Yankee-Belle Cafe

It's March, so all my thoughts turn to Ireland.






My husband and I honeymooned in Ireland 36 years ago and almost didn't leave. We seriously were considering how to make a life for ourselves there. Ultimately, family drew us home.

But my love for Ireland has persisted.

And when March rolls around, I start wanting my soda bread scones and tea.

You can find that post here.

This year I've been amused to see Starbucks with Irish Cream Cold Brew



and Pepperidge Farm bringing out the Irish in cookies. 


First they had the Irish Cream Milanos at Christmas,




and today I discovered Dublin shortbread.



Instead of sharing something I've cooked today, I'm sharing some recipes from other websites for Irish Colcannon.


Colcannon is a mix of potatoes and either cabbage or kale.

The Food Network has a recipe for the cabbage Colcannon.

Simply Recipes makes theirs with kale - Colcannon


Both include potatoes and lots of butter and cream. It's not something we could eat every day, but once a year, it makes a lovely meal.

Today I found a new version that appealed to me - Colcannon Soup.

With leeks, potatoes, and cabbage - imagine pairing it with some nice Irish brown bread for a lovely warm meal when the March winds howl.

What do you think?

 MMM. Dried apricots. I sent my teens to the store to get dried apricots but didn't specify how much. Instead of calling, they returned with two giant bags. YUMMY. I could hardly be mad, since they were so delicious. We snacked on them for a few days, completely ignoring our apples and pears.
 Mix the cranberries and apricots together.
 Add dry ingredients and cut in the chilled butter.
 Add the cream to the fruit.
 Looks terrible. I have faith this will be great! If it's not... I shall cry lots of tears.
 Mix in the dry ingredients with the fruit. I think we over stirred because it turned pink!
 Make 1 inch think disks.
 Hmmm... It smells delicious but I wasn't sure how this was going to taste.
 Cut it like a pizza.
 Lay out several inches apart.
 Crossing my fingers! Into the oven they go. Bake for 15 minutes. I checked them at ten and them seemed done, but I wanted to make sure they didn't fall to pieces, so I gave them another few minutes.
 With the orange drizzle...
 AMAZING! Even the pickiest eaters enjoyed these. My husband, who doesn't like sweets, thought they were really good. I think scones are more like pan dulce or the sweet bread he's used to. Also, the dried fruit gave it such a satisfying texture. Scones are soft and buttery, and the dried fruit was a great counterpoint.

So, that's all for now! Be sure to visit my authors pages at Virginia Carmichael or Mary Jane Hathaway to find all my latest book news! 

You know St. Patrick's Day is coming when even the Italian bakeries have Irish Soda bread in the window!

I gave in and bought a loaf last week, rather than baking one, but I ate it all and St. Patrick's Day is not until Friday. I thought that, combined with the Blizzard that Wasn't (really) was a good excuse to pull out last year's post about soda bread scones!

Just the thing to enjoy with a cup of tea (Irish Breakfast of course) on a cold, snowy/icy day!

Irish Soda Bread Scones 

Years ago, when I walked my daughter to school before my walk to work, I would pass a coffee shop that sold to-die for soda bread scones. I've been craving them lately so here you go.

Disclaimer - this recipe is adapted from one given to me by a mother at my school who baked me the loaf form of this every Christmas and St. Patrick's Day for as long as her children were in the school. When they graduated, she gave me the recipe.


The recipe is very simple:

You start with 4 cups of sifted flour. I imagine you could use any flour (or a mix).  I used King Arthur's white.

Next you add 1/2 a cup of sugar. I used coconut palm sugar which gave the bread a lovely grainy look because the sugar has a brownish color.
Next add 1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp of salt. (I only used a shake of salt and I used low sodium baking powder).

1/3 of a cup of butter gets cut into the dry mixture. The recipe recommends using a pastry blender or fork to evenly distribute.

Next up - 1 cup of seedless raisins (or dried cranberries for a nice variation) and my favorite part - 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds!

Confession. I messed up this next part because I added the baking soda in with the dry ingredients. It did not cause any problems.

