Chocolate Bliss

You can just see a glimpse of the soda bread behind the pudding.

There is no other way to describe it.  The pudding is super rich.  My husband declared it, "Almost beyond the bounds of chocolate-iness."  Each half-cup serving was topped with a dollop of whipped heavy cream.  I need to go curl up and hibernate now as I think I won't be hungry for a month!

But, before we got to all that goodness, for dinner I made a sausage-kale soup and this Irish Soda Bread.  I had buttermilk leftover from making the scones and this is a bit like a really huge scone.  In fact, it was excellent with the leftover clotted cream...




The recipe for the soup is:

8 sweet Italian sausages

2 carrots, diced

1 rib celery, diced

1 onion, diced

2 quarts vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

2 cans white cannellini beans with the liquid

1 bunch kale

1/2 cup ditalini pasta (all I had left)

The onion, celery and carrot were sautéed in oil and then the sausage was added, removed from the casings.  Once the sausage was browned, add the stock, beans, bay and salt and pepper.  After this simmered for a few hours toss the kale and the pasta in and simmer until the pasta is done.