LESLIE BUDEWITZ: As readers of my Food Lovers’ Village series know, my main character, Erin Murphy, likes to tell people she’s half Italian, “as you can tell by my name.” The other half, of course, is Irish. I can relate, as I’m sure many of you can, raised with a name that reflects only part of our heritage.
Erin’s father named her, saying it was his turn after her mother, Francesca, named the first two kids. Erin was the natural choice, because she was born on St. Patrick’s Day. My next turn at the Kitchen is the day after St. Patrick’s Day, so let’s celebrate today – the day before my own birthday – with a pair of recipes that celebrate the Irish in all of us.
Erin may have looked a bit like this as a wee lass.
Years ago, I belonged to a wonderful book club whose members ranged a good 25 years in age, me by far the youngest. One of our elder members was a lovely, crusty woman – she called herself a broad, which tells you a lot – who grew up in the Irish community in Butte, Montana. Butte, America as it calls itself, once the copper capitol of the world. After a delicious evening at her house, she shared her easy-peasy recipe for Guinness Stew. I’ve paired it here with an Irish Soda Bread that’s as easy as it is tasty.. In fact, it's so good you may pretend to be Irish at other times, too, just so you can make it.
Last St. Paddy’s Day, we cut the stew recipe in half, using one 11-ounce bottle of beer and cooking about 3 hours; it served the two of us for two dinners.
Leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of Death al Dente, first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and winner of the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel.
PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. Scroll down to the 💕 for the link.
Guinness Stew
in memory of Linforth Murray Sultzer
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3-1/2 cups beef stock
4 pounds beef stew meat (often available already cut)
1-1/2 pounds mushrooms, washed and roughly chopped or broken
1 large onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups Guinness stout
1cup flour
salt and pepper
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large oven-proof stock pot or Dutch oven, with a lid, mix tomato paste and stock. Add the beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and thyme. Stir to combine. Sprinkle with flour and mix well. Pour in the beer.
Oops! Looks like I forgot to take a picture of the dish actually cooking, so you'll have to use your imagination.
Cover and bake about 4 hours, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and bubbly, and smells so good you can’t stand to wait any longer.
Serves 8.
Irish Soda Bread
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/4 cups buttermilk
½ cup golden or dark currants or raisins (optional)
1 tablespoon milk
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix the all-purpose and wheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add buttermilk and raisins, and stir just enough to moisten the ingredients.
Flour your hands and shape the dough, on a cutting board, into a large ball, flattening it to a disk about 2 inches high. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon liner. Brush the top with the milk. Use a sharp knife to cut an X in the top of the loaf, allowing for expansion during baking.
Bake about 40 minutes, until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
Cool slightly on a rack before slicing and serving, warm or at room temperature.
.jpg "Guinness Stew & Soda Bread -- Birthday giveaway & #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz (12)")
Help Erin and me celebrate our birthdays!
Are you Irish by ancestry or only for the day?
Tell me a story that relates to Ireland, or your own ancestry, for a chance to win a signed copy of Death al Dente, first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and winner of the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, or another Village book of your choice. (US and Canada addresses only. Be sure to leave your email address. Winners to be chosen Friday, March 7. )
.jpg "Guinness Stew & Soda Bread -- Birthday giveaway & #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz (13)")
ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook
Take a step back in time withAll God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collectionof historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.
“Finely researched and richly detailed,All God’s Sparrows and Other Storiesis a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author ofCrow Mary
Available atAmazon*Barnes & Noble*Books-A-Million*Bookshop.org* and your local booksellers!
.png "Guinness Stew & Soda Bread -- Birthday giveaway & #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz (14)")
TO ERR IS CUMIN:A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, out now in paper, ebook, and audio)
From the cover:One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .
Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.
Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.
On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.
Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.
One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .
Available atAmazon *Barnes & Noble *Books-A-Million*Bookshop.org*And your local booksellers!
Leslie Budewitzis the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recentlyBlind Faith.She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011),Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books areTo Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery andAll God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch forLavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.
A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.
Swing by Leslie'swebsiteand join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her onFacebookwhere she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.
