I am a lucky gal.  Among many other things, my husband is not only is a great cook; he also loves doing it.  So he handles a lot of the meals while I’ll do some easy ones or act as the great sous chef (or more like the warm body who is able to properly use a knife t help him :)).

In addition he makes his own sausage (breakfast and summer sausage) and smokes his own cheeses.  And I’m truly not being bias when I say they are all really delicious.  So when we were getting ready to start planning our annual St. Patrick’s Day party (which those of who know me have probably read about it on my blog over the last several years and it will probably show up this year as well) he decided he wanted to try and make his own corned beef.

This reason was two-fold..  Last year’s corned beef, which we got from the same place as usual, just wasn’t as good as it has been AND a buddy of his this past fall made his own corned beef and it was delicious so he wanted to try to make it himself.  Apparently when you make it it has to sit in the brine for at least 12 days so he made it about 14 days ago.  Enough time to taste test it before the party and still get some ready-made corned beef for the party if it was a flop.

The big tub of brining corned beef sat in our garage beer fridge for the last two weeks as he mixed them and turned them and did whatever he was supposed to do; commenting/worrying daily on how he was unsure of the color (shouldn’t it be redder by now) and how it would taste and maybe he should add more of this and/or more of that and maybe he should have done it in smaller batches, etc..  Each day I talked him in to just keeping it the same.  Worst case we toss it; which unfortunately was a lot of meat AND a lot of money considering we would have to buy more on top of it but I truly believed (95%) that it would be great.

Last night was the big night.  I was going to either spend the evening with a super proud, happy husband or a disappointed, internet searching “what could he have done wrong and what could he have done better” crabby husband.  Stakes were high for my evening!!!

He put it into the crock pot early in the morning and when we got home the house smelled like corned beef.  We were on the success track.  The door barely had time to shut by the time he had the knife out ready to cut into it…

AND… just as I thought…. is WAS delicious!  He was so happy and proud.. and I was proud too..  We enjoyed a mini pre-St. Patrick’s Day dinner!

Looking forward to next Saturday’s dinner and my husband being able to share his delicious corned beef.