We decided to make dinner for Monday night ahead of time (the brisket has to cook for 8 hours in a slow cooker, and then its better if it sits, so we didn’t want to try to start it Monday morning). So we started making the brisket Sunday and then finished it Monday night.  I (Max) did most of the work on the brisket because Alex was sick but then she helped out with potatoes and salad on Monday.

Brisket:

The ingredients for the brisket are pretty straight forward: beef brisket, barbecue sauce, and the spice rub: cumin, paprikca, onion powder, garlic powder and salt and pepper

You mix the spices together and then you rub it into the brisket.

Then you add barbecue sauce (you can make your own or use your favorite store bought brand…we used store bought) and let it cook for at least 8 hours on low.

Once the meat is falling apart, you remove the meat and shred it  with two forks.  Then you drain or skim the extra fat from the liquid and add the shredded meat back to the pot. (At this point we put the brisket in the fridge overnight). Then we reheated it on Monday and served it with soft rolls, and of course the mashed potatoes and salad.

Potatoes

I (Alex) am not sure we need to tell you how to make mashed potatoes but here’s what we do:  we peel Yukon Gold potatoes if available (if not Russet is ok), then we cut them into same size pieces and boil till fork tender.  We remove, add cream, butter and salt and paper and mash…pretty simple.

Salad

For the salad I pretty much took everything potentially salad-like in the fridge and put it in a bowl: that included arugula, tomatoes, avocado, goat cheese, and roasted mushrooms.  It was a good combination.

^{Tonight for dinner we felt like burgers and corn on the cob, but we forgot to buy corn so we just had a big salad. Plus Alex felt like baking so she made fresh bread, and even better, cinnamon rolls (that were supposed to be for breakfast, but ended up being dessert!).  Max was mainly in charge of dinner since Alex did the bread and cinnamon rolls (sorry for the lack of pictures: we were too busy cooking). However, Alex is always in charge of mushrooms so she sauteed them.}

Dinner:

Burgers: First step wash hands, second step: shape in circles and push down a little in the center.  Next up: slice and sautee mushrooms (for topping the burgers). Burgers were served with mozarella cheese, mushrooms and of course, ketchup.

Now time for the salad: we decided to make one of my favorites: butter lettuce with goat cheese, walnuts and cranberries.  We also roasted some cauliflower (because mom always wants that)

Bread course

I (Alex) started this in the afternoon because it was a little rainy so felt like a good day to bake.  The recipe I made usually makes 2 loaves of bread but instead of making a second loaf, I decided to make cinnamon rolls.

To do that, after you have left the bread rise twice and split it into two pieces (one of which becomes a loaf of bread), you roll out the other piece and 1) spread with butter; 2) spread with cinnamon sugar; and 3) roll up and slice into rolls. Then you bake those.  Here is the bread rising; the final loaf of bread, rolls rising and the final YUMMY batch of cinnamon rolls.