A Socially Distant Happy St. Patrick's Day to Ya!

So, Omar and I were supposed to have a very small St. Patrick's Day lunch gathering today, but Corona Virus put a stop to that! Everyone was too scared to come over to eat some homemade corned beef and cabbage, seafood cheddar chowder, tossed salad, and bread. Yeah...I made all of it anyway because I had gotten the ingredients and why the heck not? I didn't pour any Guiness or whiskey yet. Maybe later. Maybe not. The whiskey I have right now is Japanese not Irish anyway. Right now I'm enjoying listening to the Pogues. Very joyful music, ya know? I know. I know. I cooked beef today. Omar can eat it. He's going to have to eat it. I had one bite (because I made it and needed to taste it for seasoning) and it was delicious...and I'm already feeling a bit ill for having done it. That's what eating beef or chicken does to me. It upsets my stomach, gives me a headache with brain fog and joint pain. My body doesn't like it if I eat too much seafood either. If I eat it more than two days in a row it makes me as sick as if I eat beef. Ah well...it was all tasty and Omar enjoyed it as well. Brody was a pretty lucky dog too. He was in the right place at the right time and got to eat the skin from the smoked salmon that went in the soup. I made the corned beef in the Instant Pot. I'll do that again next time I make this for Omar or guests but instead of putting the veggies in the pot with the beef, I'll make colcannon and keep the meat seperate. The cabbage almost disappeared in all the juices. I had never actually made corned beef before. Not bad for a first try. The seafood cheddar chowder is something I've been making for years. I found out recently that it's an Irish recipe. That's why I made that. There were a couple things I did different this time that were nice changes. I used smoked fish instead of grilled or canned. It almost had a bacon like hint because of it and the fish had a nice texture. The other thing I happened to have on hand was three cups of crab stock I had left over from a while back that I had popped in the freezer. It added a nice layer of flavor complexity to the Irish cheddar, fresh rosemary, and smoked fishes. I didn't end up making the soda bread. I just made the recipe I usually make when I bake bread to go ont he table with a meal. It's not any particularly fancy loaf. It's just my recipe, and I don't even know how much of anything is in it because I make it by feel, not measurment. The only thing I know for sure is there is one package of active yeast. Now I'm going to lie down for a bit and work on digesting that bite of beef and hopefully get back to work on the current painting underway. It's quite interesting to me but I don't want to talk about it until the series is complete. In the mean time...here are some picks of the Irish-ish feast I prepared today.