Last minute ideas for St. Patrick’s Day

pull out all your sprinkles!

It’s almost Spring!!  Pull out some rainbows and bright green clover!  Here are a few last minute ideas to do today.  As I’m working on these photos, I’m listening to a dramatization of the life of St. Patrick here (link only good for this week! Or you can buy the 2 episodes about St. Patrick here, so worth it!)  Celebrating a man with a Heart Afire, a slave boy who changed an entire nation!

To do a bit of fun decorating/eating, I just pulled out some things I had around here, green jello, green tea, green towel, mixed up a batch of lemon buttermilk pound cake and tinted it green,  we’ll eat some “Irish” food, Irish soda bread and a few treats (chocolates!) while we listen to the story of St. Patrick.  Check out my other St. Paddy’s Day posts! 😉

make some green cake….

I found a 5 leaf clover pressed in my cookbook yesterday!!!! funny….

hang a green kitchen towel

a green box of Belgian chocolates, available at Costco right now.

FAIR TRADE chocolates! yay Costco.

whip up some green jello (jello fruit salad?)

pull out the green scrapbook paper (mostly from Christmas), punch a few hearts and make them into shamrocks…

brew some fruity minty flavored tea….

how about some green tea iced tea? (add a few drops of green food coloring!) I think I’ll go for the mint….

some green lemon/lime pound cake….using my new mini bundts!

gotta love that green cake batter!!

green mini bundt cake molds

green mini bundt cakes for St. Patrick’s Day, add a little rainbow and a chocolate coin!

quickly decorate the mini green bundt cake with some white candy melts, rainbow sprinkles and shamrock sprinkles (and a chocolate coin!)

I love to look at another sign of spring, the kids’ snow pea seedlings!

So, here’s wishing the top o’ the morning to ya!  I’ll leave you with an old Irish blessing:  “May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.  And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.”

Quick and easy bread: delicious Irish soda bread

This bread is easy enough and delicious enough to make and eat every day!!  I know you won’t, and I won’t even go there either, but really it’s a great recipe to have on hand to round out a hot meal.  It takes just minutes to throw together, about 45 minutes in the oven and a little rest while you are finishing the rest of the meal.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth water….homemade bread in all it’s lovely whiteness (more about that later)…

I made this recipe for Irish soda bread for our St. Patrick’s Day meal, fitting, eh? I found the recipe in my rusty trusty Fannie Farmer Baking Book (the one I was going to throw out when somehow it made it’s way into my house, but then I decided to use it to press flowers in, then finally when I actually started cooking and baking, realized that it contained some great recipes and instructions!  Now it’s my go-to for baking.  Funny how things work out….)  Here are the photos, then I’ll add the recipe.

It’s such a gorgeously rustic looking bread!  I love the texture, color and the big cross in the center.  Oh, and the smell while it bakes, and did I mention that it was easy?  And only takes 4 ingredients!  F.O.U.R.  Having said that, I didn’t actually have all of the ingredients on hand….

I had spent my time working on roasted cabbage and an “Irish” stew variation (made with what I had on hand: sausage, potatoes, onions and carrots…but I guess that that’s fairly authentic anyways).  So I go to bake up some Irish soda bread, like I did last year.  I measured out the dry ingredients and opened the fridge.  I knew that I didn’t have buttermilk, so I would just use milk and vinegar or lime juice….but no milk!!!  I dashed to the computer and typed in “substitutions for buttermilk” and found a great link here, so I found out that I could use yogurt as a substitute!  Yay, I had lots of greek yogurt!

Here’s a close-up of the texture (I was eating the leftover bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil as a snack…sooooo good!)  Remember, this was made with yogurt, and no extra fat!  A very white color and great taste, and it must have a lot of protein with 2 cups of greek yogurt!!  Now on to the recipe….

Irish Soda Bread

(an authentic recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham, 1984)

4 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups buttermilk (or 2 tbsp. vinegar in milk to make 2 cups OR 2 cups of plain greek yogurt)

Preheat your oven to 3750 F.  Grease a baking sheet or an 8-inch round pan…I used baking parchment on a cookie sheet.  Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl (flour, salt, baking soda) and mix them around.  Add buttermilk and stir it up with a fork until it holds together in a rough mass.  Since I was using thick yogurt, I actually had to add just a bit of water to the dough to make it mixable.  Knead the dough a few times (I did this right in the bowl) then pat into about an 8 inch round mound on the sheet (or in the round pan). Using a sharp knife, slash a large X into the top of the dough, about 1/4 of an inch deep.

Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until it is nicely browned and the X has spread open.  Transfer to a rack to cool for awhile, then wrap it in a slightly damp tea towel and let it rest, on the rack for about 8 hours.  This recipe makes one round loaf, and it should be completely cool when you serve it.  The rest time in a damp towel helps the crust to nicely soften up.  We didn’t wait 8 hours, obviously, or it wouldn’t be such a quick bread!!

If you can whip this up right before you prepare the meal, bake it, then let it sit in the damp towel while you make the rest of the meal, it should be ready to be served when the meal is ready.  Using the towel is a good way to store leftovers.  This bread also makes great toast!  I love it with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or just plain with butter.  This loaf was enough to go with 2 meals for the six of us!  So thankful for our blessings!

(now I am craving some yummy bread….!)

St. Paddy’s Day Green Mason Jar Desserts

A sweet little green dessert packed in serving-sized mason jars!  For half of the winter I’ve been looking forward to celebrating the green…the green of spring.  There is no green around here.  Amazingly, the snow has started melting a lot and we can see grass, it’s just not green yet.  Seriously, it’s been about 12 years since we’ve had nice weather to be outdoors for my daughter’s bday next week.  It has always been winter weather, usually snowing.  So bring on some shamrocks, rainbows and a whole huge pot of gold!  Spring is in the air!
Extra bonus for you: 5 minute shamrocks:  use a heart punch.  punch. glue together, or not.  There you go.Enough with the decorating, back to the desserts…

My Mom gave me a flat of little mason jars, I’ve had so much fun with them!  They are the perfect size for individual desserts.  So instead of making a big trifle with the pound cake I baked the other day, I made these jar desserts for each of us.  It wasn’t very difficult to fill the jars.  All you need is cake, whipped cream, jello and some fruit slices.  The other day I baked up a vanilla pound cake, the old fashioned kind, and tinted it green.  (any kind of cake should work).  I sliced the pound cake up then cut out circles with a cookie cutter.  Mix up some green gelatin/jelly jello, I used lime flavor.  Use a tiny bit less water than called for, and do the ice cube method to cool it off faster.  Add a few spoonfuls of jello to each jar, then let it set up (I stuck them into the freezer for a bit) while you are cutting the cake into circles and whipping the cream (or Cool Whip will work).  The rest of the jello went into the fridge to start setting up.

So, jello, a round of cake, a squeeze of whip cream.  Then slice up some kiwis and chop each slice in half.  Set them in the jars against the side (so you can see them!), then fill up the hollow with some jello when it is half-set, so it is still kind of blobby and pourable.  Then another layer of cake and some whipped cream.  Let them sit for as long as possible in the fridge (overnight is best. Especially if the cake was a little stale!)  When I open them up, I’ll add another slice of kiwi on top.  I love that these jars have lids, so easy to pop into the refrigerator.  They would be great to take on a picnic (if the weather was nice enough!), or even for the kids’ lunches (if I was nice enough!)My favorite Irish band has a new release today! yay! And here’s a great watch for today: