Baking Irish Soda Bread with Harry

What do you do with a toddler when it's lashing rain and stormy outside? Bake up a storm!

I have been craving Irish soda bread from home recently and I still have to wait a while before I get back so I decided why not bake some with Harry today and share with you all a simple version of Irish Soda bread!

Here are the ingredients we used and the quantities of each are listed below the picture.

3 cups of whole grain whole wheat flower

1/3 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 cup of melted kerrygold butter

1 egg slightly beaten

2 cups of buttermilk

Steps:

1. First mix all the dry ingredients into one big bowl.

2. Crack the egg into a separate bowl, beat it slightly and then add the milk to that while the butter is melting in the microwave for 40 seconds.

3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well with wooden spoon. Ask a little one to help with this part! It's super fun for them!

4. Place mix into a bread tin and place into a preheated over at 330 degrees fahrenheit and bake for 60-75 mins until crispy and slightly brown on top!

5. Enjoy with some jam and a cup of Irish Tea!

Harry loved making it and also loved eating it! He has been eating it lightly toasted in the mornings with his hard boiled egg! 

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Shamrocks in the snow

There's still snow on the ground here in Chicago so we had a nice indoor morning. Started off the with a little potting of shamrocks with Harry. What better way to get to know his roots than with some simple gardening. He mostly tried to pull the shamrocks off the stems!

Doesn't he look like a little leprechaun with red hair here! So cute!

Jonny and I are doing a bit of work this morning but dedicating the afternoon to good quality family-time to remember our home country. It's hard being away from home on days like today so we might might even pop out to one of our fav restaurants/bars here in town called The Chicago Cut and grab an Irish Roast Beef Lunch for comfort! I thought it would be funny to carry Harry's water in this 'sippy cup' today! Haha!

Thanks Vee, Janelle and Axl! They know us well!

We have the babysitter booked for tonight and we are heading out for some drinks with friends. It would be unpatriotic not to, sure! Well, I lie, the babysitter actually booked herself as she knows us so well and presumed we would be heading out tonight! 

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day and don't forget to 'wet the shamrock' as they say, which simply means go have some drinks!

Here's a funny joke a friend sent to me this a.m that I will leave you all with...'An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep him from falling off the earth!'

Happy Paddy's Day! (Not Patty's) 

Alison xoxo