Sometimes it's the little things...

In September, I did something I'd never done before: I took myself on a two-week writing, research and personal retreat. To Ireland. I stayed in the pretty village of Kenmare on the southwest coast, and I walked 8 to 10 miles almost every day, I wrote, I did spa visits and I saw rainbows. I also had Irish brown bread every day, either for breakfast or for lunch. Sometimes for both. In THE ANGEL, Keira Sullivan, an artist and folklorist, first hears an old story that's at the heart of the suspense (and the romance!) over tea and brown bread.

I've discovered that there is no one recipe for brown bread. It's like so many other well-loved dishes. Think of how many versions there are of apple pie! Many of my Irish and Irish American friends have fond memories of brown bread their mothers or grandmothers made. I've been collecting different recipes.

When I was in Cleveland to promote THE ANGEL, I met a son of Irish immigrants who gave me a copy of his mother's handwritten recipe for Irish soda bread. He's in his seventies, and she's been gone for a while now. It's a simple recipe:

Irish Soda Bread

4 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 " baking soda

1 Tbsp sugar

2 " butter

1 egg

Caraway seed

About 2 cups buttermilk.

Knead for a few minutes. Bake at 375 for 1 hr.

Thank you, Denis, and Denis's mom. I suspect that seeing this recipe and making this bread bring him back to his childhood and close to his mother.

It's funny how something as passing in a novel as brown bread can resonate with me as a writer. My mother-in-law loves to cook, and I have a number of traditional Southern recipes she jotted down for me. Some of them include my favorite instruction: "Cook in a hot oven until done." I need temperatures! I need times! She's in her nineties now and not in the best of health, and when my daughter came to visit recently with her newborn baby, her grandmother managed to make her fried apricot pies. (I have the recipe!)

Do you have cherished recipes from your childhood? Are they handwritten, torn from a magazine, in a special cookbook? Is there a special dish that you make that your family loves? It doesn't have to be fancy. In fact, maybe it's better if it isn't. But if there is…maybe write it down for them in your own handwriting. So many of us don't cook as much as we used to (or at all!), but you never know what'll happen. When my son moved into an apartment-like suite at college, he called me from the grocery store and asked, "What's your apple crisp recipe?" Of course, I had to e-mail it to him. But I'll write it down. Today.

Have a great day, everyone!

Carla

P.S. And if you have a recipe for Irish brown bread, I’d love for you to share it with me.