Irish Soda Bread and Corned Beef and Cabbage

Cookbook Recipe #41

My brother went to Europe last year and Ireland was one of his stops and one of his favorites too. So, he got me an Irish cookbook for Christmas. I figured it would be appropriate to make something from this book for St. Patrick's Day. I decided to make Irish soda bread. Since yeast freaks me out, this bread seemed perfect because it does not call for it. Did you know that there are fairies in soda bread? I thought it was funny when I was reading the recipe and it said that you cut a cross across the bread to let the fairies out.The bread came out really good. It could have stayed in the oven a little longer I think, but for my first try it was good. And it paired very nice with the corned beef, cabbage and red potatoes. For the corned beef, I always make mine in a large roasting oven because then there is plenty of room for the cabbage and the potatoes. Phil always gets really excited for this dinner.

Irish Soda Bread
Recipe from Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 -1 3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the bowl. Pour in 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk.

Using one hand, stir in a full circle to mix in the flour from the sides of the bowl. Add more buttermilk if necessary.

When dough forms together, put on a floured surface. Knead for just a little bit. Form into a disk about 2 inches thick.

With a knife cut a cross completely across the dough, making sure to go down the sides as well.

Place on a baking sheet and bake 15 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 400 degrees and bake another 20-30 minutes.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

1 corned beef brisket with seasoning packet
1 head cabbage, slided into wedges
Baby red potatoes









Place corned beef in roasting oven. Pour up to one inch of water over corned beef. Add spice packet.

Cook on 250 for about 2 hours.

Add cabbage and red potatoes.

Cook an additional hour.

These recipes are linked on:  Foodie Friday, Show and Tell Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday,  Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Rediscovering Lost Arts From Our Mothers,  Mix it Up Mondays, Melt in your Mouth Mondays,  On the Menu Monday,  Show me Your Plaid Mondays

Pumpkin Bread: Regular and Gluten Free

Cookbook Recipe #21

What better treat to celebrate Halloween, then with pumpkin bread! I wanted to bring a treat into work for Halloween but my boss is gluten free. Bread is easy to make so I figured I could make one loaf of regular pumpkin bread and one loaf of gluten free pumpkin bread for my boss. I found the Streusel Topped Pumpkin Bread recipe from my newest cookbook in my collection, The Picky Palate Cookbook By Jenny Flake. I heard about this cookbook from Jenny's blog the Picky Palate. I have been subscribing to the Picky Palate for a while now, because I too can be picky about food. I was excited to see a blogger come out with her own cookbook. I already marked several pages of recipes to make! I only changed a few things from the recipe. I added ground cloves and ground ginger to the recipe as the gluten free recipe called for those and I like the spice flavor that cloves and ginger give to baked goods.

I found the recipe for the gluten free pumpkin bread on Betty Crocker's website. I liked the recipe because it uses a box of gluten free cake mix, so I did not have to worry about other ingredients like baking powder or baking soda. I wasn't sure I would be able to find gluten free cake mix, but I did at Target. Target has a nice selection of gluten free products. I am excited to see if Geriann, my boss, likes the bread tomorrow!

Streusel Topped Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from The Picky Palate Cookbook, By Jenny Flake

3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cup flour, divided
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
4 tablespoons cold butter, diced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9x5 bread pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Add the oil, eggs and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until well combined. Add the pumpkin and beat on low. Slowly add 1 cup flour, sugar, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ginger and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix on low until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared bread pan.

In a medium size bowl mix brown sugar, remaining 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix to combine. With a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry mixture until crumbly.

Sprinkle over the bread.

Bake for 55-65 minutes, until cooked through.

Let cool completely before slicing.

Print Recipe

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
Adapted by Betty Crocker

1 Box Betty Crocker Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1 15oz can pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray 9 x 5 bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl stir all ingredients until well combined.

Pour into prepared bread pan.

Bake 55-65 minutes, or until done.

Let cool before serving.



Print Recipe

These recipes are linked on:  Mix it Up Mondays, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, On the Menu Monday,  Makin You Crave Monday,  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday Party, Talent Show Tuesdays , Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Foodie Friends Friday,  Foodie Friday, Full Plate Thursday, Link it up Thursday, Creative Thursday, Fantastic Thursday,Show and Tell Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Foodie Friday, Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons, Weekend Potluck, Wicked Good Wednesday, Mealtime Monday

Zucchini Bread

My friend and coworker Nicole brought in Zucchini Bread last week to work. I had never tried it before and was a little apprehensive because zucchini in bread just does not sound good. The bread was delicious and you could not taste the zucchini at all. So I asked Nicole for the recipe because I thought it would be a great recipe to make for Phil's fishing trip.

Every year Phil, his dad, his uncles and some of their friends go on a fishing trip in Northern Minnesota for a week. They always go the same week in September and for the past few years they have been going to their friends resort in Minnesota. This is only the second year Phil has attended so I have not been around to hear all the crazy talk that goes down the year before the fishing trip. I guess the guys used to nonstop talk about this fishing trip for a whole year, so the wives finally decided that they could not breath a word about it until the 4th of July. The ladies felt as if the guys were wishing their whole summer away looking forward to the trip. I think the guys are bursting at the seams until the 4th over this trip! So in recent weeks many pictures of fish have been texted, dozens of emails sent about who is bringing what, who is driving whose cars and making sure they have all the supplies they need. 

Because Phil is so new to the trip we are not asked yet to provide a dish. I decided to make the Zucchini Bread anyway because I thought it would be a nice quick breakfast for them in the wee morning hours. The recipe is from Weight Watchers so it is a healthy version, but you would never know it, which makes it even better! The recipe makes two loaves, which I thought would be a good amount for their trip. But I could not let them take all the bread and have none for myself, so I doubled the recipe and made four loaves. Some for the freezer for later! The recipe below is the original recipe for two loaves. 

Zucchini Bread

Weight Watchers

2 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3 egg whites

1 egg

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 cups uncooked zucchini, peeled, grated and drained

1/2 cup raisins

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Coat two loaf pans with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large bowl sift together whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a bowl of a stand mixer beat egg whites until frothy. Add egg, sugar, vanilla, oil, and applesauce and mix well. Add in zucchini. 

Add the dry ingredients to mixer and mix well. Add raisins. 

Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake 50-60 minutes. 

Print Recipe

This recipe is linked on: Full Plate Thursday, Tastetastic Thursday, Link it up Thursday, Thriving on Thursdays, Creative Thursday, Fantastic Thursday

Never Fail Banana Bread

Nothing is better then the smell of bread coming from your oven. The only bread I have ever made has been banana bread. It is super simple and takes no time at all to prepare. I have yet to tackle making real bread because yeast still scares me. I have a bread machine, as well as a bread machine cookbook so I will have to get over my fear of yeast during the course of this project.

My mom and I used to make banana bread a lot together when I was growing up. It was one of the first recipes I learned to make on my own. Mom would make banana bread muffins more often then making the bread which I loved because it seemed like there was more to go around. The muffins would usually be gone within a couple days of her making them because I would eat two at a time.

I decided to make a double batch of bread because I had so many bananas that were going bad. So I made one to take to work with me and one to have at home. I will more then likely end up freezing part of the bread so I can enjoy it later. Even though I doubled the recipe, I have shared the single recipe below.

Never Fail Banana Bread

1 cup bananas (crushed)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together all ingredients, adding bananas and flour last.

In a greased loaf pan pour batter.

Bake for 1 hour or until the top of the bread springs back.

Print Recipe

This recipe is linked up at: Foodie Friends Friday, Foodie Friday, Anything Goes Linky, Foodie Friday, Friday Flair