Irish Soda Bread.

Irish Soda Bread

I'm a slacker.  I meant to post this on St. Patrick's day, but....well, apparently I took a break for a week from ze blog.

So in no way do I claim this to be traditional Irish Soda Bread (Do they even really make Soda Bread in Ireland?), but many years ago, I wanted to make something slightly St. Patty's Day-themed, and so I browsed the intertubes and found a recipe on some site about fun Irish traditions to celebrate with the family.

I've never tried a different recipe, because this one hits the spot for me.  And I think it's pretty darn tasty!  It's been a while since I made it, but I managed to find the old recipe scrawled on an envelope and tucked into the cover of another cookbook.  Good thing, otherwise I would have been doing my Irish great-grandparents a big disservice by not remembering my roots on the 17th.

This is an easy bread, and is really good for breakfast.  You can leave the raisins out completely if you're not a fan, or replace with something else.  I've used dried cranberries often, and sometimes add a little orange zest in with them.  Or make an orange-zesty cream cheese spread to go with it.  Yummy.

• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 T butter, cold
• 1 cup Raisins (Golden, Regular, or any type of Dried Fruit)
• 1 1/2 cups Yogurt or Buttermilk

1. Mix your dry ingredients
2. Cut in your butter (it should be about pea-sized)
3. Stir in your raisins and yogurt
4. Take off any rings you might be wearing and get ready to have really messy hands
5. Knead for about 1 minute
6. Shape it into a large disk - about 8-10 inches across  (And if you like that baked-on flour look, pat a thin coat of flour on the outside of the dough at this point)
7. Cut an X in the top of the dough (about 1/2" - 1" deep)
8. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 45-50 minutes at 350

Frittata.

Frittata with Sausage, Spinach, Mushrooms, Cheese

• Ground Sausage, about 1/2 lb
• Fresh Spinach, a handful...or whatever looks good to you
• Onion, chopped, about 1/4 medium-sized onion
• Mushrooms, sliced, about 1/4 lb
• Parmesan and Cheddar cheeses, grated (I didn't measure...just make it as cheesy as you want!)
• Eggs, I used 6
• Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat the Broiler and move the oven rack up closer to it - about 4-6" from broiler
2. Brown the sausage in an oven-safe skillet
3. Add the onion, mushrooms, continue to cook until onions translucent
4. Add the spinach just until a little wilty
5. Beat Eggs together in a bowl, add salt, pepper, grated cheeses
6. Fold eggs into sausage and vegetables in skillet, cook just until bottom is set
7. Move skillet to oven and broil until eggs are set and beginning to brown
8. Slice and Eat.  Yum!

Frittata in Skillet

Blueberry Pancakes.

Blueberry Pancakes

I had a little 1/2 pint of fresh blueberries in my fridge just begging to be made into pancakes this morning.  I was determined to make them from scratch, but before pulling out my copy of "Joy of Cooking," I perused a couple of my favorite food blogs to see what they said about pancakes.  I was about to use the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (which was a Martha Stewart one), but when I glanced at the comments on the post, I was intrigued by someone's mention of a pancake recipe that used cornmeal.  I decided to go for it and we were not disappointed.  

So good!  Great texture, not too sweet, fluffy...yum.   I served them with a dollop of plain yogurt and maple syrup.

Also, I halved the recipe and got about 12 or 14 pancakes (4").

Cranberry Cornmeal Pancakes  (Or Blueberry!)

Sprinkle the Blueberries on the Batter

Time to Flip!