Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’ve been taking advantage of the lack of rehearsals, performances and other outside-the-house commitments over the last few days to get a long-neglected chore completed and doing a lot of baking (and recipe blogging! I’d had a 2-week unplanned hiatus from my cooking blog, but I more than made up for that this week.)

First, the chore. I’ll start my Walk of Shame by admitting that when I took all the ornaments off the Christmas tree, I put them straight into a box and a shopping bag and never wrapped them up to protect them in storage. Then that box and bag sat on top of the storage bins where the ornaments belong–right behind my front door–for two solid months. Yesterday I bit the bullet, turned on “Property Brothers” on HGTV (that channel is my guilty pleasure) and got every last ornament packed away properly in just 1 1/2 episodes.

That’s one of those chores that just gets put off and put off for no good reason and stares you in the face and makes you feel awful about your housekeeping abilities until you get it done.

And then, the baking (a little cooking, too!) I wanted to put my mom’s Irish soda bread recipe up for St. Patrick’s Day. I didn’t bake one this year because only Hubs and I eat it and this recipe makes a huge soda bread.

Instead, this morning I made Irish biscuits for breakfast. YUM. In this photo they look more like scones, but Granma made them two ways: sliced like scones or as drop biscuits, which is what I did this morning because I was feeling lazy and they taste equally delicious either way.

Yesterday I tried a new bread recipe that was a total hit! One of my cousins shared a link to a recipe for a certain type of bread that’s only made in the corner of Ireland where Granma grew up. I’ll be sharing that recipe on Saturday at Cook and Count.

Want some more Irish baking ideas? Try Tea Brack (and use good strong tea, like Irish breakfast, to make it!)

And a decidedly NOT Irish cooking success came when I wound up with over 6 cups of mashed potatoes after my daughter decided to try to make pierogi over the weekend while I was at the theatre. The first pierogi didn’t work so she abandoned the effort but saved the potatoes. What was I going to do with all of those?

That’s Pierogi Lasagna right there, and you’ll find the recipe tomorrow at Cook and Count. Perfect for your Meatless Friday and a frugal way to use up those mashed potatoes!

It’s felt good to be back in the kitchen cooking (and back at the desk, writing about cooking) after being so busy at the theatre. No more rehearsals until after Easter vacation, when TheKid starts gearing up for Pippin at the high school he’ll be attending next year. He can’t wait!

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