It is your lucky day! Here are delicious recipes with an Irish flare! ☘️
3/15/2025
3/11/2025
Irish Soda Bread Muffins
As much as I love a slice of my Brown Soda Bread to accompany a soup, like Quick Beef and Barley, or a hearty stew, I think I might love these muffins more. They are quick, easy, portable, and delightful.
Like traditional soda bread, these muffins are made with buttermilk or sour cream and baking soda. The chemical reaction between the soda and acid is the leavening agent, so yeast is not required, making these ever so easy to whip up. Freshly baked muffins in about 30 minutes? Sign me up! Currants are also on the traditional list, but they can be substituted for cranberries, chocolate chips, or other dried fruits. Just don't ask me about raisins. Raisins are an inherent dislike in my family. Caraway seeds are also a common ingredient. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't. It depends on when and what I serve them with. A slice of good Irish cheddar pairs nicely with the muffins when caraway seeds are added.
Non-traditionally, these muffins are made with white all-purpose flour instead of a combo of whole wheat and white flour. They are also sweeter than soda bread, which makes them perfect for breakfast, brunch, snack, or anytime of the day.
Only two bowls are needed to make the batter. One for the wet and one for the dry. When folding the wet ingredients into the batter, work quickly and gently. Overworked batter results in tough muffins. The batter will be thick, almost like a biscuit dough, and will mound in the paper muffin liners. Sprinkle a bit more sugar on top and bake until golden. Serve warm, while the tops are crunchy and the middle is tender, with butter, jam, or as I already said, a slice of good cheddar.
These muffins are best enjoyed the day they are made, but they can be frozen for up to three months. It's always nice to have a little baked good in the freezer when a craving strikes!
3/09/2025
Sunday Dinner
Brown Sugar Candied Bacon
Crab Cakes with Sweet Red Pepper Curry Sauce
Green Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette
Peach Cobbler Ice Cream
The most important thing to note is to use thick-cut bacon. Regular or thin-cut slices will burn to a crisp. Extra thick-cut bacon will turn out like beef jerky and will not crisp. I like to use a full-size sheet pan lined with foil. A full-size pan will be large enough to cook all of the bacon, and the foil will make for super-easy cleanup. When baked on the rack, the bacon does not need to be turned because the heat is hitting both sides of the bacon. I use a low temperature of 325° F so the bacon does not curl when baking and the fat renders evenly. The baking time will vary slightly because not all thick-cut bacon is exactly the same thickness. Once the bacon is richly caramelized, transfer it to a sheet of parchment paper, and it will crisp as it cools.
We are enjoying candied bacon tonight as a simple pre-dinner snack, but there are so many other ways to enjoy it. It is a no-brainer for breakfast or brunch, but think outside the box and sprinkle it on salads, pile it on sandwiches, garnish deviled eggs, add it to a cheese ball, or jazz up some guacamole! I have even been known to put candied bacon on cupcakes (that's another story). The possibilities of bacon enhancement to a recipe or dish are endless. Ask yourself- what would bacon do? Happy Sunday!
Equipment needed:
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