Soda Bread - Not Just for St. Patrick's Day!

Because I'm on a bread-making kick, I decided to try making soda bread this past weekend.

I found a lovely recipe, courtesy of a back-issue of Bon Appetit magazine online.

It was fairly easy to assemble, I had almost all of the ingredients in the house already, and the only change I made was to add a generous handful of golden raisins (because I hate caraway seeds) ... which was unnecessary.

Now, if you like your soda bread sweet and more like a scone than like sandwich bread, this recipe isn't for you.

However, if you simply want an excuse to eat lots of Irish butter on toasted brown bread, this is a good option.

I simply want an excuse to eat lots of Irish butter on toasted brown bread, so this recipe was perfect. Just don't add raisins; they don't enhance it.

However, I'm still in the market for a sweeter, more scone-like recipe, where raisins would be more welcome. 

Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day

Yep. It's that time of year again. The time of year an old buddy of mine used to call "amateur night." When young folks make excuses to drink themselves silly, bagel shops dye perfectly good bagels green, and bars dye (really cheap) beer the same shade. 

For Americans, this also means corned beef and cabbage.

For my husband, this means ... corned beef and some kind of potato, because he's not fond of cabbage.

A few years ago, we started cooking ours in the slow cooker. Water doesn't add any flavor, so we used ... beer.

Irish beer.

And pickle juice. (Really.)

This year's is simmered in Smithwick's with a dose of Claussen kosher dill pickle juice.

And I'm having mine with sauerkraut. And a nice, foamy, Guinness.

What could be more American?