Your table setting sounds lovely. I think it would be fun to serve food that has some nod toward the day. Perhaps petite soda bread rather than scones? Mini shepherd's pies? A soup or desert with Guinness as an ingredient?

Dee if you have a good recipe for soda bread please share!—I would love to try it. I’ve used several recipes and just don’t love it. Mine has turned out to be denser than I’d like, and (shallowness alert!) it’s also not too attractive.

Mini shepherd’s pies sound delicious but like a LOT of work. Maybe some dish with peas and mint?

I'm sorry, no good recipes for soda bread. I usually just get it at the bakery. I toast it and have it for breakfast. I was thinking that muffin size would help disguise the lumpy appearance.

Peas and mint sound lovely and the color will be perfect.

This dessert recipe is very popular but again, the finished product is not "pretty".

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1875-chocolate-guinness-cake

This is not Irish but it is green.

A few years ago I was occasionally making tiny green pea and chevre puree tartlets (not this exact recipe). I can’t remember the precise ingredients but I liked them a lot.

I bet you could adapt this crostini to a galette using Julia’s yummy cornmeal dough. https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/goat-cheese-crostini-with-spring-pea-puree.html

I love your plan for honeydew and blueberries— that is a lovely color plan. Maybe add some mint chiffonade?

I like the sound of that cake! It also looks easy and plenty of good comments about additions or changes that worked. Thank you!

To get more ideas I went on the websites of several hotels in Dublin and surveyed the lunch and bar menus. A few of these I love:

Ham and cheese toastie: Toasted French Sourdough Bread with Homecooked Honey & Mustard Glazed Ham and Mature Cheddar Cheese, Ballymaloe Relish (optional)

Homemade Guinness Bread (but vastly prefer the cake recipe you suggested)

Creamed corn and pancetta

Summer squash risotto, parmesan, pine nuts & crispy sage

Oatmeal cookie, apple chutney and ice cream

Apple trifle (the restaurant makes it with yoghurt and oatmeal but I might make apple shortbread as the cakey part)

Spinach quiche

Wicklow Venison (i would substitute pork or beef mince), Smoked Bacon & Mushroom Pie

Roast Chicken and Chive Mayonnaise sandwich on a Poppy seed roll

Some of these are too heavy for lunch but are def going into my file! Creamed corn and pancetta? yes, please!

So far I like the chicken sandwiches and ham and cheese toasties, also thinking about my wild rice salad i havent made in awhile.

I have been making this for years, it is soooooo good.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012617-pea-dip-with-parmesan

I agree about the irish soda bread... id have a recipe from a friend somewhere but I am sure you can find a good one online

Maybe a tea would be nice?

A friend served these recently and they were lovely: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/ham-and-cheese-hand-pies-with-honey-mustard

Lisa I love the crostini and my platter of sandwiches / toasties / crostini is taking shape!!

Mtn, I actually have that recipe saved in my NYT recipe appbut have never made it— thsnk you! I am also a huge fan of hand pies— love that crust to filling ratio 😎

So in the pea dip do you use water or stock? i am thinking vegetable stock, but have you used a meat stock? It doesn’t specify.

I use chicken stock

Something to keep in mind, St Patrick’s Day is on a Friday. A Friday during Lent. Some guests might observe meatless Fridays. Your quiche would work fine.

The usual treat that our leprechauns leave for children.

(Internet pic)

Yes, good point— I was thinking that Maddie. Meat, alcohol and chocolate are often given up for Lent so I supposed I had better stay away from all three. Or at least offer alternatives. Our Wednesday night Lenten study group is vegetarian and we are taking turns bringing food so I could make an additional quiche for that group. 👍

I make Marion Cunningham's Irish Soda bread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUnkKA2xzZQ

Did you see Lisaam's thread? https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6347021/easy-prep-pasta-dish#n=14

This dish looks interesting, quick and easy, serves a bunch and is sort of like a quiche but not and would fit the non-meat requirement. It seems pretty flexible too so you can alter it as you prefer...

I think that a plate of toasties and sandwiches sounds lovely. Full discolure; I may have been influenced by my recent addiction to watching Youtube videos about the Claridge Hotel...

I did see that and captured the recipe in my AppleNotes food file— it looks absolutely delicious! It’s a bit heavy though for the meal I have in mind. Going off now to look at that Irish soda bread!

I have a great irish soda bread that i make in a cast iron skillet. im in st louis now but will post my recipe on tuesday when i return. I also have a kller scone recipe if youre interested.

I’d love both recipes—I have a few different scone recipes but am always looking for tweaks. Enjoy your visit with your family in St. Louis !

Here is the scone reciie. I got it nearly 20 years ago from AnnT on the cooking forum. It is spelled out in great detail for my mom.
Scones (makes 8)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tbsp. cold butter, diced into small chunks (but still cold)
1 cup heavy cream
Add ins: Chocolate chips, dried cherries, frozen berries…Coarse sugar crystals and extra cream for top
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a Cuisinart, pulse together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.(Tip: I pulse 10 times).
Pour cream into flour mixture through feed tube while machine is running and stop the moment you have poured it all in.(Tip: the idea is to just barely mix the cream at this point.)
Dump in butter and pulse/run until dough sort of forms a ball. The dough should have smears of butter visible. Dump dough on a lightly floured surface.
Using hands gently to gather dough and form into a ball. Cut dough in half. Flatten each half like a pizza, one at a time, and sprinkle each one with your add-ins. Gently push the add ins into the dough. Fold each half a few times to distribute the add-ins. Then shape each half into a fat, round pancake.(Each one will be about 4-5” across and about 2.5” tall. This isn’t an exact science, plus or minus is fine.)
Put about 1 TBS cream on top of each and spread it to the ends. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top of the cream. With a sharp knife, gently cut each “pancake” into quarters. (Tip: You may need to “saw” the dough so it doesn’t get compressed.) Place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for about 18 minutes. The tops should be lightly browned. If the bottoms are too browned, you can scrape the bottoms with a knife, like toast. :)

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This is a different technique than the one i use, so I am excited to try it, thank you ! I am thinking I might try pistachios and cherries as add ins. But I have never tried adding nuts— have you with any success?

