Corned beef brisket has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a kid.  Nearly every birthday, I requested corned beef as my celebratory meal.  No one can make it better than my parents.  As my dad carved the pointed cut on the cutting board, I’d hover, snagging succulent slices and gobbling them up, and my Dad growling at me to stop.

I’ve tried boiling corn beef through the years and never could get the brisket to be tender enough or as flavorful as my mom’s recipe, until I found this very low maintenance recipe online:

http://www.food.com/recipe/corned-beef-in-beer-crock-pot-70522

I don’t spend a lot of time researching recipes, however, I recently pulled out the crock pot I received as a bridal shower present ten years ago. I don’t know why I shelved the crock pot for so long.  I think I always equated crock pots to church potlucks and bazaars that I don’t frequent.  I also like my meat separate from my vegetables, no co-mingling allowed when it comes to my protein.  But there are some tasty and super simple crock pot meals that allow you to cook the veggies and meat together, but then the diner can separate the food post co-mingling.

Aside from cutting a couple of onions and a few potatoes, this is a throw in the pot, add a can of beer and revisit nine hours later.  That’s my kind of cooking.

The first time I made this dish it was very salty and my mom reminded me to soak the corn beef overnight so the cured meat can ooze out some of the salt.  This time around I soaked the meat, and the final taste was perfection.

The potatoes, carrots and onions make for a delicious, hearty, earthy stew and a nice compliment to the corned beef.  The recipe calls for cabbage which I am not a fan of, so I can’t say how the cabbage changes the recipe.