St. Patrick’s Day and the Babes are honoring the (almost) holiday with a bit of green.
Allow me to honor the occasion with my favorite Irish toast…. We lived in Ireland for our 1st year on this side of the pond.
May those who love us, love us.
And those who don’t love us
May God turn their hearts.
And if he can’t turn their hearts
May he turn their ankles
So we may know them by their limping.
Actually, the Babes are honoring both sides of the Irish: the green and the orange.
They’re good – and inclusive.
The green in the Irish flag represents the Gaelic / Catholic tradition of the south; orange is the protestant tradition of the north and white is the peace between them.
Leave it to the Babes to do all that in a loaf of bread…..
In the case of the bread the green comes from green matcha tea powder which, I’m told, gives a slight earthy flavor. The orange comes from candied orange peel.
Rumor has it that some of the Babes candied their own orange peel. You’ll have to check out their posts to see if it was worth the effort.
Cathy, of Bread Experience, and our host kitchen for this month, gives great instructions for this bread – and she has made it a few times.
I believe that means it’s good and she (and friends) really like it.
I can see it toasted, with butter and orange marmalade and a nice cup of tea.
It would be perfect if I was back in Monkstown, looking out over the Bay.
If you want to try this lovely, flavorful bread, meander over to Bread Experience. You’ll find the recipe, variations, easy instructions, and helpful hints.
In the meantime, have a look at the range of breads the Babes can produce from the same (ahem) recipe:
And that’s it for the Babes in March.
Stay Safe, Healthy & Patient. Get your shot when you can
And keep on wearing your mask!!!
And the Babes are:
The Bread Baking Babes
A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
Bake My Day – Karen
blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth
Bread Experience – Cathy
Feeding My Enthusiasms – Elle
Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
My Diverse Kitchen — Aparna
My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna
Notitie Van Lien – Lien
And me…. Thyme for Cooking – Katie
Ha!! I was going to say something about displaying both green and orange – with more orange than green from most of us, but I changed what’s left of my mind, deciding that the Gaelic Oranges wouldn’t be caught dead appearing to celebrate a day honouring a saint… I haven’t checked, but is it possible they resent that the snakes were irradicated by Saint Patrick? 😉
I really like the toast!
St Patrick became a saint and a hero for driving snakes out of Ireland that were never there in the first place.;-)
When we lived in Ireland (1996) they didn’t even acknowledge anything special about March 17. I’m sure they do now, since America does, but not then. We were very surprised!
Have you read ‘Milkman’?
I have. But I confess that I do not recall anything about St.Patrick’s Day. (I had a lot of trouble holding on to WHAT was going on in Milkman….)
It was a challenging book lol
Thanks for the lovely roundup and for sharing some Irish lore. I didn’t know that about the flag … interesting.
You are welcome – I find Irish lore always interesting.
Excellent, thanks for the flag history. Really enjoyed this one.
They were / are such interesting colors !
I really need to talk to my mom and get the stories written down, I know virtually nothing about my Irish heritage and my great grandmother and her mother and her two sisters on my mom’s paternal side immigrated from Ireland to the states in the early 1900’s. But mom remembers the sisters and the stories from her Dad about the grandmother who always wore black and spoke very little English. Lots of interesting memories! And there is Irish on my hubby’s side as well! So this was a fun recipe to bring up heritage for us by virtue of being close to St. Patrick’s Day.
When we lived in Ireland there were still spots were English was barely spoken. We were in a cafe and I had no idea which restroom to use. Usually I can figure it out but not with the Gaelic lol. I think black was required for grandmas