an Irish adventure

BOO! It's just me again. There is lots to tell and lots to show, but I want to keep my post semi short. Some viewers enjoy reading while others would rather just see. I'm of the latter on most things. This last week I had the honor of visiting the most beautiful and mystical places on earth. Okay so I'm biased. I've not been to many foreign countries. I was lucky enough to visit Ireland! The weather was absolutely stunning while my sister and I were there. 50-60 degrees fahrenheit and sunny. What are the odds eh? There are a few things I would like to note.

• They use real butter. Margarine what? Ya this part blew me away because I LOVE butter. I'm officially spoiled and may never buy margarine again. Thank you for the upgrade Ireland. 
• Their soda bread is to die for. 
• Scones are my newest obsession- in fact I just pulled some out of the oven. Why haven't I obsessed on these before? Probably because I have been to involved with my dinner roll love affair to see there are other things out there. 
• Kilometers per hour makes more sense and we drive on the wrong side of the road. Also if our roads were as skinny and windy as their are, we might not have so many speeding tickets. I feel like my hand eye coordination was boosted big time for navigating their roads. AWESOME.
• They knit better than I do.
• There is such a things as Thirsty Thursday in Ireland. Their beer is stronger than ours. 
• I understand why they call it the Emerald Island. 
• I hate long plane rides. 7.5 hours did it for me. 

If I could ever convince my husband to leave America, we are definitely becoming sheep farmers in southern Ireland. Life is so much more simple there. I could just bake, knit, and sweep my floors all day and LOVE it. Our houses here are much too big and we can't take care of ourselves without all the fancy doodads we are so used to. Gah we are spoiled brats. 

Top left- Blarney Castle, Top Right- Cliffs of Moher, Bottom Left- A cute pond on the Ring of Kerry, Bottom Right- Poulnabrone Portal Tomb

Anyways, so I advise everyone to go bake some scones. And locate a recipe for Irish Soda Bread and get to baking- and for the record if you want a real recipe- think old school simple ingredients and remember the people who created soda bread were POOOOOOOOR- so if your recipe says beer (can you say stereotype) or buttermilk- find another because that is not a real traditional recipe. 

As for a scone recipe- heres a simple one. 

2 cups flour- sifted before measured

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup butter (and yes I used real butter!)

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk, or more if needed

Sift the baking powder, sailing and sugar with flour. Chop in butter as in making pastry. Beat eggs together, add milk and mix with the flour making a soft dough using a little more flour if necessary to handle. Lift to a well floured surface, knead lightly, roll out to 1/4-1/2 in thick. Cut using a large biscuit cutter. Place on a moderately hot griddle and bake slowly to ensure center gets baked well. I baked mine at 325 for approximately 20-25 minutes (I didn't watch so don't trust that- keep an eye on them). Bake until golden brown. 

I got this recipe from my most favorite cook book. "Southern Cooking" by Mrs. S. R. Dull. It's the Scotch Scone recipe from page 155.