Soda Bread Success

This year I couldn't go home for St. Patrick's Day and I was really bummed about it.  I know a lot of you not from Emmetsburg will say "Just go to the parade in town.  It's the same thing."  No, it's not.  I don't mean to be rude but it's really not.  Emmetsburg's population quadruples during St. Pat's weekend.  We have beauty pageants  for all ages of girls from kindergarten to high school.  There's a 5K called 'Round the Loch Run.  There's every single person I've ever met in town.  There's a parade filled with people I know who will smile and wave at you.  We're the sister city of Dublin and host an Irish dignitary who is usually a member of the Irish Parliament.  This dignitary visits the schools and talks about the Irish culture.  There are a bunch of other events during the week that I can't remember.  Now, do you still think a parade in some other town is the same?  To make myself feel a little better about not being home for St. Pat's, I decked us all out in green, painted my toenails green and made soda bread.  And the soda bread actually turned out this time!  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you'll remember this post where I talked about my first attempts at making soda bread and what a flop they were.  In the same post, I also talked about soda cookies.  This year I decided to try soda bread again and this year, it actually turned out!  My aunt and Godmother had emailed me a recipe for soda bread over a year ago.  I flagged it in my inbox and would think almost every day "I should make that."  I decided that St. Patrick's Day when I'm missing my family, my friends and my home was the best time to make it.  Here's the recipe:

Irish Soda Bread

 By Patrick Rooney

4 cups flour

¼ cups sugar (original recipe 2 TBS. sugar)

 1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

 1 heaping cup of raisins

 1 ¾ cup low fat buttermilk

 ¼ cup cooking oil (original recipe 2 TBS. butter)

 Butter

1 egg

Combine flour, sugar, soda, salt, and raisins in mixing bowl; stir well.

In another mixing bowl add buttermilk, egg, and cooking oil; stir well.

Make well in center of the dry ingredients.

Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients; stir until thoroughly blended.

Turn out onto a floured surface; knead 5 to 8 times.

Form ball; place on lightly greased cookie sheet.

Pat to 8-inch circle, approximately 1 ½ inches thick.

With floured knife make large cross on top of loaf to keep it from cracking during baking.

Spread top of loaf with softened butter.

Bake in preheated 375 oven 40 to 45 minutes, until golden and loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

After removing from oven, spread top of loaf with softened butter again.

 Serve bread hot with plenty of butter. YUM!

 Makes one 8 inch loaf, or 2 smaller loaves

Sounds yummy, right?  It is!  Anyone with an Irish name like Patrick Rooney has to have great Irish recipes. Of course, I made a few modifications while making the recipe.  I only had golden raisins so I used those instead of regular raisins.  I don't know what the difference between the two raisins is anyway.  I didn't have buttermilk so I made my own by using 1 1/2 cups milk and adding 1/4 cup vinegar to it.  The bread turned out beautifully and we had it with our supper.  Steve and Nathan ate about half of it during supper while I fed Katherine.  (Steve did bring me a piece while I was feeding her.)  I was so pleased with how it turned out.  

I also found a shamrock cookie cutter Monday that I bought awhile ago.  I decided next year I would make the bread and the soda cookies.  I think shamrock-shaped soda cookies would be so cute and a perfect St. Pat's tradition.

Special note: I'm changing up my blog.  From now on, I will be writing about whatever topic interests me at the moment not just food.  There are so many things I want to write about and my decreased time in the kitchen are calling for a change in my blog.  For now, the blog will still be called "For the Love of Food" until I think of a better title (if I ever do).  I hope you'll continue to read!

Cooking with Katherine

                    You may recall that I went to a Guy Fieri show a few years ago with a friend.  Guy reminded everyone in the audience to cook with their kids.  I took his advice to heart and have already started cooking with Katherine and teaching her some basic kitchen knowledge.  Last Tuesday I was actually able to make supper before Steve got home.  Katherine sat in her bouncy seat on the kitchen floor just watching me cook and listening to the little lessons.  I made a sort-of goulash.  I browned some hamburger and added spaghetti sauce, garlic and pasta to it.  I rounded out the meal with cottage cheese, peaches and a salad.  Here are the lessons I taught Katherine:

1. Always wash your hands after handling raw meat.
2. You have to stir pasta as it cooks to prevent it from sticking together.
3. It's OK to use sauce out of a jar and add your own seasonings to it.
4. It's also OK to buy the minced garlic in a jar instead of buying a clove and mincing it yourself.
5. When carrying a pot of boiling water to the sink, carry it over the counter and away from others in the room.
6. Always pour boiling water into the strainer away from you so you don't accidentally get burned.
7. After browning meat, drain it to get rid of the excess grease.

