Goldfarb came home from work tonight and said he had two St. Patrick’s Day things to go to after work Thursday.  This from the man who never goes out on St. Pat’s, which is fine with me.  Good thing I had already been cooking corned beef for dinner tonight!  {I was craving corned beef hash and poached eggs for Thursday’s breakfast – see, I sometimes have a plan to my madness.}   For the last several years I’ve been using a corned beef brisket from Seattle’s Market House.  Thought I would try something different today so picked up a two and half pound brisket from Painted Hills Natural Beef.  Loved it.  The brisket was brined so well that the wonderful spices stayed on throughout the cooking process, the scent of which filled the whole house with great aromas. The meat was relatively lean compared to most others you can find at the store and was so tender after two and a half hours.

Painted Hills, out of Wheeler County, Oregon, feeds their cows a grain-vegetarian diet which means the meat is completely free of nitrates.  Their fresh corned beef is a center cut of brisket and can be found now at Metropolitan Markets for $6.49 per pound.   To give the meat a little boost I add a bottle of Guinness Stout to the boiling water.  Also,  a cheesecloth pouch of more coriander seeds, allspice, dried chile pepper and fresh bay leaves.   This year I decided to roast the potatoes instead of boil them.  Small potatoes were cut in half or left whole, depending on their size, drizzled with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and the thyme leaves of three sprigs. Into the oven for 15 minutes at 400º and *poof* perfectly roasted potatoes with great flavor, a slight outer crunch and a yummy soft inside.   I’m so stuffed!  But even now, still really looking forward to homemade hash Thursday!