Irish Brown Soda Bread

Since I was a youngster, my mother has made a dense, dark quick bread we called Graham Bread. The main ingredient was graham flour which (I think) is a special  grainy flour ground from wheat – it has nothing to do with graham crackers so I’m not sure where the name comes from. You can buy graham flour in the U.S. – it’s made by Bob’s Red Mill.  My mom’s bread was sweetened with light molasses and had a ton of raisins and sometimes walnuts. It’s de-lish, trust me.

When I had soup the other day in Kenmare it came with “brown bread”. It tasted a bit familiar and I realized it’s very similar to my mother’s graham bread – just no raisins or nuts, and a bit less sweet.

When we went by the Bread Crumb Bakery in Kenmare (again) yesterday, I bought a loaf of their Brown Soda Bread. Yup. That’s it. I can’t wait to get home and start modifying my mom’s recipe to make it again.

Great with soup, great toasted with some butter too. Even Amber’s close to swooning over it.

Brown Soda Bread

 

I found pictures of my mom’s recipe card (front and back) from email I’d sent to my family last year. It’s from 1969! Good stuff – as you can tell from the worn recipe card: Try it – but with a warning – it’s addictive!

 

 

recipe, front

 

recipe, back

 

 

 

Food

I’ve been trying to eat well during our trip – or perhaps I should say “eat healthy”. I bought low-fat cottage cheese for most breakfasts, but sorry folks. It tastes too much like yogurt for me. I suffered through it and ate what I had, but even adding ripe bananas could not kill the tangi-ness. Ug.

The veggie burgers I’ve been eating from the local “take away” place have been quite good, but I think it’s because the patty is deep fried.  *sigh*  The best part? Burger and fries: 2.50 pounds. Or about  $4.00.

Patrick and I keep searching for a really good mocha over here. I’m afraid I have not yet come close to the coffee from the little purple place (Café da Capo?) in Centralia.

In Cambridge Amber found a Cadbury caramel milkshake – at the local McDonalds no less.  Interestingly enough, it seemed like the only place we were able to find garbage cans all day was outside the McDonalds!

We had to try the “chips” at the West Cornwall Pasty shop – they were like jo-jo’s.

And as you can see by the last photo below, Patrick found some cookies which he thought were *really* good.

 

Tuesday Morning Breakfast

I can’t resist posting some of the photos Patrick took with his smart phone. We had breakfast at a crepe place near our apartment in London. Patrick got a filled crepe that was kind of like a pizza (came with a salad) while Amber got toasted almond/honey crepe and I got a lemon crepe. Good mochas too!

 

Huff-Puff, Huff-Puff, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch

This was kind of our last day doing tourist stuff in London. Tomorrow we’ll still be here, but we’ll be taking the train out to Cambridge.

But… for today: Our plan was to return to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The design and construction of this church took 40 years; it has the second largest dome in the world (the dome is lead covered wood and weighs 63,000 tons). Last year when we visited St. Paul’s the majesty was almost overwhelming. Photography is not allowed inside, so it gave us a chance to just sit and absorb. It’s a beautiful place.

Climbing to the top of the dome. Last year, while Patrick climbed to the top, Amber and I stopped at the first level of the climb – called the Whispering Gallery. Our plan this year was to go all the way – 528 steps up… and another 528 steps down. (For folks on the Centralia College campus, that means going up to the third floor of NSC *and* back down, about 10 times.)

And I can proudly say: WE MADE IT! However, the church was a madhouse. The steps up to the top open at 9:30 a.m. and we got there around 10:30. There were tourist groups EVERYWHERE. They seemed to be mostly teenage boys speaking German. It was pretty crazy. There were church personnel making sure only a certain number of people climbed up at any time. Even the very top was crowded. But like I said – we made it! I asked one of the employees at the top if she was going to be there all day and she replied “I don’t think so, I think I’m about to have a nervous breakdown.” Apparently all the young gentlemen were getting to her too. The climb to the top spiraled up and up and up and got more and more narrow the higher we went. We started on nice wide wooden steps but ended on narrow concrete steps and I had to bend over to get up the last few steps. We’d read notices about claustrophobia and I could see why. The view from the top was pretty neat, but the weather was not quite as perfect as it had been in 2010. The steps back down spiraled around and around again and I was actually getting a bit dizzy! By the time we got to the bottom my left knee was not happy and Amber’s feet were hurting. Of course, Patrick was ready to go for a jog.

