Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Most days I proclaim to be of Italian ancestry, but on rare occasion one might find out that my maternal grandmother is actually Irish. I had asked her a few months ago for my great grandmother's soda bread recipe, but it seems that she never wrote one down. Sad. :( Well, we were invited to a St. Patty's feast tonight and I was determined to make one (now that we have access to buttermilk!), so I scouted out the best traditional recipe I could find. We were at the doctor what seemed like all damn day (in reality a little over five hours), but finished up around 5pm and headed straight to the grocery store for the ingredients. I knew this would make us late, but I wasn't going without my bread! I was dreaming about it all day. Well, it came together in an hour, and it was exactly what I had wanted. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested in some wholesome brown bread. I'll go ahead and call it my great grandmother's recipe... Enjoy!

Brown Bread

from the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white cake flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsps baking soda

1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425F. Butter and flour a round cake pan. Sift together all the dry ingredients, then add the buttermilk. Mix in your Kitchenaid with the dough hook (or knead by hand on a floured surface) until the ingredients come together and are slightly elastic, but don't overmix. Pour it into the cake pan and cut a cross in the center. Cover it with an inverted cake pan (same size) and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cake pan cover and bake for another 15 minutes. When you take it out, knock on the bottom of the loaf and it should sound hollow. Wrap the bread in a floursack towel and sprinkle some water on it to keep the bread moist. Let it cool a bit, and serve warm with butter.