I do sincerely hope that she will grow up loving to cook as much as Steve and I do.  I also know that the first step for that is to cook with her and teach her as she grows up.  That's what my mom did with me.  I don't even remember learning a lot about cooking.  I just grew up watching and somehow it was etched into my brain.

The Liebster Award

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award!  This award is for bloggers who have less than 200 followers but should have more. 

Here are the Rules:

- Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.

- They must also answer the 11 questions the tagger has set for them.

- They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.

- They must then choose 11 bloggers to tag with less than 200 followers.

- These lucky bloggers must be told.

- There are NO TAG BACKS.

11 Things About Me

1. I'm a farm girl.  My heart will always be in the country no matter how many years I live in town.

2. I have a daughter named after my paternal grandma and my mom.

3. I miss my dad's side of the family and wish I could see all of them more.

4. I have the best husband in the world.

5. I repeated first grade because I couldn't read.  My mom taught me to read and by 2nd grade, I was one of the best readers in my class.

6. Purple is my favorite color and is in every room of my house as either the accent color or the main color.

7. I have 3 siblings and am the second oldest or the baby of the first set depending on how you want to look at it.

8. I love music and wish that I could play the guitar and have more confidence in my singing voice.

9. I have a BA in Spanish and lived in Spain for a year to become fluent.

10. I know how to knit.

11. I like to write but don't do enough of it.

11 Questions from Nancy:

1. Chocolate or vanilla? Both.  I like chocolate cake but prefer vanilla ice cream that I can top with whatever I like.

2. Do you have a hobby? What is it? Baking, knitting, reading, writing (I sound like a 90 year old woman.)

3. Who is your favorite author?  There are too many to choose from!  A few of my favorites are Mary Higgins Clark and Anna Quindlen.

4. What is your favorite type of book; romance, mystery, historical...?  Again too many to just pick one!  I like mysteries among others but am not a fan of romance novels.

5. What is the most important trait you look for in a friend? Honesty.  I have to be able to trust what they tell me.

6. What is your favorite scent?  Harvest!

7. Are you a homebody or a traveler?  Both.  I like to travel but need time at home as well.

8. Do you believe in miracles? Absolutely

9. Who is your favorite musician and why? Yikes!  I can't pick one.  I know a lot of talented musicians but my cousin Diane comes to mind first.  As far as mainstream musicians, I've always loved Aerosmith's music.

10. What is your favorite piece of clothing and why? I'm not sure I have a specific favorite piece of clothing... which is a little sad.  I like stylish comfy clothes.

11. What is your favorite thing to do on a day off? Snuggle with Katherine.  Look at recipes online and in magazines and make a menu... think about food in general.

I'm deviating from the rules.  Most of the blogs that I follow have already been nominated so I'm just going to post blogs I think you should take a look at.

My Life as Supermom 

A blog by my 2nd mom.  It's a hilarious and touching look at her life.

Darcy Therese 

A blog by my little sister.  She's hysterical.

Northern Hills 

A blog by a coworker who has moved to South Dakota.  She's originally from Brazil and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English.

The Diva's Divine Days 

My cousin's blog.  She's a professional singer in Europe.

Home for the Holidays; Food Edition

               The holidays are here... almost.  I know many of you are probably thinking "But Theresa, Thanksgiving is still a month away."  And while that is true, there is another holiday just right around the corner: Dia de los Muertos or for my non-Spanish speaking readers Day of the Dead.  Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday to honor family members who have passed away.  Altars are made honoring the loved ones and a special bread is prepared.  I learned about this holiday in high school while studying Spanish.  There is more to this special holiday but it's been a long time since high school and I can't remember all of the details.  Of course, I remember the part about the food.  I want to celebrate other cultures' holidays and learn to make the traditional foods.  I think it would be a great way to teach our kids about different cultures' celebrations and traditions.  A few years ago, I did a search on allrecipes.com for the bread that is prepared for Dia de los Muertos.  I made it and took it to work for the Spanish interpreters to try.  I wanted to make sure that the recipe was authentic.  It was given their stamp of approval and I was thrilled.  It's been a few years since I've made it but I plan on making it this year.  The recipe is as follows:

Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead)
1/4 C margarine (I always use butter in my baking)
1/4 C milk
1/4 C warm water
3 C flour
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp anise seed
1/4 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp orange zest
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
2 tbsp sugar

Heat the milk and butter in a medium saucepan until butter melts.  Remove from heat and add warm water.  Mixture should be 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and 1/4 cup sugar.  Beat in the warm milk mixture.  Then add eggs and orange zest (2 tsp) and beat until well combined.  Stir in 1/2 cup flour and continue adding more flour until the dough is soft.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until dough is doubled in size (about 1-2 hours).  Punch down dough.  Shape into a large round loaf with a a round knob on top.  Place onto a baking sheet and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Let cool slightly and brush with glaze.

