A word of warning regarding contamination...

[Sidewinder]

Yo, U.S. site members! There's an outbreak of bacterial contamination in Texas and other states, and that includes corned beef for Irish Stew! I had to abort my Irish Stew in the slow cooker, once the elusive whiff of taint got worse! If you're gonna make Irish Stew (Corned Beef & Cabbage) this year, be sure to carefully check the beef, otherwise you may get sick. Some funky bacteria is supposedly the culprit... I managed to get a refund on the tainted meat, but I was SOL on the $10 worth of vegetables... meh, better to lose $10 than get sick and possibly DIE from funky bacterial contamination. I already wrote off corned beef, St. Patrick is getting 'Chili con Carne' this year, lol... here's the chili as the batch was simmering in the slow cooker! I like big chunks of veggies in my chili, hence the celery heart chunks, onion, tomato, jalapeno, etc.