Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! May the luck 'o the Irish be with you today and always. I love St. Patrick's Day! Mostly because it's an excuse to wear copious amounts of green (my favorite color) and my best friend growing up was Irish. This year, I saw Irish soda bread all over at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and so decided that I needed to make my own, since all the store-bough versions had sugar. Luckily, I found this recipe from Happy Herbivore, which turned out great! I left out the optional sugar, but other than that stuck with the recipe. I found that I preferred to eat it topped with peanut butter, rather than butter, but this may be because I have an unnatural obsession with the combination of peanut butter and raisins.

The past several weekends have been low-key, as my cycling training has been shifting gears from LSD (long slow distance, not the drug!) to higher intensity stuff. Specifically I just got off of a rest week, which was desperately needed. This weekend, I even got Saturday off! Last weekend though, I did some exploring in Rhode Island and found some really lovely roads. While usually, crocuses and shamrocks go hand in hand, this year it's still winter here! I've also been experimenting a lot with sugar-free baking (including carrot cake muffins and a lime cheesecake) but I have to report that none of my treats have yet been as successful as my PB&J cookies.

Toxic weathering another windy, cold, salty ride. It is still definitely winter here in New England!

Mini horses. I found Lil' Sebastian!!