You're supposed to mix 1 tsp baking soda with 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk and 1 egg in a small bowl. You add this to the dry mix and knead gently.

See the dark specks from the coconut palm sugar?

At this point you could form it into a loaf, but instead I shaped it into scones. Likewise, the loaf should ideally go in a cast iron pan. I used parchment paper. ;)

The result was about 15 wonderful scones that kept nicely in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag.




They may be Irish, but I think you'll enjoy them all year long - especially when you sub cranberries (or some other fruit).



The predicted snowfall of up to 2 feet of snow didn't materialize for us, but the blizzard served its purpose.  The IKEA blue bag that has been tangled in the tree outside my house for over 6 months finally blew free!

Beautiful void! But we kind of miss the splash of color!

Last week Kav shared a delicious soda bread recipe. I thought about tagging my scones onto her post, but I decided her post deserved to shine all by itself.

So this week, long after St. Patrick's day has faded into a misty memory, I have my soda bread scones to share. Really, they taste so good, you'll enjoy them any time.

Years ago, when I walked my daughter to school before my walk to work, I would pass a coffee shop that sold to-die for soda bread scones. I've been craving them lately so here you go.

Disclaimer - this recipe is adapted from one given to me by a mother at my school who baked me the loaf form of this every Christmas and St. Patrick's Day for as long as her children were in the school. When they graduated, she gave me the recipe.


The recipe is very simple:

You start with 4 cups of sifted flour. I imagine as with Kav's you could use any flour. I used King Arthur's white.

Next you add 1/2 a cup of sugar. I used coconut palm sugar which gave the bread a lovely grainy look because the sugar has a brownish color.
Next add 1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp of salt. (I only used a shake of salt and I used low sodium baking powder).

1/3 of a cup of butter gets cut into the dry mixture. The recipe recommends using a pastry blender or fork to evenly distribute.

Next up - 1 cup of seedless raisins (or dried cranberries for a nice variation) and my favorite part - 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds!

Confession. I messed up this next part because I added the baking soda in with the dry ingredients. It did not cause any problems.

You're supposed to mix 1 tsp baking soda with 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk and 1 egg in a small bowl. You add this to the dry mix and knead gently.

See the dark specks from the coconut palm sugar?

At this point you could form it into a loaf, but instead I shaped it into scones. Likewise, the loaf should ideally go in a cast iron pan. I used parchment paper. ;)

The result was about 15 wonderful scones that kept nicely in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag.




They may be Irish, but I think you'll enjoy them all year long - especially when you sub cranberries (or some other fruit).

 But before I get to the recipe, I have to share a photo or from a beautiful day we had here. It was probably the last sunny we day before it turned GLOOMY. And when I say gloomy, I mean it. Dark at 7AM, lightens up to dreary at noon, and dark by 4:30. We were just at the park and it was pitch black at 4:45. That's just unnatural, I'm telling you.
 MMM. Dried apricots. I sent my teens to the store to get dried apricots but didn't specify how much. Instead of calling, they returned with two giant bags. YUMMY. I could hardly be mad, since they were so delicious. We snacked on them for a few days, completely ignoring our apples and pears.
 Mix the cranberries and apricots together.
 Add dry ingredients and cut in the chilled butter.
 Add the cream to the fruit.
 Looks terrible. I have faith this will be great! If it's not... I shall cry lots of tears.
 Mix in the dry ingredients with the fruit. I think we over stirred because it turned pink!
 Make 1 inch think disks.
 Hmmm... It smells delicious but I wasn't sure how this was going to taste.
 Cut it like a pizza.
 Lay out several inches apart.
 Crossing my fingers! Into the oven they go. Bake for 15 minutes. I checked them at ten and them seemed done, but I wanted to make sure they didn't fall to pieces, so I gave them another few minutes.
 With the orange drizzle...
 AMAZING! Even the pickiest eaters enjoyed these. My husband, who doesn't like sweets, thought they were really good. I think scones are more like pan dulce or the sweet bread he's used to. Also, the dried fruit gave it such a satisfying texture. Scones are soft and buttery, and the dried fruit was a great counterpoint.