Sunday Afternoon - Boiled Dinner

It's mid-March and soon it will be St. Patrick's Day when many Americans - Irish or not - will be eating corned beef and cabbage.

I'm not a great fan of corned beef, but I do like cabbage in a boiled dinner. Yesterday I picked up the ingredients to prepare this meal: carrots, celery, cabbage, and a small 1- 1/2 pound chunk of lean pre-cooked ham. I already had the potatoes.

So for my preparation method, I cut the ham in half and set it in a pot with 8 cups of chicken stock. I added chopped carrots, celery, wedges of cabbage, and 5 large peeled and quartered potatoes. I seasoned it all with pepper, whole allspice, a bay leaf, and a dash of red pepper flakes (definitely optional).

It's snowing (again!!) and we have no place to go today. So the boiled dinner is on a slow simmer on the stove - to be ready for dinner early this evening. The meat and vegetables will give a nice flavor to the broth.

Enough for leftovers this week AND some for the freezer for a future meal!