So what did we do next? We bought lunch at the local Mark and Spencers and ate on the steps to St. Pauls. I had a large container of mixed fruit and some kind of “fusion” sushi. Stick with the normal sushi, folks.

Of course, since we were tired, we headed back to the British Museum to see if we could find the rest of the “100 objects” that we’d missed the day before. Of all the objects that were supposed to be on display, we found all but one. And even in the hall where “that one” was supposed to be, there was an empty display case – so we’re claiming that we found 100% of the find-able objects. Pretty cool.

We got back to our apartment around 3:00 and I got another veggie burger with fries. Heavy on the ketchup please. Amber’s got a little pepperoni pizza in the oven and even though it’s early, we’re done for the day. Whew. Where’s the Advil?

My veggie burger place

 

 

de Young Museum in de Rain

Thursday morning; dropped Patrick off at work, then headed for to our go-to place for a morning mocha and pastry (mochas – me; pastry – Ambi).  Amber had high hopes for the peach cream-cheese croissant, but they were out of all croissants! *sob*

Rain on Freeway

The torrential rains started, but we headed for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park anyway. We were hoping for a sunny day and a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, but yeow – it was more like a tropical downpour.

Instead we went to the de Young museum where they had a display of ancient Olmec statues and stonework from ancient Mesoamerica.  I’d seen some giant Olmec stone heads waaaaay back in the late 60’s and couldn’t wait to see them again. They did not disappoint. There were two giant heads displayed so that as you walked around a corner – BAM! one would be staring at you!

Olmec Head 5

The two colossal heads we saw were 5-6’ each. They’re estimated to weigh 25 tons each.  Photography was not allowed in the display, but here is a picture someone took anyway, and posted online.

We then wandered around the museum trying to find works by famous painters but really didn’t have much luck.  The view from the ninth floor of the viewing tower was obscured by the rain and clouds – but the blowing rain was still pretty impressive.

Cost: $25 each and $7 to park. Let alone all the gas to drive there! Still, a second chance to see the Olmec Colossal Heads was worth it.

60's Tiles?

The bathrooms in the museum were worth taking a photo of. Amber couldn’t resist saying “Hey, the 60’s just called and they want their green tiles back.”

Lunch? How could we resist. It was back to Specialty’s yet again (this makes five times since I got here!)  We tried the self-ordering computers and I quickly just picked a vegetarian sandwich. Egad. When it arrived it was HUGE.  I’m tempted to list what was *not* in the sandwich, but here’s what it included anyway:

• 

  Giant Vegetarian Sandwich

  Bread

• Cheese
• Cucumbers
• Alfalfa sprouts
• Red bell peppers
• Green bell peppers
• Pepperoncinis
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Tomato
• Lettuce
• Avocado
• Mayonnaise
• Ranch dressing
• Italian vinaigrette

Back home now kicking back, working on this blog and watching the rain.

 

The Counter, San Mateo Style

For the afternoon we ran out to another bookstore, but it wasn’t as good as the first one. We spent some time driving around, then picked up Patrick for dinner.  It was my first time at The Counter, this one in San Mateo.  I got a terrific veggie pattie in a salad.  I never would have thought it would have been good – but it sure was.  I think the pattie was homemade too – lots of good corn in it! The fries and sweet potatoes were good too.

We headed back to Amber’s and then Jim headed back.  A good day for us all!

Last One's Mine!

Veggie Burger Asian Salad

1/3 lb. Bacon Burger

 

M is for Mystery and Jim Brooks!

Up bright and early and dropped Patrick off at work at Sony.  He’s got a cubicle in the bottom floor of a big ol’ building. Kind of interesting – not many employees even show up by 9:00 a.m.

M is for Murder

Then it was off to Specialty’s for a second breakfast! Amber got an orange-cranberry “morning bun” (my taste was delish) and I got a mocha.  The mocha was Intelligentsia and was better than Starbucks, but still not as good as the Café Da Capo in Centralia.  While there we began drooling over the little quiches in the display case so we had to buy one of those too:  crustless egg and cheese. Definitely worth buying! While diving into the quiche Jim Brooks called!  Amber bought Jim a cup of coffee and we drove to meet Jim.

