Irish Rosie's Irish Soda Bread...I Have a Kiss For U

Why should you never iron a 4-leaf clover? Because you wouldn't want to press your luck!! 

I'm not even a wee bit Irish, but Joe is 1/4, so we are happy to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by bringing out the green.  We were in Lake Placid and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the Irish "Annalee" dolls, dogs and mice.

I happened upon a recipe for Irish Rosie's Irish soda bread and gave it a try since I wanted a "lighter" bread. This is a good one (made with sour  cream).  I like soda bread right out of the oven and slathered with Kerrygold butter. 

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pint sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons caraway seeds ( optional but I always use them)
• 3/4 cup raisins

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl beat eggs and stir in sour cream.
3. Add the egg and sour cream mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.
4. Batter will be very thick.
5. Add the raisins and caraway seeds and stir well with wooden spoon or knead in with your hands.
6. Place batter in a greased 9 inch springform pan.
7. Dust the top with enough flour so that you can pat the batter like a bread dough evenly in the pan without it sticking to your hands.
8. With a knife make a shallow crisscross on the top.
9. Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 350ºF oven.

Did you know that in Great Britain, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland? The Irish Guards still wear a shamrock on this day, flown in from Ireland.

Close to my home, in the city of Syracuse, NY, Saint Patrick's celebrations are traditionally begun with the delivery of green beer to Coleman's Irish Pub on the first Sunday of March. Coleman's is located in the Tipperary Hill section of the city. Tipperary Hill is home to the World famous "Green-on-Top" Traffic Light and is historically the Irish section in Syracuse. Saint Patrick's Day is rung in at midnight with the painting of a Shamrock under the Green-Over-Red traffic light.

I gathered the few green items I have in my home and set up a seasonal table in the sunroom. 

These Hershey Kiss Shamrocks may just be one of the easiest crafts you'll ever do! I used a bag of Easter kisses which consisted of green, pink and blue. The candy is hot glued together and the stems are yarn (I used a green cord handle from a gift bag I had). Each bag of Easter kisses has enough to make six shamrocks.

I found the idea on Lynn's blog and she shares easy crafts for every holiday Happier Than A Pig In Mud.

Our St. Patrick's Day tradition is to make rye bread from the Artisan Bread in 5  cookbook, and invite friends over for Reubens. Even though we aren't Irish, it's all about the memories!

With this post, I am joining Cuisine Kathleen for her 8th annual Blog Crawl and Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

♣♣♣•.*.*.*.Debbie*.*.*.•♣♣♣

Lucky Shamrock Salad

I have some Irish friends in blogland that inspired me to add a wee bit of green for St. Patrick's Day to my blog. There is nothing on my St. Patrick's Day menu since we'll be getting together with our dinner group for a celebration.  

In the photo above, I came across these Annalee dolls in a store so I snapped their pictures. A young adult in the 1930's, Annalee created dolls, unaware this hobby would become her life's calling. Annalee transformed a chicken coop into a design room, and painted her smile onto dolls. She sold her dolls though craft outlets in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and then her hobby transformed itself into a business. Seventy-five years later, the business is still operating out of that chicken coop. How cool is that!

This non-Irish gal has made her share of corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread and Potato Soup over the years. This year I won't be cooking any Irish fare but I will be bringing my lucky shamrock salad to a dinner party. Spinach salad garnished with four leaf clovers.

To make the four leaf clovers, I use baby spinach leaves which are relatively flat. You can use any flat green such as basil, but be forewarned that it's a wee bit tricky getting them through the punch. My inspiration came from here.

I did a little Googling about St. Patrick's Day for you ;o) Did you know that in Great Britain, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland? The Irish Guards still wear a shamrock on this day, flown in from Ireland.

Did you know that Montreal's flag has a shamrock in one of it's corners? 

 You probably know that Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick's Day.

I brought out my green cabbage teapot for the occasion. It is teensy tiny, and belonged to my grandmother.

Close to my home, in the city of Syracuse, NY, Saint Patrick's celebrations are traditionally begun with the delivery of green beer to Coleman's Irish Pub on the first Sunday of March. Coleman's is located in the Tipperary Hill section of the city. Tipperary Hill is home to the World famous "Green-on-Top" Traffic Light and is historically the Irish section in Syracuse. Saint Patrick's Day is rung in at midnight with the painting of a Shamrock under the Green-Over-Red traffic light.

I am joining Cuisine Kathleen for her annual blog crawl.  Thanks for stopping by!
xo
Debbie

I'm not Irish but, Kiss Me Anyway

For all of you non-Irish folks out there, like myself, you might be able to relate to my electic St. Patrick's Day table and menu.  I'm hosting a St. Patrick's get together, so green is dominant and I shopped my home for some green glassware given to me by my mom. The green print table runner is a piece of Grandma Moses fabric gifted from a co-worker that is related to Grandma Moses. The fabric is from the original painting "At the Well".