Pan de Muertos glaze
In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of sugar, orange juice and orange zest.  Bring to a boil over medium heat for 2 minutes.  Brush over top of bread while warm.  Sprinkle with white sugar.   

I know some of you are probably thinking "Anise seed?  Doesn't that have the same flavor as black licorice? No thanks!".  And you're right, it does but try the bread anyways.  I don't like black licorice.  In fact, I hate it and I still love this bread.  The orange zest and the glaze balance out the anise seed flavor.

         As you all know (and are probably sick of hearing about), we host Thanksgiving for Steve's side of the family.  As a result, I'm always on the look-out for new Thanksgiving-themed recipes.  My older sister told me about the blog Budget Bytes.  This blog is about eating tasty healthy food on a budget.  We could all use help with that area!  This blog has a section for Thanksgiving and a section called Pumpkin Recipe Round-up 2012.  Each section has a bunch of pumpkin recipes which I'm anxious to try.  (Stay tuned for more blogs about those!)  The Thanksgiving section also has recipes for cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, turkey and biscuits.  Check it out.  It seems pretty cool.  Disclaimer: I have not tried any of the recipes or read them in depth yet.  Steve and I are working on finding recipes and foods that will become traditions for our Thanksgiving.  We're having fun experimenting with serving different foods and seeing which ones will stick.  I'll do a blog post about our Thanksgiving later in the year.

      How many of you think of Christmas when drinking hot chocolate?  I don't know why I do.  It wasn't something my family traditionally drank on Christmas.  Hot chocolate makes me think of cold snowy days and being curled up in a blanket watching a movie.  Now hot chocolate mixes are perfectly fine... but so is this recipe:

Mexican Hot Chocolate
3 tbsp instant hot cocoa mix
1 tbsp chocolate syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch chili powder
1/4 C milk
3/4 C boiling water

In a large mug, mix the hot cocoa mix, chocolate syrup, cinnamon and chili powder.  Add the boiling water and stir.  Add in the milk and stir.

I doubt this recipe is an authentic Mexican drink.  I did make a few changes to the recipe above.  I made the milk and water about half and half to make the drink a little richer.  It's slightly watery if you follow the recipe exactly.  I also wait to add the chocolate syrup until after the milk and water have been mixed with the spices.  It just works better this way.  This hot chocolate recipe has a nice spicy flavor courtesy of the chili powder.  I know it seems a little weird to put chili powder in a drink but the cinnamon balances it out nicely. Give it a try!

       

Pumpkin for All

                 Happy Fall!!!  I'm enjoying this fall, especially because I got to bring my baby home from the hospital.  It was still summer when she was born and the seasons changed while she was in the NICU.  When we brought her home, I decided to enjoy this fall season for the blessing it was and because I'm currently on maternity leave.  I haven't ventured outside very much because I don't want to expose Katherine to germs for the first few weeks.  With that in mind, I've had to bring the fall season indoors... in a small way.  I do have a newborn after all!  I decided to make pumpkin pancakes for lunch on Sunday.  I've always liked the flavor of pumpkin.  When I was younger I didn't think much past pumpkin pie, which I loved and looked forward to every Thanksgiving.  Over the past few years, I've had fun finding pumpkin recipes.  Recipes like this Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe that was modeled after the Starbucks latte (I have no idea how it measures up... I don't go to Starbucks.) and this Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe.  I de-veganize these recipes when I make them... partly because I'm not vegan, partly because I don't have the ingredients for them to be vegan. I'm extremely grateful for my cousin Angie's secret pumpkin bar recipe which I blogged about here.  The bars are amazing and I love sharing a secret with my family members.  Sharing the recipe made me feel like Angie was right next door instead of in Virginia where she lives with her family.
                I've gotten extremely off-track... sorry!  But thanks for taking that little detour with me!  Back to the pumpkin pancakes.  I decided to make them before I actually had a recipe so I turned to my trusty recipe search engine, allrecipes.com.  If you haven't visited this site, do.  Just make sure you don't have anything to do or anywhere to go for the next hour.  It's that addictive.  I found this recipe for pumpkin pancakes:

Pumpkin Pancakes with Nutmeg Whipped Cream

2 1/3 C pancake mix
2 1/2 tbsp white sugar
1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
1 1/4 C milk
1/3 C canned pumpkin
1/4 C vegetable oil

Nutmeg Whipped Cream
1 C whipping cream
2 tbsp white sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

