Corned Beef & Cabbage Dinner

While Corned Beef started out as a necessary way for Irish people to preserve meat through the winter and the Lenten fast to have an Easter feast, it has evolved into what Americans refer to as Corned Beef and Cabbage to celebrate Irish heritage in America. And you know the old saying: Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick's Day!

Suburban Kiwanis was founded in 1955. In 1960 the club meetings were held in the Saddle & Sirloin Restaurant in Montgomery Village (now Cattlemen's) when the first Corned Beef & Cabbage Dinner was served. Later, dinners were served at Vet's Memorial Building, Lombardi Cafeteria in the fair grounds, El Rancho Hotel (where Costco is today), Druids Hall, Odd Fellows Temple and recently back to Vet's Memorial Building. While the price has changed from $1.50 to $15 and the preparations revised, the dinner has always been the same.

How do we do it?

One thousand pounds of beef brisket, boiled to fork-tenderness, chilled and separated from the juices, trimmed by hand, sliced and stacked in shallow heating pans, immersed in the original juices, and heated for serving.

Four hundred fifty pounds of size B select Florida red potatoes scrubbed to cleanliness, immersed in cold water for 12 hours, boiled to tenderness, strained into flat pans, lightly drizzled with melted butter, sprinkled with parsley and served.

Four hundred fifty pounds of fresh cabbages, cleaned, wedge-sliced , boiled to perfection, and strained into chaffing pans for serving.

Three hundred pounds of fresh carrots, cleaned and cut to 1 1/2" lengths, soaked in water for 12 hours, boiled to tenderness, strained and served with butter and parsley.

Ninety loaves of rye bread, fifty pounds of butter, two gallons of Grey Poupon mustard, two gallons of fresh Beaver horseradish, spices, gallons of hot coffee, tea, and milk, one thousand ice cream cups and enough utensils, and napkins.

And, lots of fun!

The Seventh Annual Omelet Breakfast was held on Saturday, October 2, 2004. It was a bright sunny day with lots of smiles and happy faces. People were waiting when the doors opened at 7:30 and there was a trickle of customers right up to closing at 11:30. At the peak, about 9 AM, the waiting line was three times as long as the line of omelet-makers. No one complained, everyone was in a good mood, and we all met new people.

President Mike Lowe chaired the event with the participation our club, two Key Clubs and SRJC Circle K. Mike's planning, procurement, scheduling and assigning started a couple months ago and became apparent with the ticket distribution to club members in early September. Bob Philipp, the quiet hard worker, did all the ticket tasks from ordering, distribution, money collection and recording. Like an iceberg, Bob makes a very big job look easy and small.

After the tickets, the next appearance were the schedule sheets that circulated at weekly meetings. By the end of September, there were enough candidates for the jobs, at least enough for minimal coverage. Like all our projects, a small group of loyalists showed up to fill in any gaps in the tasks of the day.

At noon on Friday, Mike manned the kitchen at Vet's, clip board in hand, while deliveries were made from sites around the county. Milk, orange juice, muffins, eggs, condiments, aprons and towels, borrowed cookware, chafers, foil, plates, cups, and on and on.

Sometime, well before daylight on Saturday, members started setting up the tables, making coffee and preparing food. Supervision by Mike with libations by Scott made it the usual group-fun.

The highlight of the day, besides the omelets of course, was the line Key Clubbers making omelets. With the patient supervision of Grant Miller, a line of 10 omelet makers made nearly 400 omelets during the event. Some were there from beginning to end, others rotated to serving and clean up tasks.

Clean up at Vet's lasted a couple hours, delayed somewhat by failure of the hot water heater. About 1 PM cars and trucks were loaded for the reverse deliveries. We locked the doors on the Club storage shed by mid afternoon, with a big smile