Over the weekend my friends and I decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s day by making a “traditional” Irish dinner. My friends Daniel and Katie made the bulk of the meal including corned beef and cabbage. Pete brought the all important Guinness and for my contribution I tried my hand at making Irish Soda bread for the first time.
I found the recipe in my favorite Martha Stewart ‘s Baking Handbook. Making Irish soda bread is a lot like making scones, only wetter and a lot bigger. You start off by whisking dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and then add very cold butter and incorporate with a pastry blender, stir in raisins, and then finish off by adding in wet ingredients. It’s very easy and doesn’t even involve an electric mixer. The only part that I considered a little difficult was transferring the dough from the bowl to a parchment lined sheet tray. Since the dough was so wet, I found it easiest to make the transfer by holding the bowl above the pan and sliding it out with a spatula. Once the dough was on the pan I brushed it with an egg wash, sliced the shape of an “X” and baked it for about an hour.
I’ve always wanted to be 100% Irish (I’m only 1/4) and to celebrate and be proud of my heritage, but hey I am what I am and I can still celebrate! Dinner was a success and the soda bread was good with the dinner and then toasted with butter for the following breakfasts.
As an amazing birthday present my sister decided it might be fun to take a vacation, so along with her boyfriend Will we decided on the southern coast of California in San Diego! Our trip was only for four days, but we ended up doing a lot. The first day we got there we visited the famous San Diego Zoo where we saw so many animals from all over the world. On the second day we rented a car and went exploring on the coast- up to the La Jolla Coves and Torrey Pines State Park. This alone was reason enough for me to never want to leave California. I have never before seen such diverse and lush plant life and landscape in my life, it was beautiful to say the least. While hiking through the state park we were introduced to different scenery, each vastly different from the next, ranging from desert shrubs and sand to breathtaking cliffs and ocean views. Oh man, I want to go back now! Interspersed with our adventures outside we also had the opportunity to take advantage of San Diego’s local cuisine.
Before leaving for San Diego I asked a lot of people for suggestions on what to do and mainly what to eat. The resounding answer to this question was fish tacos. I couldn’t go to San Diego and not try them so while we were driving through La Jolla we stopped and asked a stranger on the street where we should go to get good fish tacos and he pointed us in the direction of 
Another suggestion brought us to our next destination which was brunch at 
Before seeing a show at 
If the scenery of San Diego weren’t enough, the food we enjoyed during our trip put it over top. I think all three of us wonder why we aren’t living there right now- maybe one day…