The directions for the recipe were pretty standard: mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients and then mix the two together.  Being me, I made a few changes.  I used a 1/2 cup of pumpkin rather than 1/3 cup based on the recipe reviews.  I also used 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon and ginger.  This was not for any reason relating to flavor.  I just don't have a measuring spoon for 1/3 teaspoon.  In fact, this was the first recipe I've seen to call for that measurement.  I also used 1 1/2 cups milk... just so I wouldn't have a 1/4 cup of milk left in the fridge.    I did sift the dry ingredients because Bisquick tends to be clumpy and I didn't want to have to deal with clumps in the batter.  I mixed the batter and had 4 pancakes on the griddle and Katherine started to fuss.  I turned the reins over to Steve so I could feed her.  He finished cooking the pancakes and we sat down to lunch.  The pancakes have a very subtle pumpkin flavor.  The flavor does build with each pancake you eat.  These are an excellent addition to any fall baking and cooking you might be doing.  In fact, Steve and I both thought at the same time about serving these for Thanksgiving breakfast.  We did have left-overs which we've safely put away in the freezer for Thanksgiving morning.  I hope these pancakes will become a traditional part of our Thanksgiving.

(Side note about the whipped cream: You'll notice I didn't mention it at all.  That's because I didn't make it due to the lack of whipping cream.  Hopefully I'll remember to buy some for Thanksgiving!)

I'm Back!!!!

      That's right, my faithful blog readers.  I'm finally back in the kitchen.  Having swollen ankles and later bed rest and an emergency C-section prevented me from cooking very much this past year.  But this week is my return to the kitchen.  Katherine came home on Saturday (yay!).  Sunday I made a menu and a grocery list and sent Steve to the store.  I'm still not ready to take Katherine out shopping... too many germs for my little NICU baby.  It's nice to have a stocked kitchen and a plan as to what we'll be eating for the week.  For the past month, I've been eating hospital food or sandwiches.  Exciting stuff, right?  Here's our menu for this week:

Monday October 8th
chicken pot pie, fruit, salad

Tuesday October 9th
grilled cheese, vegetables, fruit

Wednesday October 10th
ham steak, salad, vegetables, fruit

Thursday October 11th
chicken noodle soup, salad, fruit

Friday October 12th
left-overs

Saturday October 13th
tacos, salad, fruit

Notice I've optimistically put a salad, fruit and vegetables on practically every meal.  We've already had a few meals without them but I'm still hoping we'll eat them.  On Monday my mom was visiting so I was able to teach her how to make chicken pot pie.  It was my first meal back in the kitchen and it was so fun.  I had fun showing Mom how to make it.  I promised her that it was simple and tasty.  She agreed and copied the recipe so she could make it at home.  On Tuesday I made the grilled cheese sandwiches which reminded me of when I was younger and would make them for our family.  Of course, I usually made a lot more back then.  There's quite a difference between cooking for two and cooking for five or six.  Steve made the ham steaks and chicken noodle soup.  I'm already looking forward to creating next week's menu and grocery list.

Iowa Food Banks in Need

According to this Sioux City Journal article, Governor Terry Branstad vetoed the funding of $500,000 to Iowa food banks.  This affects many of our local food banks including the Food Bank of Siouxland.  The Food Bank of Siouxland anticipated receiving $37,500 of these funds.  The governor states that the local food banks should be able to make up the money through private donations that are publicly endorsed.  I'm sure there was sound logic behind the veto.  But my heart aches for the agencies that were counting on this funding and now have to make up for it in other ways or even worse, decrease their services to the people they serve. $37,500 is a lot of money.  I will not argue that fact.  For some, it is their total household income.  For others, it is an amount much larger than their household income that they can not comprehend.  According to the Food Bank of Siouxland's most recent newsletter, $1 buys 13 pounds of food for food banks.  I can't even imagine the amount of food that $37,500 would have bought for the food bank.  But I do know that it is a lot.  This veto comes at an unfortunate time for food banks because summer is the busiest time of year.  This is due to school being out for the summer.  Families need to feed their children 3 meals a day rather than 1 because the child does not receive the school breakfast and lunch.  The amount of requests for food at the local food pantries increases as a result.  I've mentioned before that as a child, I never had to go hungry.  Our family was very fortunate.  I can't imagine the feeling of not being able to feed my family or having to go to bed without supper because there wasn't food in the pantry.  I'm asking you all to think about this the next time you're out grocery shopping or opening your cupboards to make supper. Please consider donating to your local food bank in any way you can.  This may be picking up an extra box of cereal or pasta while at the grocery store.  Or it maybe writing a check for as little as $5.  Together we can help the food banks and Iowa's hungry.

Update: I took the issue to our Employee Committee at work and we decided to do a fundraiser for the Food Bank.  Siouxland Community Health Center employees donated a total of $300!  We still need to deliver the money but I know it will help.