Traditional New England Boiled Dinner

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I am from New England and also have Irish blood in my veins. My husband is half Irish. Needless to say, we go big on St. Patrick's Day and have a party with my husband's family each year which includes Irish Coffee (the only day of the year that I drink whiskey) and a traditional New England Boiled Dinner and plenty of Irish Soda bread. The boiled dinner recipe goes by a timetable rather than an ingredient list, but I will list the ingredients I'm cooking this year afterward. The soda bread is a recipe I found online and have been using for years. I've received SOOO many compliments on it that I won't use any other recipe ever again.

Traditional New England Boiled Dinner

Noon: Rinse 4lbs corned beef in water and place in the bottom of a large kettle (I use my lobster/canning pot). Cover well with cold water. Add 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. pickling spice and 2 bay leaves. Bring to boiling point and boil 5 minutes. Skim scum off top, turn down heat and simmer covered until tender.

2:30pm: Scrub fresh beets and add to kettle, leaving skin and a good 4 inches of stem on each beet to prevent bleeding...any cuts in the beets will result in bleeding...leave the long root piece on too!

3pm: Add peeled turnips, cut coarsely (I have parsnips instead)

4pm: Add peeled carrots and onions and a medium-large cabbage cut into quarters. Add water as necessary to keep water level up.

4:30pm: Add peeled, cut up potatoes.

5pm: All should be cooked by now. Peel beets and arrange dinner on one large platter. Serve with Irish Soda bread & plenty of butter.

Ingredient list for our boiled dinner:

3 bunches of beets (6 large)
1 lb. carrots
4-5 potatoes
4lbs corned beef, flat cut
1 lb. parsnips
med-lg. green cabbage
2-3 yellow onions
Pickling spice
Bay Leaves
Sugar

Irish Soda Bread

1/2 c. sugar
4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 c. raisins
1 Tbsp. caraway seeds
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 c. soured milk (I use lemon juice, not vinegar)
1 c. plain lowfat yogurt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9" round cake pan or cast iron skillet. In a mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients. In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients plus the raisins and caraway seeds. Add the two together until everything is combined. Dough will be VERY sticky & wet. Place dough in the prepared pan and bake for just over an hour or until it is golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.

**This dough has a habit of weeping over the sides of a shallow cake pan so it is best to use a sheet pan underneath if you are using one. It still will taste fabulous even if it weeps over and then you'll have some to nibble on before dinner!**