the brine, add a few dollops of grass-fed butter, and garnish with some fresh parsley and dill. Doing the veggies this way adds a culinary/foodie flare to this meal that can sometimes turn out a little too mushy if slow-cooked altogether. It’s worth it, trust me, and it’s so beautiful.
This year, we celebrated our annual St. Patrick’s Day meal a little early so I could sample the corned beef brisket from USWM in time (hopefully) so you can make your own Irish feast possible. Boasting the classic “old-world” recipe using unique in-house, all-natural ingredients for the brine and using 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef with no MSG, nitrates, or dairy products. Each brisket is about 2 pounds and has become so popular that it is now available year-round.
Delicious All-Natural, Grass-fed Corned Beef
I am currently two weeks postpartum and doing a lot of resting at home. I was thrilled to sit and enjoy the nostalgic smells of my favorite childhood meal all day while I went back to the crockpot preparation method this year. I loved having this meal at this sacred time – providing me comfort to the max! At 7 hours of cooking time, I needed to feed my family, but I do think it could have used another hour for prime tenderness. But even so, it was still a great texture – not too stringy as some corned beef I’ve had in the past and I loved that the pickling spices come in a sachet instead of rubbed on the meat which can be a little overwhelming when I only eat these flavors once a year. This method crafted the perfect flavor and mouth feel. This was by far the cleanest-tasting corned beef I’ve ever had. It was just the right amount of everything – muscle-to-fat ratio, brined-in-flavor, and cooking spices. Best of all, I know my favorite meal of the year can be duplicated whenever I want with a quick doorstep delivery from the good folks at USWM. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Katy Brown, BSHN
Katy has a Human Food and Nutrition degree and almost 20 years of experience in various health and wellness roles. In 2020, she shifted her focus to prioritize family life. She follows a balanced, intuition-driven approach to food and enjoys investing in projects that promote health and explore ancient wisdom. As a homeschooling wife and mother of 3 (with one on the way at 42!), she spends her time on freelance writing and cultivating a simple life at her urban homestead in Des Moines, Iowa.
