Happy St. Patty's Day!

So sorry for the lapse in between posts.  Have been going thru a house full of sick people for the last few weeks, but I think we are finally over everything (I hope, I hope) and back on track to healthy!!

So being St. Patrick's Day, and with us all wearing official green (mine bearing the name of a famous Irish beer!!!) and since we will be having traditional corned beef and potatoes tonite (no cabbage...I love it but no one else does except Belle, and since my mom is making dinner, we will defer to her) I decided to make Irish soda bread to go with dinner.  Pretty simple recipe, kind of like mixing up a quick bread, but pretty tasty and goes great for breakfast for the rest of the week.

So, you will need:

4 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons cold butter

1 1/2 cups raisins

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

And here's what ya' do:

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins and caraway seeds. In another bowl, mix the milk and eggs and then stir into crumb mixture just until flour is moistened (add more milk if needed, or more flour if the mix is too wet...it should be a little sticky, but not too bad). Turn onto a floured surface and knead a few times just til it all comes holds together and then shape into a ball.

And here's what it looks like:

Goes great with traditional St. Patty's day dinner (including a large pint of green beer), and I love it warmed up for breakfast for the rest of the week (the bread, not the beer-lol!!)

Plop the dough ball into a greased 9-in. round baking pan (I used a pie pan) and cut an X in the center of the dough.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about an1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil during the last 20 minutes if top browns too quickly. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack to cool completely.