Irish Soda Bread Revisted

Last month for TWD we made Irish Soda Bread, and I was definitely not a fan. It was okay, and I ate it, but it wasn't good enough that I wanted to make it again and the weird smell sealed the deal. After reading several of the other Doristas' posts and thinking about their add-ins, I figured I'd give it another go. It comes together so quickly that even if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be a huge waste of time.

But I did like it. Or I guess I should say "them," since I made rolls instead of a single loaf. I followed the example of one of the recipe's hostesses, Cathy of My Culinary Mission since I love love LOVE Gruyere cheese. All it took was a cup of Gruyere and a tablespoon of cracked black pepper to turn this into a recipe I'm happy to keep on my short list.

The original recipe says that the bread won't keep, but I wrapped each roll in saran wrap, tossed them in a heavy duty Ziploc bag and popped them in the freezer and they seemed to keep just fine. I pulled out a roll nearly every day for a week and toasted it or reheated it in the oven, smeared on some butter and just smiled, because it was amazing.

Things I learned from this project:

1. Even if you don't like something the first time, don't be afraid to rework it and try again.

TWD -BWJ #6 - Lemon Loaf

After such a long and busy weekend, it was hard to bring myself to make this. Not because it didn't sound good, or because I didn't have the ingredients (because I always have these ingredients in my house), but the thought of having yet another thing on my to-do list was enough to make me somewhat insane. A wedding, a birthday (on the same night, of course!), finalizing plans for a fast-approaching anniversary trip to Spain, groceries, laundry, meals...I could go on. What made me finally get up and do it was the fact that I wanted to make it for Jake. The groom's cake at the wedding we went to Saturday night was a pound cake with a light lemon cream icing, and it was A-MA-ZING. Jake loved it, so I thought he might be into the lemon loaf.

Checking Off Some Items

I'm a self-proclaimed bread baker. I love making bread. I love eating homemade bread. It makes me happy every morning when I make my toast with bread that I made with my own two hands (and my Kitchen Aid). That being the case, I really wanted to find a bread that I could feel good about putting in my body. While I like eating the TWD white loaves--because it's sooooooo tasty--I don't really feel good about eating it. I'm weird like that.

I've had Marilyn's wheaty pan loaves on my to-make list for a while, so I was glad to finally get around to making them. The mistake I made was in making this a Friday-night project instead of a Saturday or Sunday event. I've never made a bread that called for 3 rises before so at 2 AM I was still waiting for the bread to cool enough to wrap up. The puppy and I were very sleepy.

It always freaks me out when she sleeps with one of her eyes open. Especially when only the white part is visible.

Liebster Award and Not Quite Fried Rice

I have to say, this is pretty cool. One of my favorite bloggers, Mireia from Baking in Spain, gave me the Liebster award.

It's my first blog award so I'm pretty psyched. Here's the way it works:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them. Thanks Mireia!
2. Post the award to your blog. Yep, there it is!
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value (It’s a great way to get to word out there about other blogs!!) Oh my, this was tough.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have received this award. I'll take care of that in a minute.

Without further ado, here are the lovely bloggers I'm passing this award on to:

1. Jessica of My Baking Heart
2. Nancy of FitMamaEats
3. Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler...
4. Christy of Confessions of a Culinary Diva
5. The Baker in Disguise

It's a cool coincidence that Mireia gave me this award this week, and that I'm passing it on to Nancy Oliveira, because this blog post was actually inspired by a recipe at FitMamaEats.