1. I'm not even going to try to recap today's sixteen basketball games as the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament got going today. I'll say that the game that made me happiest was injury-crippled Creighton's overtime win against San Diego State and the one that most astonished me, like every college basketball fan, was St. Peter's OT win against Kentucky.
I had a terrible day as a gambler (my Iowa and UConn Sports Book tickets are dead) and as a bracket filler outer.
No problem.
I'm into it for the enjoyment of the games, the excitement of the moment, no matter who is playing, no matter who wins or loses.
2. I didn't only watch basketball today! The other day, Debbie bought a small chunk of corned beef, some potatoes, and a cabbage and asked me to cook them for St. Patrick's Day.
After a trip to Yoke's and the liquor store, this afternoon I sliced an onion and crushed four cloves of garlic, put them in the bottom of a Dutch oven and laid our slab of corned beef on top of it. I then covered the meat with Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen beer and a little water. I brought the beer to a simmer on the stovetop, put the lid on, put the Dutch oven in the oven at 300 degrees, and started the three hour slow cooking process of braising the meat.
I turned the meat over after 90 minutes.
With an hour to go, I put Yukon potatoes in the braise, and 30 minutes later I added in wedges of cabbage.
As the timer wound down, I mixed brown sugar, whole grain Dijon mustard, smooth Dijon mustard, Jameson Irish whiskey, black pepper, and ground cloves together and made a glaze for the corned beef.
I removed the corned beef from the braise, dabbed it dry, scored the meat's fat cap, and applied the glaze to the top and sides of the meat.
I broiled the meat until the glaze bubbled.
I put more glaze on and broiled it again for a minute or two.
I glazed the corned beef one more time and broiled it again.
I put the potatoes and cabbage in a bowl.
Debbie sliced the meat.
Neither of us had ever eaten glazed corned beef before.
It was awesome. The Hefeweizen braise gave the cabbage and potatoes a unique and delicious clove and slight banana flavor. It worked. Everything fell into place with this somewhat experimental dinner and I'd love to try it again some time.
3. I enhanced my pleasure of watching today's basketball games by being connected by text messages to Terry and Lars, who were watching games in person at the Moda Center in Portland, exchanging a few quips with Terry's sister, Sharann Watson, co-commissioner of the bracket pool I'm in, and with Byrdman who was on top of all the action.
It was almost like we were in the Vizio room together, swapping insights and observations and making each other laugh.
*By the way, if you have become accustomed to reading about my Blissful Thursdays each week on this blog, I had domestic chores and cat care duties this evening that prompted me to decide to listen to Dan and Jeff on Friday morning. So, this week, I am delaying my bliss from Thursday evening to Friday morning!
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