Going Irish

I love celebrating holidays with food. I have tried to educate myself on the importance of food and traditions mixed in with culture and history of the holiday with my family. Maybe it's a little over the top for some, but for me it's good eating fun.

For the month of March I challenged myself to bake or cook something once a week celebrating Ireland. The first week was Irish soda bread, I made a few loaves and shared them with the guys in IT at WHRO and a loaf to my 106 class at TCC. My kids felt left out so over that weekend 12 loaves were made for kids to share with their friends and then I shared a few to some housebound neighbors. Of course that recipe was memorized and altered many times from the original one I discovered back in high school.

The second week was Irish potato oat bread. Brand new recipe. These babies were seriously one of the best bread recipe's I ever made. Mashed potatoes, oat, yeast, a little sugar and "WALLAH" pretty bread in the picture. (tasted good too with a little butter)

This week it's Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots with a secret special mustard sauce that only my very Irish godmother has shared the recipe with me. Of course this dinner is a staple dinner in my house at least once a month. Not much of a challenge there.

Next week, I am gonna make another attempt at the failed Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake. Might need some tester's on that. Can't rely on those kids of mine to give me a biased opinion.