The Best Irish Soda Bread Ever

I'd show you pictures of the soda bread sliced but once the eating started, well, there just wasn't time between bites and gobbling everything up to snap photos of any of it.  DS & DIL1's home-corned beef was so tender and so delicious, it put the store-bought kind to shame.  DS chopped the cabbage, blanched it, and sauteed it with a tiny bit of olive oil and some toasted bread crumbs.  DIL1 made boiled red potatoes and carrots to go with it.  There was horseradish, nice grainy mustard, and pickles for condiments.  And then there was the bread.  HZ cut each loaf in half (I was in the potty when it was slicing time) and then sliced the halves, nibbling crumbs all the way, and the 6 of us nearly emptied the plate.  OMG, that's good bread, moist and flavorful, not dry and crumbly.  H&JZ invited us for Easter and I asked what to bring.  HZ mentioned the bunny cake I made last year and JZ said that was a good idea... as long as I made the cake out of "that bread."  I'll see what I can do.  (click the link in the first line for the recipe)  (I only took pictures of Porter, she's as good-looking as the bread just not as easy to eat.  All that fur gets in my teeth.  Get a grip, I'm kidding.)

Neither of us was hungry when suppertime rolled around so 'long about 8 o'clock we made ourselves a chopped salad.  Have you ever had a chopped salad?  No?  You need to make one.  It's a revelation in the salad world.  At least the salad world of the upper Midwest.  In Green Bay, WI.  On Mennen Ct.  I think so anyway.  Here's a recipe.  It's from the Pioneer Woman.  I like her, she puts a lot of butter in things, cheese too, and her husband's a stone cold hunk.  Read her blog or, better yet, watch her Food Network show (her husband Marlboro Man's on it too) for a mix of cooking and cattle ranching and kid raising.  Also Cowboy Josh is adorable.

It's supposed to snow about 4 inches on us today--again, so I'll be leaving early so I can go to Walmart to snag some Cheerios.  I'm running low and there's no way Durwood will be going out in the driving snow for cereal.  I don't really blame him; I'd stay indoors during a snowstorm too if I could but it's Monday and that means it's payday so I'M GOING AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME.  And maybe Walmart still has some of that clearance yogurt I got the other day.  It's Chobani Flip; it has a second compartment with toppings.  I ate coconut yogurt with almonds and dark chocolate bits the other night and have a key lime one with graham pieces and white chocolate in the fridge.  I'll buy more at 88 cents each if they're still there.  Yum.  Wonder how many I can fit in the back of Beverly?

March 18--Lewis Hine, Icarus, Empire State Building.  His muscles flexed like the steel cables as he inched his way up.  The city was puny in the distance and its heat dissipated so that the air was pleasantly cool.  Sweat beaded his face as he grimaced with the effort of the climb.  When he reached the turnbuckle joining the cable lengths, he gave one final push and braced his foot on the fist-sized nut of the bolt holding the cable eyes.  The wind was gentle that afternoon, playing with his hair and cooling him so that his hands were dry and confident as he reached up over his head to lash the cables together.  He had to believe in himself and his ability to work with his hands while not loosing the grip of his legs that held him in place in the sky.

And now it's time to shower and make myself presentable to face the coming snow.  I'm thinking I'll wear my boots today.
--Barbara