Here's a friend's recipe for Irish soda bread:
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups raisins
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; set
aside.
Combine buttermilk, melted butter and raisins; add to
flour mixture, stirring until moistened.
Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. Kneed
until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Place on
a greased baking sheet.
Press dough evenly into a 1 1/2-inch-thick circle.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until bread sounds
hollow when tapped. Remove to a wire rack; cool 5
minutes. Cut into wedges.
Note: I prefer to combine the buttermilk,
melted butter and raisins in a bowl first and let them
sit for a few minutes while I prepare the dry
ingredients. This gives the raisins a chance to
absorb some of the buttermilk and "plump".
I also sprinkle the top of the bread dough with a
small amount of flour before placing the dough in the
oven. This seems to keep the top crust from getting a
bit too overdone, and looks pretty besides!
Rufus Wainwright is my new music interest. I found him through the documentary Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man.
If you like to listen to music on line, try this:
The 3rd annual Texas Spur was held in Llano last weekend. Jeep enthusiasts from across the USA attended the three day event. This photo is son in his Jeep, attending from Midland, TX.
An Irish blessing from Ella Grace and me:
NASA explains the image :
Target stores in Australia made a one-time only deal with Stella McCartney to sell a line of her clothing in their stores in March. The clothing was in stores on March 12th and sold out in most stores by noon. The line included tops, a jacket, a dress, and skinny cropped pants as well as the trenchcoat pictured here. Nothing was priced over $A200. Here are a few more photos from the line. A few stores had some returns as most of the merchandise was grabbed up without benefit of fitting. Even the mannequins were beheaded and stripped. The returns are being trucked to 4 stores in Sydney where stocks sold out the fastest. Most customers were pleased with their purchases; however, a few complained that the clothing was "too big" which was explained by Target as a feature of McCartney's signature line and reflected in the Target store line. More photos of the line here.
Here's a more familiar picture of the men from the Who Are They? post. They are of course the seven Mercury astronauts looking lots better here in their shiny space suits!
