St. Patrick's Day

Bean brought home his leftover corned beef for meeeee!

St. Patty's Eve

I don't know why I love St. Patty's so; perhaps it's the idea of music and revelry enjoyed by even the stingiest of misers.....but -- it's nearly upon us!

I enjoyed a St. Patty's Eve cocktail of:

2 oz Irish cream

1 oz vanilla vodka

on ice. A wondrous companion for poking about the kitchen (if I do say).

Being in a festive mood, I made some Irish Cream cookies to bring into work.

Cream:

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c. Irish cream liquor

1 egg

Add:

2 c. flour

sprinkle salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

And let this refrigerate for at least two hours, while you run to the store and dye your hair and whatnot.

To wile away the time while this chilled, and to satisfy my forever longing, I made up this recipe:

IRISH SODA BREAD:

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp powder

1 sprinkle salt

1 sprinkle baking powder

1/3 c. buttermilk (1/3 c. + dash lemon juice or vinegar)

Spoonful melted butter

1/4 c. raisins?

I know that I did not follow the recipe precisely; and so it is that I do not know if I will enjoy the concoction I conjured up for tomorrow's meal...will it be as I remembered? Will it give me a sense of good will and home?

Nevertheless, here is lunch for tomorrow:

The frosting for the cookies is as follows:

- mound confectioner's sugar

- dash Irish cream

- dash milk

and then add one or the other until it's a frosting consistency. I regret my lack of ability to be more specific, but you see.....you have to play baking by ear. It's the only way to do it!

IRISH CREAM COOKIES

For St. Paddy's day, me Mum always used to make corned beef and cabbage and we'd all sit around the table as a jolly quarter-Irish family; eating, back-talking, dancing vigorously to homespun jigs, and somehow making it through the day with our feelings for each other intact.

Now, however, I'm at school, so I had to do what I could. And that involved making these liquor-filled cookies and drinking enough sprite & vodkas to feel a bit floaty.

I mixed up the dough the night before, because it was supposed to chill for hours and hours.

1. Cream:

1 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. sugar

2. Then add:

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg yolk + 1 egg

1/2 c. Irish liquor

3. When mixed, add:

4 c. flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

I used an approximately half-and-half mixture of brown and white sugar, because I realized too late that Bean and I have done so much baking at Dear Jeremy's house that we've completely depleted their supplies. I like cooking over here because there are always people (Jesse) around to eat what we make; the thing I like about baking is the baking, and not always the consuming. Hannah, though, is seemingly on some sort of (unnecessary?) diet, which makes me slightly sorry.

So!

I baked the first batch (~8 minutes at 350 degrees, on a wax-paper-lined sheet) and decided that they weren't sweet enough to please the general populous. For the next batch, I melted some of the leftover frosting from the confetti cake we made a few days ago, and mixed it into the dough.

These cookies taste like a variation of shortbread, and I like them a lot because they're far from sickeningly sweet.

Irish Soda Bread

This vacation is a lot of driving, and driving is a lot of tiring, and tiring means I feel like baking for people. And March means St. Patrick's Day. And I think you know what that means! I got this recipe from allrecipes.com

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup raisins

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

I used golden raisins because Mother Dearest was out of the regular kind. This was very simple to make; I just threw in all the ingredients and mixed them together idly, and then kneaded it a few times and plopped it on a pan and into the oven.

Then Mother and I spent the rest of the night drinking wine, snacking on this, and playing Rummykub. A perfect relaxation scenario, dum dum dum.