St. Patrick's Day 2014

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some special activities. The main one was making Irish soda bread, using this recipe taken from The Anchoress.

• 4 c sifted flour

• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 c sugar

• 1 c raisins (or cranberries for a nice change. Or both!)

• 2 tblspns melted butter

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 
2 cups buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients. Mix butter, eggs and buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients. Use a 2 qt pan (like a pyrex) because it works the best. Bake at 350 degrees for 1.25 hours.

We didn't have buttermilk, so we used the old trick of adding a teaspoon of lemon juice per cup of regular milk and letting it sour for five minutes while L measured out the dry ingredients.

L measures out flour

Meanwhile, J read (out loud) his excellent The Puzzles of St. Patrick while we worked.

J reading

We used two metal pie pans lined with parchment paper for cooking the bread. We divided the dough in half and had one with raisins and one without (at L's request because "raisins are boys' food").

Unbaked goodness

L, culinary discernment expert

After a while in the oven, the bread turned out quite well. It was very tasty and enjoyed by all. All, that is, except for L. She didn't like it, even without raisins. Her objection was, "It doesn't taste like soda!" She was expecting more sweetness and fruit flavor. Too bad she didn't try the one with raisins!

Finished product

We parents had Guinness beef stew and the children had spinach pasta since it was nice and green. It was a lovely meal and a nice way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.