I have a wonderful recipe for Soda Bread. It is the best I've ever tasted. It has more of a cakey texture and is not dry. It has the basic ingredients as Annie posted, but has currants or raisins (whichever you prefer, I use raisins). The batter uses buttermilk but also 1/4 cup of sugar, a pinch of spice (cardamom or coriander, or caraway. I prefer caraway).

You add 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of butter. Also, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 3 tablespoons of baking powder. The additions of these ingredients produces a softer sweet bread that is delicious.

Its from an old Irish recipe which is in 'The Complete Book of Breads' by Bernard Clayton, jr. The author tells a lovely story about how he got the recipe from a baker, (the mother of the restaurant owner) in a small town while traveling through Ireland. She made the bread over coals in a bread oven.

Being Irish myself, I always had to have soda bread on St. Patrick's Day. I think this is the best I've ever tasted and makes delicious toast. It is a moister bread, not dry and the crumb is more delicate.

Your luncheon sounds like fun!

Jane

Jane, does this list include all the ingredients?

4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons baking powder

1.5 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon soda

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

Are the above amounts correct? Is the butter creamed or melted? Is it added to wet or dry ingredients?

Thanks in advance!

My soda bread is made like scones— carefully use processor, mixer, or hands to combine cold butter pieces into dry ingredients, then add buttermilk mixing just enough to bring it together.

I love the flavor of currants and carraway. Brushing with buttermilk and a sprinkle of sugar gives a pretty glaze.

I should have mentioned that I think AnnT’s recipe was done with a mixer. I changed to a food processor years ago to avoid over handling the dough.

My favorite scone recipe from Bon Appetit

Cranberry-Orange Scones

3 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbs grated orange peel

3/4 c. unsalted butter cut in 1/2" pieces

1 c. chilled buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt into large bowl. Mix in in orange peel. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mix resembles coarse meal. Stir in dried cranberries. Gradually add buttermilk tossing with fork until moist clumps form. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead briefly to bind the dough ... about 4 turns. Form into 1" thick round and cut into 8* wedges. Transfer wedges onto baking sheet spacing 2" apart. Bake until tops of scones are golden brown about 25 min. Let stand on baking sheet for 10 min. Serve warm or at room temp.

-------------------

*I usually cut into 16 wedges as I like them smaller....8 will make giant scones.

Here’s the Irish soda bread recipe. The only changes I make are to omit the caraway seeds and I put cream and coarse sugar on top before I bake it ( in a cast iron skillet)

Thanks for these scone and soda bread recipes! i am going to make two batches of soda bread this week, one with butter and one without, as that seems to be the defining characteristic between the two styles. it does seem as though the soda bread with butter incorporated into the dough is basically one giant scone— not necessarily a bad thing :-) but its definitely not something i would serve along with scones at the same meal. Maybe in lieu of them? For so e reason I want to incorporate apples in this meal, and am looking at apple chutney served alongside cheese and soda bread. But again, heavy is not what i want to eat myself slthough it is often what i am drawn to cook!

I've been making frittatas instead of quiche these days...for those who are GF and can serve bread on the side...

Or you can do a large platter of salad niçoise: eggs, tuna, onion, green beans., olives...

KSWL, I can photo the recipe from the book. I've had the cookbook for a long time, 30+ yrs.

The page is quite splattered from all the years of making this. So many requested it, I baked quite a few.

Over the years I changed a few thing to suit our tastes, and my oven. I used caraway because we like it the best (individual tastes). I just used raisins because they were always available. I never tried it with currants but imagine it would taste good.

Its truly an easy bread to make and delicious.

I guess it could be made into scones or buns. I tried using a lid once and decided baking it without gave it more crust. With the lid, the crust is softer.

You can't mess it up, truly an easy, delicious bread.

Jane

I used to make this Irish Soda Bread quite a bit. It's very easy and unbeliveably yummy. Sadly I have been diagnosed as gluten intolerant so I'm sad to say I won't make it anymore.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/grandmas-irish-soda-bread/#tasty-recipes-67782

I have used several different recipes for Irish soda bread trying to duplicate my grandmother's version. It was a little sweeter than most and I only add raisins since I'm not a fan of caraway. I use the same recipe whether I'm baking scones or bread.

I've tried some of the supermarket mixes but the only one that comes close is Katie Reilly's. My local Shop Rite carries it this time of year and some of the Irish stores do as well.

DH's birthday is near St. Pat's Day and the kids usually come over that weekend for a little get tgether. Last year we had poached salmon with Irish butter sauce and asparagus with a Feta vinaigrette.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/15/st-patricks-day-recipe-poached-salmon

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a35480163/roasted-asparagus-salad-recipe/