After gabbing for a while with Jim, we headed to San Mateo and a GREAT little book store devoted to mysteries. The name was: M is for Mystery. A wonderful little hole-in-the-wall with signed first editions, etc. I managed to NOT spend a fortune.

Specialtys

Then, it was back to Specialty’s again! Yes, we’re addicted.  Amber bought us lunch:  I had a 3-kinds-of-cheese cold sandwich, Amber got a Philly Cheesestake (without bell peppers or pepperoncinis or mustard), and Jim dove into a Southwest salad. Once again we were all impressed and ready to return. And if you’re keeping track, this was the third time in the same restaurant in three days.

Right now as I write this we’re back at Amber/Patrick’s house, talking about life and travels.

 

In San Jose – 2011

WhooHoo! On the airplane on the way to San Francisco. Ok. Technically flying to San Jose and staying in Foster City. But San Francisco sounds more impressive, right?

Mike drove me to the airport (thank you Mike and Jessica for getting up so early!). Flying Alaska Airlines.  I got to the airport one hour early and then had to stand in line at security for 30 minutes.  What the heck? Naturally my plane was parked at the very end of a terminal. By the time I got there I basically walked on the plane and buckled up.  No waiting, but everyone knows that I have time issues! Waiting is good in my mind. Full body scan to get through security too. Let’s hope *those* images don’t show up on the internet!

Anyway… less than an hour out from San Jose now. I tried journaling/sketching a bit, but I forgot how jiggle-y plans are. I have an aisle seat so my drawing arm sticks out in the aisle – but really, how many people have to go to the bathroom on a flight that’s less than two hours?  I have to keep starting/stopping to allow an entire plane full of passengers to stumble past – twice each, as of course it’s a round trip to the bathroom.

But good things are a comin’. On my way to see Amber and Patrick!!!  My plan is to wallow in their presence and not do much else. I want to stare at both of them and burn them into my mind.  I get to see Rusty, Lizzy! and Spot too – and their new house!

I did read in a magazine on the plane about an exhibit of Tolmec art in a S.F. museum though… I’ll have to see where it is, hours, etc.

Praise be to Bose noise cancelling headphones. I now assume it must be an FAA regulation that plane are not allowed to depart until a minimum of one crying baby is onboard.  Yeah, I get the whole “travel with your family” thing – and I truly recognize the importance of babies… but do they ALWAYS have to scream for the entire flight? Aren’t there drugs for those babies (just kidding everyone!  Don’t hate me!)

The crew is already cleaning up the detritus from our snacks – a 60 calorie bag of pretzels, but at least I got my own full can of Diet Coke!  Feels like we’re starting our descent too, so probably time to put the laptop away.

Landed in San Jose just fine.  AMBER’S HERE!!!

Drove back to Foster City and saw the new house. Sweet location on one of the canals in Foster City.  We jumped on Yelp and tried to find a lunch place that would work for me (low-cal? vegetarian?) and sound good to Amber (pregnant!).  Found a place called Specialty’s. It’s a chain and there’s one in Seattle and Bellevue too. Mmmmmmmmmmm is all I can say. We’re already planning on returning for both breakfast and lunch. It reminded me of an upscale Panera – with LOTS of vegetarian options!

Here’s the sandwich I had:

• Crunch peanut butter
• Granny smith apple
• Banana
• Cranberry sauce
• On homemade 9-grain bread.

I’d buy it again! I can’t vouch for how low-cal it really was, but I can tell you it all disappeared.

 

It’s Like Comin’ Home to Momma!

While trying to find our way from Rosyln Chapel toward the north, we stumbled upon a Costco at Loanhead, Scotland! It’s just south of Edinburgh.  I haven’t felt so comfortable since leaving home!

Costco South of Edinburgh

 

Our Own Version of the Loch Ness Monster

You all know the Loch Ness Monster – this thing that many claim to have seen but can’t be verified?

Well… when we were in Ireland last year Carol spent a LOT of time trying to find the legendary Eccles Cakes. These were some kind of cake that my mom (affectionately called g’ma) said she’d enjoyed. No one else had seen them… no one else had tasted them.  Carol searched high and low and could never verify their existence.

That is, until we stopped at a Tesco Extra near Inverness – and there they were! Of course, we had to buy some. And taste them. They were a bit like little baby raisin pies, topped with filo pastry.  Mmmm.  But sadly, we ate them all and now they’re gone.

But trust us, we saw them – honest!