Comments (22)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, March 9, 2010 9:53 am

I was talking to my brother on the phone the other night.

I told him I was making Irish Soda Bread for the first time.

The first thing out of his mouth was “Does this mean Tim’s gonna make you tamales for Cinco de Mayo?” LOL!!

My brother lives in Minneapolis, I live in DC, but both of us were born and raised in Texas.

Born in a Mexican American family… neither of us had heard of Irish Soda Bread until we got older.

I had never heard of it until I met my husband.

I always thought St. Patty’s day was just a day you wore something green so nobody would pinch you…

Tim and I started dating in January of 1999 (I know… I’m old). I was a senior in college then.

I remember that year St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Tuesday.

He ask me if I wanted to go the local pub and grab a beer with him.

All I was thinking to myself was “Why do we have to grab a beer just because it’s St. Patrick’s Day?”

I was so naive! I knew nothing!!

Tim is from New York… I’m from Texas… he’s Irish… I’m Mexican…

I felt like we grew up in different worlds.

For his family… St. Patty’s Day is one of the biggest holidays of the year!

For my family… we wore green so we wouldn’t get pinched at school

This recipe came from my Irish mother-in-law.

She grew up on this bread… her mom grew up on this bread… and Tim grew up on this bread.

So when Tim asked me to make him some Irish Soda Bread… I knew exactly who to go to for the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raisins
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3 teaspoons melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Soak raisins in about 1 cup of water for 10 minutes to moisten.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar together… set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter. (Make sure melted butter has cooled a little… if its too hot, you’ll scramble the eggs.)

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir together with a wooden spoon. Drain the raisins and gently fold into dough.

You can use either a loaf pan of a round 9 inch cake pan. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spread dough evenly into pan.

Bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Comments (20)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, March 8, 2010 8:08 am

Ok…. Don’t Judge.

I belong to this group of fantastic women. This group is a combo of stay at home and working mommies.

Each one of us lives within blocks of each other.

Here are the rules:

• We meet every Friday (except Holiday weekends) at 4pm.
• All mommies live in the same neighborhood so we can all walk.
• We rotate houses.
• The hosting mommy provides snacks and drinks for both the adults and the kiddos.
• The best part – The mommies attending do not have to bring a single thing. We work hard all week long and this is time to relax… kind of… we all know a mom is never off duty

Friday was my turn to host… I don’t know why, but my camera was really enjoying taking blurry pictures… so bear with me

.

Normally I would make my dips from scratch… but in typical Estela fashion… I didn’t plan… so I did the next best thing…

I went to Whole Foods and bought some tasty dips and the ingredients to make baked brie.

To go with the veggies I got some roasted veggie ranch dip. It was pretty tasty and surprisingly spicy!

If you haven’t gotten this dip… go buy some! This organic creamy spinach dip is a staple in my house!

Oh… and I got flowers… flowers make everything look pretty.

And a very blurry picture of smoked gouda. :~

What missing is the picture of my baked brie. I have a little story about that…

So I bought this great brie, cut it in half, and filled the middle with berry jam and toasted almonds.

I wrapped the entire brie with puffed pastry.

I put it in the oven at 4pm so it would be nice and hot when most of the mommies arrived.

Before I knew it… smoke was coming out of the oven… this is not a good thing when you have two toddlers and three 10 month olds in your house.

The cheese was oozing off the pan to the bottom of the oven causing the entire house to smoke up

Luckily my husband stepped in to help clean the oven and air out the house… Phew!

The baked brie was salvageable… but did not look pretty

Whole grain goldfish and Annie’s fruit snacks for the kids…

Booze for the mom’s…

Hydration for the kiddos….

Seven mom’s, three dads, and twelve children later… it looked like a tornado had hit my house….

It’s so worth it though to visit with all the mom’s, share stories, and most of all… see how happy the kids are to play with each other!

My baby girl slept for twelve hours that night!

Happy baby = happy mommy

Comments (27)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, March 5, 2010 8:08 am

I can always tell when my husband is hungry.

There are certain things he does.

He hangs around the kitchen, talks a lot, and starts stirring or flipping whatever food I’m cooking.

I pretend to tolerate it… but it secretly gets on my nerves…

Our kitchen is pretty small… so with two people in it… its crowded.

He’s constantly behind me sampling and tasting all the food…

And then he does it…

He goes to the spice cabinet and grabs the same seasoning every time.

What is it about Old Bay that men love so much?

I mean, its a good seasoning and all… but does it HAVE to be added to EVERY meal I cook?!?!!

He puts Old Bay in his eggs, his tuna, his steaks, his chicken, his fish, his soup.

He even sprinkles a little in his turkey sandwiches.

I’m surprised he doesn’t put it in his cereal… because that would be gross.

So I make these roasted potatoes for him.

To him… it would be a sin NOT to add Old Bay to such a basic side dish.

I have to admit… Old Bay does make these potatoes pretty tasty!

Ingredients:

• 3 large Yukon Gold Potatoes cut into 1 inch chunks
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine potatoes with olive oil.

Add Old Bay and garlic powder and mix until potatoes are coated.

Spread potatoes on a large cookie sheet.

Baked in oven for 20 minutes, then flip potatoes and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown.

Enjoy!!!!

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Have a great weekend