Celebrate St Paddy's Day with Christine's Soda Bread

Been too busy with the Scotland blog, but my mom reminded me to keep up with this one too. Here's a recipe to make March 17th a delicious day. Enjoy!

IRISH SODA BREAD

2-1/4 cups of white flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teas. salt

1/2 teas. baking soda

1-1/2 teas. baking powder

1 cup buttermilk, store bought or home made

1 cup raisins

1 Tbl. caraway seeds

If making your own buttermilk, put1 tablespoon of cider or white vinegar into a glass measuring cup. Add milk to the one-cup line. Stir. Allow to rest for 10 minutes or longer.

Meanwhile put all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Add raisins and caraway seeds and mix again. Add buttermilk and stir just enough to mix together.

Turn dough onto a well-floured board, flour hands if necessary and knead about 20 times. Form into a ball. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross on the top of the ball. Place in greased cast iron skillet or fry pan (or any round cake pan or cookie sheet). Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350 degrees and bake another 40 minutes until the bread sounds hollow when knocked on the bottom.

Post-Holidays Healthy Meals

If you're like me, you needed a serious curtailing of food intake after the holidays! These two recipes are filling, but keep the calories under control. Hope you like them!!

Turkey and Black Bean Chili

This recipe is one of a few that everyone in our house will eat (and it's not even white). It's delicious and ready in about twenty minutes. I like to serve it with homemade corn bread from Fanny Farmer cookbook.

1# ground turkey

1 t vegetable oil

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, pressed

1 T chili powder

2 t oregano

1 t cumin

1/4 t cayenne (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes (or half a box, if you're avoiding the BPA in cans)

2 - 15 oz cans black beans, rinsed

1 c frozen corn (optional)

Cook turkey until browned or no longer pink in large saucepan. Set aside and rinse out pan. Saute onions, garlic, and peppers in oil until softened. Add spices and cook a few minutes. Add tomatoes, turkey and beans (and corn if using). Simmer five minutes (or until ready to serve).

Curried-Coconut Lentils

adpated from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

1 T vegetable oil

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, pressed

1 T grated, fresh ginger

1 t turmeric

1 T curry powder

1 can (or 1/2 box) chopped tomatoes

1/4 c shredded coconut (unsweetened, large shred is the best)

1 c lentils

2-4 c vegetable stock

1-2 c coconut milk

In a large saucepan, saute onion, garlic, ginger with oil for 10+ minutes on low. Turn up to medium-high and add turmeric and curry powder; cook for a few minutes. Stir in tomatoes, coconut, lentils, stock and coconut milk. Simmer on medium-low for 30-40 minutes or until lentils are tender, adding more liquid if needed. (Freezes well!)