Celebrating Irish Heritage

My Protestant Scots-Irish great-grandma is probably rolling in her grave to know that I celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but I do. I usually wear both orange and green, to honor both of the Christian heritages of the country, but I figure I am part Irish, so I might as well celebrate. Some of my pagan friends wonder why I would celebrate a saint reknowned for ridding Ireland of paganism. I'm not celebrating him or that, though. The celebration this year started the Tuesday before, when I took soda bread to class to share.

Irish Soda Bread

3 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. caraway seeds (honestly, I forgot to add these after going to the store just for them and the bread was still very good...but I like the flavor when I remember to add them!)
1 c. raisins
1 c. buttermilk
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda & salt. Add butter & mix with hands until the texture is like cornmeal. Add caraway & raisins. Whisk buttermilk with egg. Fold into dough. On a floured surface, turn dough over on itself 9 or 10 times. Shape into round. Cut cross in top and bake 15 min. on parchment-covered baking sheet. Reduce heat to 350 degrees & bake 15-20 min. Bread is done when it is nicely browned and a toothpick put in the center comes out clean. This is at the height of its deliciousness when still nice and warm, slathered with butter, but is very good cooled, too.

The rest of the St. Paddy's celebrations involved my wife's cooking...when I got home from my weekend class Saturday night, she had corned beef & cabbage waiting. Yum! I usually make a Guinness lamb stew, but the corned beef was a nice switch from that.