Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day

I'm no fan of green cupcakes or green beer.  And the only green eggs I like are the Dr. Seuss kind - in a book. I prefer my corned beef without cabbage and though I love the tin that McCann's oatmeal comes in, actually I don't love the cereal.  

All this has no impact on how much I love St Patrick’s Day.  The holiday is sacred around our house; the Irish half of the family roots are proudly displayed and touted.  I’m doing my part - by baking soda bread from a family recipe.  I might even hoist a bottle of Harp or more than one), though not while I'm measuring the ingredients for a batch of Sister Mary's Soda Bread.  

Cousin Pat must have gotten an A in penmanship (as we used to call it), as you can see.  Do they still teach cursive script in elementary school?  They should, so people can pass down special recipes like this one on lovely cards instead of emails.

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My Slow Cooker Initiation

If you ever have problems motivating yourself to cook – read this.  If you ever start a project (culinary or not) and hit a snag, then wonder if you can ever successfully complete it– read this.  If you are perfect, always motivated to finish what you start, and never hit roadblocks or obstacles of any kind – don’t bother to read this and immediately tweet me all your secrets.  

I was intrigued by the concept of slow cookers and bought one, but then hit a motivational brick wall.  The slow cooker sat in my basement, unopened, for weeks.  I read dozens of slow cooker recipes that arrived at my electronic doorstep, did endless Google searches for them, and even poured over several in “hardcopy” newspapers we still get delivered.  But I never got farther than daydreaming about moving the box upstairs to the kitchen.

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