A Little Bit of Luck

Last week, at a Youth Summit, a motivational speaker compared setting and achieving goals to the growth of bamboo.  Bamboo can grow 4 feet in 24 hours but only after months upon months of establishing a strong and stable root structure.  I loved the metaphor.

This year has been a lucky one.  If I think back to where I was one year ago, I am amazed by how much has changed and how much I've experienced.  One year ago, I had just quit my job, I was studying for the MCAT, and I was kind of in limbo about my goals.  I had a very real idea of what I wanted to happen, but I felt so far away from getting into school.

One year ago, on Wednesday, I was driving to Greenville to interview for Summer Program for Future Doctors.  On my way to ECU, I had both forgotten my cell phone at home and missed the Hwy 64-264 split.  Unable to call about my tardiness and completely unsure of how to get to Greenville (once I'd missed the exit), I was a speed demon in Eastern North Carolina.  I had left about 30 minutes early from home, but I arrived 5 minutes after my interview was supposed to begin.  Frantic, sweating, and completely believing that I had screwed up my chances, I sat down for an interview with a lovely Pediatrician.  Somehow, St. Patrick's Day must have been on my side.  Getting into that program jump started my future.

If you had told me last St. Patrick's Day that, in a year, I would be participating in AmeriCorps, getting to know new people every day with my work, and awaiting the beginning of medical school at UNC, I would have not believed that for a second.  I am one lucky duck! 

Marilyn O’Reilly’s Irish Soda Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons caraway seeds, optional
1 cup raisins
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt and stir well to mix. Add the butter and rub in until the butter disappears into the dry ingredients. Stir in the caraway seeds if used and the raisins.

In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk and egg together and mix into the dough mixture with a rubber spatula.

Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and fold it over on itself several times, shaping it into a round loaf. Transfer the loaf to one cookie sheet or jelly roll pan covered with parchment or foil and cut a cross in the top.

Bake for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes more, until well colored and a toothpick plunged into the center emerges clean. Cool the soda bread on a rack and serve with plenty of sweet butter and bitter orange marmalade.