{"id":9674,"date":"2025-03-17T01:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T05:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/?p=9674"},"modified":"2025-03-17T01:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T05:45:15","slug":"st-patricks-day-a-recipe-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/st-patricks-day-a-recipe-a-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Patrick’s Day: A Recipe & a Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For St. Patrick’s Day this year, I come bearing gifts: a quick and easy recipe for my sister’s Irish Soda Bread, and a poem to read whilst the bread is baking, or to improve upon your enjoyment of the bread later this evening with tea, toasted, with butter and perhaps a bit of Orange Saffron Preserve<\/strong><\/a> (which has been my favorite way to enjoy my soda bread this past week). And that’s it. Just simple, comforting stuff, which feels like just what we need these days. Nothing elaborate, nothing too celebratory, as that’s a mood I’ve just not been feeling lately. But good bread and poetry: these are things that bring me a bit of joy. Maybe they’ll help you feel better, too.<\/p>\n

MARIETTA\u2019S IRISH SODA BREAD <\/strong><\/p>\n

5 cups flour (plus up to an additional cup, depending on stickiness of dough)
\n3 tablespoons sugar
\n1 tablespoon baking powder
\n1 teaspoon salt
\n\u00be teaspoon baking soda
\n6 tablespoons butter or shortening
\n1 cup raisins
\n1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)
\n2 eggs, beaten (reserve 1 tablespoon for later)
\n1 \u00bd cups milk (or buttermilk, if you have it) <\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re using a stand mixer, place all ingredients in the mixing bowl (except for reserved tablespoon of egg) and mix. Start with 5 cups of flour, adding up to an additional cup, if necessary, if dough is sticky. Next, using dough hook, knead in bowl for a minute or so.<\/p>\n

If, like me, you have to mix things by hand, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in butter or shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins and caraway seeds. Add beaten eggs (be sure to reserve 1 tablespoon of beaten egg for later), and then add the milk or buttermilk. Mix well. If the dough is very sticky, add up to 1 additional cup of flour, a little at a time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F and butter a 2-quart round casserole; set aside. Flour a board and turn out dough onto it; knead for about a minute. Shape into a ball. Place the dough in the casserole, and in the center of the dough, with a sharp knife, cut a cross about 4\u201d long and \u00bd\u201d deep. Brush dough with reserved egg.<\/p>\n

Bake about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out dry. Cool in casserole on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the casserole and cool further on rack.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The Stolen Child<\/strong>
\nby William Butler Yeats<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where dips the rocky highland
\nOf Sleuth Wood in the lake,
\nThere lies a leafy island
\nWhere flapping herons wake
\nThe drowsy water rats;
\nThere we\u2019ve hid our faery vats,
\nFull of berrys
\nAnd of reddest stolen cherries.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world\u2019s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
\nThe dim gray sands with light,
\nFar off by furthest Rosses
\nWe foot it all the night,
\nWeaving olden dances
\nMingling hands and mingling glances
\nTill the moon has taken flight;
\nTo and fro we leap
\nAnd chase the frothy bubbles,
\nWhile the world is full of troubles
\nAnd anxious in its sleep.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world\u2019s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n

Where the wandering water gushes
\nFrom the hills above Glen-Car,
\nIn pools among the rushes
\nThat scarce could bathe a star,
\nWe seek for slumbering trout
\nAnd whispering in their ears
\nGive them unquiet dreams;
\nLeaning softly out
\nFrom ferns that drop their tears
\nOver the young streams.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world\u2019s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n

Away with us he\u2019s going,
\nThe solemn-eyed:
\nHe\u2019ll hear no more the lowing
\nOf the calves on the warm hillside
\nOr the kettle on the hob
\nSing peace into his breast,
\nOr see the brown mice bob
\nRound and round the oatmeal chest.
\nFor he comes, the human child,
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world\u2019s more full of weeping than he can understand.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Mike Scott and the Waterboys set the poem to music late in the last century, and that is worth a listen today<\/strong><\/a>, as well. And so, C\u00e9ad m\u00edle f\u00e1ilte<\/em>. A hundred thousand welcomes. St. Patrick’s Day blessings upon you and yours and upon us all.<\/p>\n

Take note that our shop will be closed for the rest of March, but we will reopen again on the First Saturday of April, and indeed all the Saturdays of April, for our Springtide Saturdays series. Your online orders are still welcome, and we will be filling orders this week, but orders placed on March 20 or later won’t be filled until the first week of April. <\/em><\/p>\n

We also have two in-house workshops coming up this spring! Collagraph Printmaking<\/strong><\/a> with instructor Kim Spivey is on Sunday April 6, and I’ll be teaching a workshop called Pure Bookbinding<\/strong><\/a> (these are books made without adhesive) on Sunday May 4.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For St. Patrick’s Day this year, I come bearing gifts: a quick and easy recipe for my sister’s Irish Soda Bread, and a poem to read whilst the bread is baking, or to improve upon your enjoyment of the bread later this evening with tea, toasted, with butter and perhaps a bit of Orange Saffron […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[68],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9674"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9680,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}