Irish Soda Bread

My family has a few ancestors that hail from Ireland, but we don't make a huge deal out of celebrating St. Patrick's Day. On occasion we will have a simple Corned Beef and Cabbage meal every few years and my mom has always made this Irish Soda Bread to go with our meal. Eat it warm with butter melting down it and it is so good!

Irish Soda Bread
8-inch round pan or a baking sheet, 375 degrees F.

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 cups milk soured with 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar)
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Sift dry ingredients together into a bowl. Add buttermilk all at once, and mix with a fork just until blended. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead lightly until smooth. Shape into a ball and place in a well-greased pan or on a well-greased baking sheet. Use your hands to flatten dough into a 7-inch circle. With a sharp knife, score top, cutting about 1/4 inch deep and in about 2-inch squares. Bake about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and loaf sounds hollow when flipped. Turnout onto cooking rack; brush with melted butter. Cool completely before cutting.

Homemade Peanut Butter Twix Bars

So I realize that January, the month of resolutions for healthy eating is hardly the time to post a recipe for peanut butter chocolaty goodness, especially considering I am doing a dessert free January, but several people requested this recipe from me a few days before Christmas and I am finally getting around to posting it.

The original Peanut Butter Twix Bars with the vanilla cookie inside are my husbands' favorite candy bar ever. Shortly after we started dating in 2007, the Mars Chocolate company stopped making them and replaced them with a chocolate cookie inside. While it was a sad day for my husband, it also proved to be a good thing because we were forced to make our own and in our opinion these taste even better. We found this recipe in a cookbook that I turn to whenever I feel like eating out but don't want to leave the house and/or pay to eat out, called A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur. I have made these Peanut Butter Twix Bars every Christmas since we first met and they are definitely a permanent holiday tradition in our house. Thankfully Mars brought the Peanut Butter Twix Bars with the vanilla cookie back a few years ago so we can enjoy Peanut Butter Twix Bars year-round (they are usually our treat of choice when stopping at the gas station on road trips) but this homemade version will stick around for years to come.

Homemade Peanut Butter Twix Bars

Recipe from A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur

1 box (40) Nabisco Lorna Doone shortbread cookies
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Two 12-ounce bags milk-chocolate chips (or milk-chocolate + semi-sweet, I have tried both ways and enjoy both)

1. Place the shortbread cookies side by side on an ungreased cookie sheet.
2. Mix 1 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar until incorporated.
3. Spoon or spread a dab of the peanut-butter mixture onto the shortbread cookies. The mixture will be of a consistency that allows you to spread it with your fingers.
4. Place the cookies in the refrigerator until the peanut butter firms up.
5. Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe-bowl and heat them for 1 minute. Stir and heat for 20 second increments until melted thoroughly.
6. One at a time, rest each cookie on a fork and dip into the chocolate. Tap off the excess chocolate and then place on the tray and allow to cool to room temperature. The original recipe suggests placing them on waxed paper, I just put them back on the baking sheet and place the cookies in the freezer. If they don't remove easily, just use a spatula and carefully lift them off. We like to store ours in the freezer and eat them frozen. 

Celebrating the 4th of July

We had an incredible weekend celebrating American Independence Day. With family, food, fireworks, fun, and time exploring the beautiful country around us, it was the perfect weekend. The holidays are becoming more and more fun as our kids get older. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had.