Feasting...

With Saint Brigid's feast and the Meeting of the Lord falling on Sunday and Monday of a fast-free week this year, we had our hands full with celebrations!  It has been a joyous few days.  The children and I rolled candles on Sunday afternoon.  We used up our whole candle kit and gave some away after they were blessed on Monday and still have quite a few to use in the coming days.

Making Irish Soda Bread on the feast of Saint Brigid has become a bit of a tradition for me.  While I was in high school and college, I waitressed and one of the places that I worked was an Irish pub and restaurant.  The owners served the usual fare and were generous with the food that they offered the staff, so I often had a wedge of soda bread on my shifts.  Now that I bake my own, I use a recipe which is quite similar to the one that we served at Mannion's.  My silly family is not very fond of raisins, so I generally get to enjoy this all to myself throughout the week with a mug of tea in the afternoons.  It is just perfect fresh from the oven or toasted with butter.  I liked baking it in our pie plate this time.  It looked so pretty while it cooled!

I hope that your week has been off to a good start!