I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Corned Beef & Cabbage. For one, there’s just no good shortcuts for it. Sure, you can make it all in the crock pot, but then you get mushy, fatty vegetables, which is just no fun. So this time my shortcut was simple: I made my husband start it for me, on his day off. This was my first attempt at a stovetop Corned Beef and Cabbage and it was phenomenal. What were my secrets?

1. Place a corned beef round roast (I prefer this to the flat) in a stock pot. I added the remains of one large carton of Kitchen Basics Beef Stock (my favorite—had some leftover from another meal) and enough water to cover the roast +2 inches, and two small peeled onions. I let this go about 3 hours, turning the roast every half hour or so.

2. About half an hour before the beef was done, I added the carrots to the stock.

3. And this is key: In a SEPARATE pan, I added 1 large sliced white onion, and 1/4 stick of butter. First I caramelized the onion a bit then added the cabbage. To steam the cabbage, I ladled in two large scoops of the beef broth and covered it all. The stock reduced to a lovely glaze, combining with the caramelized onions to make for a very sweet cabbage.

Everything was great, and I can’t wait to make this one again!

Tonight’s weekly Farscape night went the direction of many Farscape nights lately, filled mostly with eating and visiting until it was too late to get a proper episode in. But at least dinner was good! I love hosting dinner for friends, so when it’s our turn to host for Farscape it’s always a treat figuring out what to make. Since I had the leftover Zantho Zweigelt 2002 wine, and we picked up some great chicken breasts on super sale, I decided to make Chicken Cacciatore.

This recipe is deceptively easy, and the key is in the simmering time.  It made plenty for our group of five (including one who had seconds) and yielded four meals of leftovers! I bet the leftover sauce would freeze very well, too. Like many of my recipes, it’s sort of slapped together, but here’s what I do, in a nutshell:

INGREDIENTS (makes 6–9 servings):

• Chicken Breasts (about 3lb), cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup of flour, with some Italian herbs and pepper mixed in
• 1 very large or two small onions, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped baby carrots
• 6 sundried tomato halves, chopped
• 1 tbsp sundried tomato paste (regular would work too)
• 1 can/jar spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts Garlic & Herb, but remember not to add ANY salt if you use a canned sauce)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• Italian Herbs to taste
• 1-2 bay leaves

Heat about 3 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Dredge chicken breast chunks in flour/herb mixture and place in the pan to brown on all sides (about 10 minutes). Add onions, pepper, sundried tomatoes and carrots and cook until the onion is translucent.

Next add the sauce, tomatoes, wine, herbs and bay leaves. Let this simmer, loosely coverd and stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. Serve over spaghetti or, as I did, angel hair pasta.