No St. Patty's table would be complete without an Irish coffee mug. I found three Irish Coffee mugs in a second hand shop a few years ago. But instead of Irish coffee, we serve Leprechaun Irish coffee which is actually hot chocolate with a splash of mentholmint schnapps. It's delicious and tastes like a peppermint patty! If you drink too many, you skip the corned beef and start hugging the leprechauns! 

I did find some cute Irish fairies at the Dollar Store. Using clear square plates and window clings under the plate, they worked well for my table. Did you know that every Leprechaun has a hidden pot of gold?

Our electic St. Patty's menu:

Reubens - just like those served at the deli's in New York City
For those that like a kick to their reuben, I will add horseradish to the dressing.

Dill Pickle Potato Salad

Stir fried cabbage with carrots, onion and breakfast sausage

 And some sweets to end the meal. Our favorite vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. The delectable cupcakes have been featured in popular TV shows and movies such as Sex and the City, Saturday Night Live, Prime and The Devil Wears Prada.  But more importantly, they are our favorite.

Shamrock brownies with a layer of cappucino cream and ganache. 

I am joining Cuisine Kathleen for her third annual blog crawl, and she knows how to throw one heck of an Irish celebration. 

Since I'm not Irish, I did a little Googling.

Here we go....

Did you know that in Great Britain, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland? The Irish Guards still wear a shamrock on this day, flown in from Ireland.

You probably know that Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick's Day.

Close to my home, in the city of Syracuse, NY, Saint Patrick's celebrations are traditionally begun with the delivery of green beer to Coleman's Irish Pub on the first Sunday of March. Coleman's is located in the Tipperary Hill section of the city. Tipperary Hill is home to the World famous "Green-on-Top" Traffic Light and is historically the Irish section in Syracuse. Saint Patrick's Day is rung in at midnight with the painting of a Shamrock under the Green-Over-Red traffic light.

Did you know that Montreal's flag has a shamrock in one of it's corners? Good, you knew that.

Did you know that according to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock (a three leaved plant), to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people?

Before we go, I want to tell you about my green "Foliage" glass

XOCHI Napkin Rings   Originally $55, and I bought three sets of them at Tuesday Morning for $2.99 during their clearance sale. Not sure who would pay $55, but what a great deal.

I am linking to Tablescape Thursday with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. If you have time, check out all the beautiful tables!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you.

♣♣♣•.*.*.*.Debbie*.*.*.•♣♣♣

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. While I am not even a wee bit Irish myself, I always enjoy the festivity of St. Patrick's Day. And since a little birdie told me that my internet friend Kathleen was hosting a wonderful St. Patrick's Day dinner at her beautiful home in Long Island, I baked some Irish soda bread using her recipe. And I must confess, my favorite thing about St. Pat's, is the food. Specifically, the Guinness beef stew.



We celebrated Saint Patrick's Day with Guinness Beef Stew. I found the recipe at Elise.com and we really enjoyed it. Every other St. Pat's day, we have the stew. Next year it will be corned beef which I make using a 3 lb. flat cut. I cook it slow, and then I finish it in the oven after I rub it down with brown sugar and Dijon mustard.



Since DH has some Irish blood, I put together a little collage for him.



I wish I could have picked fresh flowers from my garden, but the supermarket had some nice ones for this celebration. We finished the evening with St. Patrick's Irish Mist brownies and Irish Coffee. I found these beautiful crystal mugs at the Village Basement.




I am so glad that my internet friend Barb shared the recipe for her St. Patrick Irish Mist Brownies. They are excellent, and will be on my St. Patty's table for many years to come. Thanks Barb! Check out Barb's wonderful blog. Foley's Follies

St. Patrick’s Irish Mist Brownies

Brownies ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs

Frosting ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar
1 (3 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
3 T butter, softened
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
5 drops green food color
2 drops yellow food color

Drizzle ingredients:

1 (1 oz.) square unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

Heat oven to 350ºF. Melt 1/2 cup butter and 2 squares chocolate in 2 qt. saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth (4 to 6 minutes).
Stir in all remaining brownie ingredients until well mixed. Spread into greased 8 in. square baking pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie just begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely.

Combine all frosting ingredients except chocolate in small bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Spread over cooled bars. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Cool completely; cut into bars. Cover; store refrigerated.

You will be in for a real treat when you check out Kathleen's Irish fare on her blog. She went all out.

click on this: Cuisine Kathleen

Irish Soda Bread....Kathleen

4 C flour
1 t salt
4 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3/4 C sugar
2 t caraway seed
1 C raisins
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 C buttermilk
1/4 stick of soft butter

Sift dry ingredients. Mix in the seeds and raisins. Add buttermilk and vanilla and mix.

Add beaten eggs and soft butter, mix

Put into 2 greased loaf pans, or 1 10 in round. Slit the top with a knife.

Bake at 350 about 30 to 35 for loaf pans, 50 for round.
Brush with butter or milk 10 min before removing from oven.
Check center to see if done, do no over bake..

Thanks for stopping by! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you.
Debbie